Key Features and Benefits of Applicant Tracking System for Different Industries

According to Forbes, 38% of employees leave their jobs within the first year, costing the company about 33% of their salary to replace them. That’s a ton of money lost on turnover, meaning hiring the right candidates has never been more critical. 

There is a misconception that only the largest businesses have the staff and finances to afford dedicated HR software, such as an applicant tracking system. That misconception couldn’t be further from the truth. 

In reality, modern business depends on the efficiencies that an ATS can provide, regardless of whether you operate a small business, startup, medium-sized business, or major Fortune 500 enterprise. In fact, the advances in technology that feature prominently in ATS software benefit businesses in any industry, from financial services and pharma to manufacturing and staffing.  

Let’s take a deeper look at how an ATS can benefit various industries. 

The Importance of Effective Applicant Tracking Systems

A high-quality ATS does more than accept incoming job applications. It supercharges your recruiting process by providing automation and data-driven insights. It keeps hiring teams unified and managers in the know, reducing the hurdles recruiters face when trying to find the best new hires. 

ATS Solutions for Enterprise-Level Talent Acquisition

Enterprise-level human resources teams handle a wide range of job descriptions and high volumes of applicants—there’s no question the workload is demanding! 

Enterprises can employ tens of thousands of employees across regions, departments, and product lines, meaning that hiring teams have their work cut out for them to find the standout candidates for open positions. With the help of an ATS, recruiting team members can manage multiple job types, fluctuating hiring processes, and high volumes of resumes. 

These ATS capabilities include: 

• Automating time-consuming tasks, like scheduling interviews or conducting initial video interviews.

• Resume parsing to sort and filter top candidates based on location, work experience, and skill. 

• Unified candidate databases for teams to engage in collaborative hiring.

• Real-time metrics reporting for visualized insight into the recruiting process from the top of the funnel through onboarding. 

• Skills-based job recommendations for job seekers interested in your organization. 

• Messaging capabilities to engage with potential candidates through a variety of channels. 

• DEI-specific features, like blind resumes, that remove unconscious bias from the application process. 

For enterprises, an ATS is likely just one component of the overall HR software ecosystem. It joins other systems like your HRIS. However, investing time in a quality ATS solution will improve your hiring process and the candidate experience. 

Streamlining Recruitment in Financial Services

In 2023, 84% of CEOs felt optimistic about the state of employment. Yet, with the surge in layoffs, it seems that confidence has dwindled somewhat. The economy is feeling the effects as tech and fintech firms restructure. 

However, the financial services industry can stand to benefit from these shifts, as these highly skilled individuals can fit into your organization. The challenge? How to attract the top talent to shift industries. 

With an ATS, you can position your employer brand in a positive light and reach potential candidates who never knew you were looking for them. Outreach tools through email, career sites, and LinkedIn can integrate seamlessly with your ATS, creating an all-in-one platform to launch hiring campaigns. 

Financial services professionals are likely familiar with the concept of CRM for sales efforts, but you can also make use of a CRM for hiring to maximize your outreach and candidate-tracking efforts. For instance, you can engage with potential employees across multiple channels through a single, user-friendly dashboard.  

In addition to outreach, the best ATS software, like the one from Gem, supports robust security and compliance functionality, keeping your candidate data in line with government regulations. You can even find candidates with the certifications you need through advanced filtering, sorting, and producing candidate scorecards.

Enhancing Talent Acquisition in Life Sciences

When people think of science, their minds instantly gravitate to the lab. While R&D is undoubtedly a portion of the life sciences industry, there are far more moving parts involved in bringing medical devices, medicine, healthcare products, and life-saving treatments to market. 

Hiring for this industry is especially challenging due to the highly specialized nature, often involving graduate and postgraduate degrees, medical licenses, special sales certifications, and even security clearance. To say recruiters have their hands full in these businesses would be an understatement. 

An ATS supports human resource professionals as they hire for these advanced roles by creating seamless partnerships with universities and hospitals, streamlining location-based recruitment efforts, and providing customizable hiring pipelines for specific requisitions. These tools make fostering the necessary relationships with potential candidates and the unique candidate sourcing channels involved in their recruitment more accessible for the average HR professional. 

