Finding the Right Applicant Tracking System

With the economy beginning to finally show signs of upward mobility, employers are slowly beginning to hire again. There is a surplus of candidates on the market, and without an easy and automated process to manage candidate flow, the recruiting process can become increasingly more challenging. Do you feel like you are spending too much time with the wrong candidates and not enough time with the right ones? Have you ever lost a top candidate to a competitor because the candidate fell through the cracks or your process wasn’t timely enough?

These inefficiencies are costing your company real dollars each and every day. Although the “human touch” may never be completely eliminated in the recruiting process, technology can certainly help you become more productive and decrease your time to hire. Not only will an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) eliminate redundancies in data entry, it will also allow you to match skill set, experience, education, and geographic location quickly, thus giving you an edge in a competitive marketplace.

Once you have decided that you have the need for an ATS, look for these key features in a vendor:

Profile Creation: Allows candidate to create career preferences such as salary range, desired position, location, skill set, etc that are viewed by potential employers. This profile can be edited and activity can be tracked by the candidate. Resumes can be attached to this profile.

Scheduler: Tracks all aspects of your recruiting including calling candidates, arranging interviews and follow-ups, and taking notes from phone calls. Allows you to share tasks, manage status of activities, and link hiring managers to potential candidates. Managers are able to update HR when milestones have been met with work-flow capability.

Remote access and Smartphone Integration: Provides better time management by helping you get things done without being in the office. Grab information from any secure online connection including applications that are downloadable to smartphones. Share and collect information, schedule interviews, and monitor the process from anywhere you can reach the internet.

Keyword/Data Search: Saves the time it takes to sift through every detail of a resume or cover letter. Can search data fields and email attachments for specific keywords to best match employees.

Saved searches/hot lists: Sorts by characteristics such as open job orders, locale, position, or years of experience. Save customized searches for future reference so you don’t need to re-enter the data.

Online application with job screening questions: Requires candidates to answer qualifying questions for quicker filtering of candidate pool. This could range from compliance based questions that are answered via drop down menus to behavioral based questions that allow you to screen for personality and cultural fits.

Automated Candidate Communication: Ability to send system generated emails to candidate communicating profile receipt, acceptance and rejection of the profile, and interview process status. Create emails and send to multiple people at once including the candidate, hiring manager, department head, etc. directly from the system. Keep track of correspondence with potential candidates.

Reporting capabilities: Provides details on candidates and suggests which ones are the best for the job. Documents response rates and helps you determine if you’re getting an ROI through your ATS. Provides capability to track successful hiring sources including recruiting agencies, job boards, or internal referrals. Capability to facilitate EEO reporting and ensure compliance if applicable.

Customizable fields: Creates fields for specific departments, contact managers, job responsibilities, and other items unique to your organization. Allows you to easily search for specific information when you need it.

Promote job openings: Can publish open jobs to company Web site and fee-based job boards.

These are basic functions that are core to most applicant tracking systems on the market today. Depending on the complexity of your needs, function rich systems could include employee assessments in conjunction with the system.

To maximize integration, you may want to consider an HRIS system that includes an ATS within it, as opposed to buying a separate ATS system. At the very least, make sure to select an ATS that can create an export file for upload into your existing payroll or HRIS system. This will eliminate the timely data entry process involved with on-boarding as well help you to build a skills inventory which will help your organization to promote internal candidates as part of your total recruiting strategy and succession plan. Robust HRIS systems with Applicant Tracking  will also store job descriptions, include job requisition creation with workflow for approval and job offer letter creation and approval processes.

If your organization is considering implementing a system to better manage your recruiting efforts and would like to explore the options available, contact Centripetal Consulting Group to learn how we can help.

The fact is that the open enrollment process is evolving, especially for small to mid-size employers. It is migrating from a stand-alone, manual process to an automated, integrated environment where the latest technologies combine to make open enrollment as efficient, effective and productive as possible. Current research shows a migration from older, more obsolete methods of processing benefits applications to web-based initiatives that greatly streamline and enhance the entire process, thus creating a compelling employer ROI and more favorable employee experience.

