No corporation or small business wants to face the very real expense of upgrading technology when a well-oiled system suddenly becomes outdated. Likened to any response to forced change, even upgrading a simple web browser puts decision makers through a certain psychological malaise. But change is an inevitability for any business that wants to remain viable in today’s increasingly digital economy.
As everything in our lives grows more connected through the Internet of things, change is occurring rapidly. Because of this increased digitization, technology is having more of an impact on our lives and that means it’s become more important for companies to adapt to the expectations of consumers.
If your organization doesn’t keep up with the pace of change, you will be forgotten. Already it’s predicted that in only ten years, 60% of the Fortune 500 companies today will no longer exist.
They will be left behind, outpaced by the overwhelming speed of change, those who are slow to innovate and adapt.
Your ATS Is Outdated
This goes for talent acquisition models, too. In particular, organizations relying on outdated recruiting technology. Consider your ATS. How old is your current platform? Has it changed much over the last decade? Probably not.
Because competition in recruiting technology has been minimal over the time since the applicant tracking software was first developed, there hasn’t been much need for innovation over the years.
But now we have mobile technology. It’s not enough anymore to post your jobs and applications online and recruit from the desktop. Your platform needs to be able to reach across several devices.
The general public is growing more accustomed to the ease of mobility that smartphones and tablets provide and expectations of accomplishing tasks on these devices, from any location, are increasing. Mobile makes our lives easier.
Except when looking for a job.
Candidates First Is Key
This seeming rebuff by companies of adding mobile to their recruiting strategy for the sake of preserving resources leaves a growing pool of talent flocking to competition that appears more technologically savvy.
Real talent is hard enough to come by today, despite the hundreds of applications your ATS may be sifting through. An upgrade may seem like a costly – and therefore an unnecessary expense – and to be sure in the immediate sense it is costly, but when you consider the effect of adding mobile as part of your talent acquisition strategy, from a long-term perspective it’s hard to put a price on the benefits.
The current state of your ATS puts a strain on the modern job seeker. A once great tool for recruiters now regularly eliminates quality applicants from your talent pool. It provides a recruiter-first experience with little regard to candidates that rely on other devices than the desktop to look for jobs.
This lack of mobility in your career platform puts a strain on your employer brand, calling into question by candidates the sophistication of your company as a technologically modern entity.
But that doesn’t mean you have to abandon your ATS. It means there’s plenty of room for adaptive technology to improve the experience of a candidate using your ATS.
Cost Effective Change Is Possible
One of the easiest and inexpensive ways to accomplish this today is through the use an overlay that provides a candidate-first experience while maintaining the integrity of your data collection. Heck, even improving on the quality of the data collected.
There are a plethora of overlay technologies out there that sit on top of your ATS and provide a well-meaning candidate experience, but most of these technologies fall short of the goal of important data collection and solid candidate engagement.
Preferably a good platform integrates with your ATS and provides branding along with a responsive design so candidates can view your jobs and apply from any device, desktop or mobile, adds a suite of tools to encourage engagement on many levels, all while capturing the important data on the back end necessary to make sound business decisions.
This responsive approach to the candidate experience brings your current platform up to date at a fraction of the cost of replacing and rebuilding an ATS, and enables a larger number of candidates access to your jobs and apply.
Innovation and adaptation is vital to success in today’s fast-paced digital world. When it comes to recruiting, the long standard of targeting talent from the desktop is no longer the preferred way to secure quality acquisitions. You must embrace a forward-thinking strategy that includes all devices that job seekers use on a daily basis.
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