Plus, an ATS, like Gem, can help address the glaring diversity issues present within the industry. 

Gem is a diversity-focused ATS provider that allows life science recruiters to reach their DEI goals with specific tools designed to eliminate implicit biases, effectively widening the talent pool with no effort. Try a demo today to see Gem’s ATS in action for yourself.  

Modernizing Manufacturing Recruitment

Modern manufacturing isn’t like the factories of your grandparents’ days. There are far more advanced assembly lines, new manufacturing processes, revolutionary materials, and technology that might’ve once been considered science fiction. 

Unfortunately, the public perception of manufacturing is the dirty, grimy, poorly lit warehouses of yesteryear, driving qualified candidates into more well-understood (though not necessarily better)  industries, like retail. An applicant tracking system can help you attract and move more candidates through your hiring pipeline.

ATS software helps automate time-consuming steps, like evaluating job applications, freeing recruiters to engage with potential candidates in more meaningful interactions that change their perception of the industry. Applicant tracking software also makes hiring for high-volume roles more straightforward, automating much of the process and leaving the final, all-important hiring decision to the human hiring manager. 

ATS Integration for Staffing Agencies

Much like enterprises and some manufacturing roles, staffing agencies must balance the recruiting processes for several organizations with a broad range of requisition demands. And as with enterprises and manufacturing, an ATS is just the tool for the job. 

ATS systems, especially cloud-based solutions, offer flexibility and affordable pricing to meet the ever-changing workflows of an agency. Additionally, handling large volumes of resumes and applications becomes much more manageable with an ATS, meaning the typical agent can handle more without adding stress. 

The best applicant tracking systems also integrate with additional tools, like email and social media, to expand their reach, helping to attract the best talent, regardless of the job opening. Having a centralized platform reduces time-to-hire numbers by streamlining communications with hiring managers.  

Automation and CRM: The Game Changers in Recruiting

In addition to recruiting software, another game-changing platform is the candidate relationship management system or CRM. This vital piece of technology pairs well with the ATS, allowing you to elevate your automation and outreach efforts. 

These tools are particularly useful in highly specialized industries, like the life sciences or manufacturers, where recruiters often source candidates through outreach. Plus, the personalization goes well beyond static templates, creating more meaningful relationships between employer and candidate. 

The automation functionally streamlines several tasks, including: 

• Interview scheduling and offer letter notifications

• Evaluating candidate profiles for best fit

• Tagging and shortlisting candidates for further assessment

• Sending correspondence to follow up with candidates

• Recording candidate interactions in the CRM

• Updating job postings and job boards, like Indeed, with new information

• Posting jobs and engaging with users on social media platforms

• Collecting candidate information from career pages and mobile app visitors

As AI and machine learning get more intelligent, there will be almost no limit to what talent management systems and CRM platforms can help recruiters do. Human hiring teams can make better decisions at a much faster pace with the help of these tools. 

Driving Recruitment with Data and Insights

Applicant tracking systems work by using AI and machine learning. These systems help identify potential candidates, sort through applications, and recommend next steps depending on data. Data analytics is a vital component of advanced ATS systems, but bad data can tarnish your hard work. 

Investing in high-quality candidate data, data enrichment, and proper data collection prevents bad data from plaguing models that drive decision-making. Fortunately, your ATS and CRM are gold mines for quality data. Implementing these systems removes manual entry issues, helps identify biased hiring practices, and improves data-driven decisions. 

Elevating Recruitment with Gem's Sourcing and CRM Solutions

The top applicant tracking systems aren’t only for major organizations. From small businesses and startups to massive multinational conglomerates, every business can benefit from the recruitment tools found in modern ATS software. 

To maximize your ATS’ effectiveness, pair it with a CRM, and never miss an interaction with a candidate again. Gem’s ATS and CRM package gives recruiters an all-in-one solution to the unique hiring needs found in any industry. Request a demo today and explore every feature Gem has to offer.