Speaker 1: Hey and welcome back to my channel. If you're planning on working and growing as a recruiter, you might find yourself at a point in your career where organizing and maintaining your contacts becomes overwhelming to do on your own. This is why many recruiters and agencies utilize what's known as an Applicant Tracking System or ATS. Sometimes called Talent Management Systems, an ATS provides numerous ways to contact and track candidates and streamline the hiring and interviewing process to maximize your efficiency. In this video, we're going to look into whether an ATS is right for you, commonly included features, benefits that an ATS provides, and list some of the best ATS options depending on the size of your operation. But before we get started, as always, consider liking, subscribing, and clicking that bell. It's free and really, really means a lot. What is an Applicant Tracking System? Well, its most basic function is right in the name. It helps you track the various candidates that you are assisting through the hiring process. After growing as a recruiter and creating a reliable pool of clients and candidates and other contacts, an ATS can help identify and sort this information in ways that will be helpful for an organization and efficiency. An ATS is more than a simple book of contacts, however, and usually contains many specific hiring features that recruiters will find very useful. This can include storing applicant data, such as resumes, CVs, and cover letters, as well as the ability to intelligently search this data for relevant keywords or phrases to sort out the most qualified candidates. It provides a single location where emails can be sent out to candidates and keeps all the communication and correspondence between you and the candidates in a single location for easy access. Some ATS software even has the ability to batch post job opportunities on various job boards, pointing interested candidates to an application website tied to an ATS that allows the users to apply without having to create an account. Finally, ATS software is helpful for compliance and strategic reasons and can generate regular reports and data visualizations based on your hiring data to analyze your progress and ensure you're meeting the standards set out for you. As should be clear, the best ATS softwares not only make the hiring process easy for you, the recruiter, but by helping recruiter's lives become easier, we have more time to focus on giving our candidates the ultimate best experience. Do you need an ATS? Applicant tracking systems, like a lot of professionally used softwares, can be expensive. Some ATS software has free or low-cost options for smaller outlets, while the veterans that cater to huge companies can cost hundreds and even thousands of dollars. As such, you'll want to consider whether you'll use an ATS. If you're just starting out as a recruiter, you might consider forgoing the use of an ATS altogether and sticking to a document or spreadsheet to organize your contact. When I started out, I did my best to stay organized using Google Docs and Google Sheets and even other features found in Google Drive. And if you know what you're doing, these could be good enough to start. If you only have a few contacts you're actively engaging with, this is a great way to start out and keep your expenses and operations low. Since you have the raw data organized, you can easily import it into an ATS in the future if you decide to make that switch eventually. However, if you have amassed a large amount of contacts, you may find yourself overwhelmed trying to keep track of candidates at various stages of the hiring process for multiple clients. Additionally, if you have an agency with multiple recruiters, an ATS provides a way to streamline the data across all of your employees and make it easily accessible for everyone and allow everyone to collaborate well with each other. What to look for in an ATS. The ATS you choose will vary depending on the need of your business and clients. Intermediate-level recruiters who have enough data to require the use of an ATS but may not need more advanced features will at least want some basic function such as a way to sort, filter, and search applicants, the ability to record notes on candidates, sync with your own calendar, and even submit feedback to clients. A basic ATS will be low cost or even free, so even new recruiters may consider this option if they're interested in utilizing ATS. More advanced features such as the ability to post multiple job openings across a variety of platforms and even AI, artificial intelligence algorithms, to read and sort through resumes will be of interest to established veteran recruiters and larger agencies. ATS softwares that include these features are typically very expensive and require you to have an established business in order to test out and purchase access to. Some ATS includes additional features beyond what a recruiter might need. The most common is Customer Relationship Management or CRM tools, which are geared mainly towards companies who hire but also provide a sales or customer-based service as well and provide a great way to keep track and follow up with your leads. Streamlining these two functions into one software is beneficial