The current state of “open enrollment” is a spectrum of 3 main approaches:

1. Companies that use a traditional paper-based enrollment process
2. Companies that use a stand-alone software application or web portal for enrollment data collection
3. Companies that use an enrollment application that integrates with other critical HR applications

Paper-based enrollment has been around since the beginning of the enrollment process itself. Many companies still trust this method, thinking it is a satisfactory way to produce and distribute all benefits information to their employees. But let’s look at what’s really involved in this process:

• Printing benefits information
• Checking information for errors
• Assembling benefits brochures
• Manually sorting benefits materials so each employee gets information applicable to their current status
• Distributing benefits materials either by hand, or by mail

This first part of the process alone usually takes 1-2 weeks.

Next, comes the challenge of the actual enrollment itself. Most HR departments find that they need to assist employees in filling out the paperwork, thus opening up the chances for HIPPA violations. Lastly, the enrollment data must be compiled and manually entered into the carriers system AND into the company’s payroll system for premium deductions to occur. Human intervention, namely data entry, is always an error-prone process. This process requires:

• Enrollment forms that are checked manually for accuracy
• HR staff chasing down employees to determine who has completed the process
• Benefits calculations by hand
• Manual entry of enrollment information into the carrier site
  Manual entry of deductions amounts into the payroll system
• Paperwork filed and stored on premise in employee files

This process can add an additional 2-3 weeks to the entire process.

The paper-based, manual method of open enrollment also incurs a soft cost that cannot be measured; employee dissatisfaction. Employees today are not happy with the level of communication they receive from traditional open enrollment. They want information on their terms. They want to be able to access everything they need to make an informed decision, including their own personal data, from one source. And they want to be able to access this information when it is convenient for them. Companies that do not deliver what employees are looking for risk falling behind in today’s competitive workplace.

Stand-alone software/web systems for enrollment are another common approach. This spectrum involves the implementation of an automated solution to process open enrollment. The case for such an approach is clearly made in the example above.

The key business drivers for eliminating a paper-based process and replacing it with an automated process are:

• Reduction in the time it takes to process open enrollment
• Elimination of the the cost of producing and storing paper materials
• Mitigating the possibility of human errors
• Increasing employee satisfaction

Typical applications enable storing and access of all benefits-related materials online, where employees and their families can review at their leisure. All enrollment forms are also completed and submitted online, with greater validation capabilities for enhanced accuracy. This results in major gains for the employees, including the ability to manage all their own enrollment programs, including FSA’s and 401(k) in one centralized location.

This type of portal allows employees to:

• Review material and make decisions at home with their families
• Get answers to questions directly online
• Compare and contrast different plans all through one easy interface
• Edit and update selections without having to contact HR

Employees are not the only ones who benefit from enrollment automation. Thanks to the customizable, rules-based validation capability present with this technology, the system will catch errors and incomplete information, prompting employees to make changes as needed.

Additionally, managers and administrators can run reports to discover who still needs to complete the process and send automated reminders, without having to chase down employees on a one-on-one basis. The workload on HR staff is greatly reduced, as employees can handle their own enrollment tasks.

Deploying such a streamlined new process can greatly reduce the time it takes to process open enrollment, and free up key staff to focus on more important tasks. Deploying an online benefits enrollment process can have a dramatic effect on an organization that is used to the slow, manual paper-based approach, cutting the process time in half from 4 down to 2 weeks.

An online enrollment process has some major advantages over paper-based enrollment—but it still falls short in several key areas.

Research has shown that employees and administrators are still dissatisfied with the level of information and analysis tools that are available with many stand-alone benefit enrollment applications. The fundamental issue is that in order to make informed healthcare decisions, employees, HR administrators, and financial buyers need access to data commonly found in HR/Benefits and workforce management systems. Access to demographic information alongside of benefit participation data allows a company to analyze trend so that no group is overpaying or under-utilizing the benefits. Data can be segmented into employee groups by:

Success in the human resources profession requires fast and easy access to information — and that requires an automated HR information management system. Too many times companies think they are too small of an organization to justify an HRIS.

To this, I must say that a company is never too small to automate processes. If a company develops sound processes early on, they are poised for growth and may potentially be able to avoid or prolong hiring additional resources in the future.

