Integrating your ATS with HR tools creates a better candidate experience and helps your team focus on hiring the best talent. Is it as technical as it sounds? Not with our help. Read our blog post to find out how we do it.
HR tools help HR departments perform various functions. They can include things like payroll and learning & development systems, as well as ATS add-ons that automate parts of the application process or make it more accessible. Integrating these tools means getting them to share information, and having the ability to do so is one of the benefits of a modern ATS. Integration can be done as part of the initial ATS implementation or later as new HR tools become available. In this blog post, we’ll discuss the benefits of integration and outline an integration process that will enable you take full advantage of them.
Before we get to 'how', let's first understand why you would want to integrate HR tools with your ATS:
Streamlining processes: Record-keeping and processing candidates for recruitment can generate massive amounts of admin, which can burden teams and take their focus away from hiring the best talent. Integrating HR tools with your ATS reduces that burden by allowing data to be shared across multiple systems. In practical terms, this means data collected by the ATS during recruitment will automatically populate data fields of other HR systems, eliminating the need to enter the same candidate data across multiple systems.
Improved data accuracy: Integrating HR tools with your ATS also reduces the possibility of human error that can increase when data is input manually across multiple systems. The data mapping process (which we’ll come to) ensures that data is recorded in a consistent way, which is a best practice that keeps data-driven environments running smoothly.
Enhanced candidate experience: Reducing data entry improves candidate experience by speeding up the application process. But you can also integrate HR tools that improve the candidate experience in other ways. GeniusATS, for example, is frequently integrated with Recite Me, which is accessibility software that ensures your ATS is user-friendly for candidates with different needs. You can also integrate tools that automate DBS and Right to Work checks, so that applicants can complete the necessary compliance requirements without leaving the ATS. Improving candidate experiences in this way will help minimise abandoned applications. And let’s not forget about one of the most important aspects of employee experience— pay. Integrating payroll software can speed up the payroll process and ensure accuracy, helping to prevent errors.
Centralised data: Integration creates a central data hub, which means no more collating data from multiple sources. It also enables reporting that spans multiple HR functions, from the application process, through to onboarding and learning & development, which gives a more holistic view of your recruitment processes. Streamlining your data reporting ultimately means faster data-driven decision making and more efficient HR and recruitment processes.
To maximise the benefits of integrating your ATS with HR tools, we recommend this tried and tested method. What follows can be applied to any HR tool you wish to integrate:
Before diving in, you need to know what you want to achieve with your integration. Your ATS provider will be able to recommend HR tools to achieve any functionalities or reporting goals you have in mind. Talk to them about your expected outcomes so you can establish clear goals for your integration project to work towards.
This is when you identify which pieces of information you want your ATS to share with HR tools—name and address are some of the most commonly shared. Data mapping ensures that your ATS and HR tools ‘speak the same language’. Data fields must match between both systems for the integration to work—you can’t integrate when one system uses the data field ‘candidate name’ and another uses ‘applicant name’ for the same piece of data. Developers will ensure all data and data language is compliant so that integration is successful.
Once integrated, your ATS and HR tools should be tested extensively. This process should involve as many stakeholders and users as possible, and test scenarios should replicate real life conditions as closely as possible. Your ATS provider will guide you through a testing process that will avoid serious problems after the system goes live.
Your ATS provider should support you with any teething problems or supplementary training when your integration goes live. With GeniusATS, for example, clients receive a few weeks of intensive aftercare followed by client support and quarterly account manager meetings once your team is up to speed. A good relationship between client and provider will help you get the best out of your ATS, and any HR tools integrated with it.
Time is short in a competitive jobs market. Finding the right talent can involve processing hundreds of applicants, so it’s crucial that you invest in processes that maximise time efficiency. And it’s not just your team’s time that matters—candidates will also appreciate an application process built with user-friendliness in mind. Integrating HR tools with your ATS will make the best talent keener to work for while giving your team the time and focus to make the best job of hiring them.
Genius Group Limited
The Watermill
Broughton Hall
Skipton
BD23 3AG
01756 701222
hello@thegeniusgroup.co.uk