for those who need it, but many independent recruiters and firms won't have use for these features and can save money by avoiding ATS softwares that include them. What is the best ATS? The truth is, there is no ATS that is objectively the best. The best ATS for you will depend on your personal needs and budget and may not match someone else's idea of the best. So for this video, I went looking for some of the most commonly suggested applicant tracking systems online. As it turns out, there are countless ATS options available, but here's a list of just some I was able to find. Crelate, HireVy, JazzHR, Catstone, Zoho, Bullhorn, RecruitCRM, Encore, Workable, Greenhouse, eRecruit, ApplicantPro, Workday, Talio, Manitome, JobDiva, BambooHR, BrightMove, Loxo, GEM, BreezyHR, Lever. Here are 5 of the most commonly suggested applicant tracking systems as well as some of their benefits and drawbacks. Greenhouse. Released in 2012 by the former CEO of a financial software company called Lab49, Greenhouse has quickly become the go-to ATS for hundreds of top companies like Booking.com, Pinterest, Harry's, JD Power, and Wayfair, among many others. Greenhouse is a fully featured ATS with a CRM and HR features, making it really useful for mid to large size organizations. It integrates with many job boards and other recruitment software such as DocuSign, LinkedIn, Slack, Indeed, Glassdoor, and more. While Greenhouse includes tons of useful advanced features for viewing, contacting, and managing applicants, this software is far too expensive for small agencies and single recruiters. While I found it was recommended often in a line, Greenhouse does not license their products to recruiters or agencies for use. But why look elsewhere unless you have a business or organization that does more than just recruiting? Bullhorn. On the other hand, Bullhorn also contains many advanced features, including CRM like Greenhouse, but does license their products for use by recruiters. Founded in 1999, it's the granddaddy OG of ATS software. Its pricing plans are still expensive, limiting this option to establish firms, however, since they cater to a different market. It is significantly cheaper than Greenhouse. Their basic plan starts around $99 a month and allows for 10 concurrent users. This is a great option for smaller firms, but will not be of interest to individual recruiters, and also may contain unneeded features you could save money by foregoing. Next, three options are geared more towards smaller operations and have various free and low-priced plans. Loxo. Loxo describes itself as the number one talent intelligence platform and global leader in artificial intelligence recruitment automation software. Its focus is greatly increasing efficiency through heavy automation and application of artificial intelligence. The software can intelligently search candidates, rank in the baseline various predefined variables. It also streamlines outreach and allows for the postings of opportunities across multiple job outlets. The best part? It's free for single users. If you're just starting out as an independent recruiter, you'll want to look into Loxo. Zoho. Zoho Recruit is another option good for smaller firms and individuals for its reasonable pricing plan. It puts its focus on judging potential hires by their interactions and behaviors and allows for detailed notes to be taken on things like attitude and the interactions of the candidate with the employer. Candidates can be evaluated and sorted by these parameters. Alongside these unique features, Zoho also includes typical functions such as a candidate search and the ability to record hiring sessions. The standard version of Zoho Recruit costs about $25 a month per recruiter and you are billed annually. There's also a more robust enterprise version which costs $50 per user per month and includes more CRM features. Jazz HR. Jazz HR is a highly recommended customizable ATS with a tiered pricing plan that includes a robust set of features at the lowest price point of all of the ATS options we've listed today. At just $39 a month for unlimited users, the basic plan includes the ability to post to job boards, purchase premium listings, send batch emails to potential candidates, sort and manage potential hires, plus so much more. The more advanced features are a little pricier but will be helpful for mid to large recruitment operations. These features include integrations with Gmail and Outlook, document templates, background checks, video interview capabilities, and even basic document storage. All of the previous mentioned softwares earned high reviews from customers online. We recommend looking into these reviews and further into each option to see which ATS is appropriate for you and your needs. We've only just scratched the surface here. There are just so many other options out there. If you have any suggestions for applicant tracking systems that we didn't mention here or ones that you love, please comment down below. If you enjoyed and loved watching this video, again, please consider liking, subscribing, and clicking that bell. Completely free and really means a lot to us. You can also add me on Instagram and TikTok as I try my best to also post daily. Thanks again and we'll see you on the next one.