Selecting an HRIS is a major decision. Getting approval for such a system is often difficult as well.

To start, HR managers should assess and outline how activities are currently being performed within the organization, and, in particular, within the HR department.

An HRIS generally should provide the capability to more effectively plan, control, and manage HR costs; achieve improved efficiency and quality in HR decision making; and improve employee and managerial productivity and effectiveness.

When conducting an analysis, I suggest looking at looking at the business challenges that you are trying to solve FIRST as opposed to the features and functions of a particular software application.

The following questions are designed to assist HR professionals in putting together the facts, the figures, and the business case to convince senior management that the expenditure for an HRIS makes sense.

• What information are people requesting?
• How do you, line managers, the chief executive officer, and the chief financial officer obtain needed personnel information?
• How long does it take you to respond to a new request for information?
• What HR management needs are not being addressed and handled properly?
• How effective is your support to the budgeting and planning processes?
• Where do you stand in complying with COBRA, ERISA, FLSA, OSHA, and other statutes and regulations?
• What tasks are you being asked to do today? How well are you performing these tasks?
• What programs, services, and management support must you provide to help your organization meet its goals?
• What are the major tasks that you intend to accomplish and the results you plan to achieve in order to have a successful HR operation?

Answering these questions will provide you a solid foundation for evaluation of various HRIS products on the market. Because there are so many HRIS providers including in-house, outsourced, hosted, non-hosted, hybrids of these etc., it may make sense to look for an additional resource outside the company to help with your evaluation.

When the hard cost of insurance seems to be spiraling out of control it is logical to also explore the soft costs associated with the administration of the benefit plans as a strategy to mitigate this expense. Depending on the size and complexity of your organization and benefits offerings, up to 25% of your total spend could be tied up in the transactional costs of benefits administration. This warrants considering processes improvement or retooling as a means to controlling this cost.

Regardless of the size of an organization, the right technology will dramatically improve open and continuous benefits enrollment by automating manual tasks, engaging employees with self-service and optimizing benefits planning usage patterns. The resulting benefits are significant: saved time, increased productivity, improved data integrity, and consistent employee communications which
leads to increased employee retention.

Several methods for automating the benefits administration function are available to even the small market. Consider these options to determine what will work best for your organization.

1.  Deployment of Employee Self-Service – The technology application that you choose must have self-service functionality that is easy to use, includes workflow capabilities, and is accessible via the internet. If you properly train employees on how to use the benefits enrollment portal thoroughly, most employees will complete it successfully the first time. Studies also suggest that more than half will do it at home with a spouse, thus making them more productive at work. Data accuracy is also improved when enrollment info is entered at the employee level as opposed to the administrator level. The more participants that have access the better. The use of kiosks should also be considered for those employees who may not have the internet readily available. Expanded reporting and survey capabilities also give added bonuses to employers who successfully deploy ESS.

2.  Technology Integration – A stand alone benefits administration portal gets you halfway there, but to truly maximize efficiencies, I suggest a fully integrated Payroll/HRIS/Benefits application. Payroll data tends to be the most accurate data set in any organization, so it makes sense to build benefits technology off this data to ensure utmost accuracy for employee contact information, eligibility, premium deductions, and terminations. Many systems also include interface capability to the insurance carriers. This type of integration allows for ONE point of entry for all payroll, HR, and benefits related information. This creates a more efficient, less error prone process. Integration eliminates profit leaks with terminations and eligibility because all employee data is resident in a common place that
connects with the carrier.

3. Expense – Who should responsible for this cost? In many cases there are three different parties involved with the process: the insurance carrier, the insurance broker, and the
technology provider. You as the employer are clients of all three. I suggest putting them in touch with each other to see what makes the most financial sense for your organization.
Many times brokers will absorb this cost as a value added service. The carrier may be willing to cut you a deal to retain or attract your business. Thirdly, the technology provider may have
extensive experience with your carrier and may be willing to reduce this cost because less work has to be done on the front end. At the end of the day, it is worth the financial
investment and time up front to create the carrier feeds and maintain connectivity especially if you plan to stay with that provider for several years.

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