How Dead is the ATS? Long Live the CRM
Another insight from the Recruiting Innovation Summit
Listening into the Recruiting Innovation Summit (#RIS11) from the comforts of my home was a real treat. Based on the stories that were shared by some companies regarding how they are addressing the ever present and growing need to manage candidates better, I noticed something interesting.
It seems like the ATS is dead. Well maybe not completely dead, but mostly dead (can you hear the coroner of munchkin land now?).
Ever since the birth of the ATS in the early 90's recruiters have hated them. If you are an ATS vendor and think "not our ATS," you're wrong. They hate all of them. For years we did our best to streamline processes and implement them in such a way to minimize the disruption to the natural flow of doing recruiting. The benefits of being on the same system, accessing a killer database, and addressing reporting needs outweighed the burden.
But there have been several developments lately that make me wonder if the ATS will soon be on life support. Here is what I am hearing:
- Recruiters really hate using the ATS, so we have deployed a CRM
- Candidates are dropping off the second they hit the ATS, so we launched a Talent community and capture their data in a CRM
- We can't get good source of candidate reports from our ATS so we now track this in our Talent Community
- We can't really use the ATS for interview management, we are experimenting with Video Interview platforms
- The offer management module does not really meet our needs, so we do that outside the ATS
OK people. So what the hell are we using the ATS for? Compliance! Really?
With the advent of the recruiting CRM, the proliferation of candidate sourcing products, and the emergence of recruitment marketing platforms, our applicants are only getting to the ATS when the apply to a specific job. And the only reason we let them do that is because we need them to answer a few prescreening questions, and to track them for EEO reporting.
You could feasibly take the CRM and some of these other front end products, string them together with a Video Interviewing platform (add some killer content and you can replace the bullshit prescreening questions), and the add a robust document management application to handle offers, and bypass the ATS altogether. Build it for utility first and you can figure out compliance later.
Am I dreaming? Is this not happening?
There are some new ATS products entering the market today with CRM and some of the candidate/recruiter friendly features built right in. But I wonder how the legacy applications will stay relevant in this highly dynamic segment while moving horizontally toward the comprehensive Talent Management Suite.
I am not making the call yet, but it sure is something to think about.
Comments (15)
Denni Oravec
Ed
Peter
I think you may be spot on. With the proliferation of point solutions and the increasing use of APIs, it's more feasible for a client to bolt together several different systems that all address different aspects of the recruiting life cycle.
One thing recruiters hate about an ATS is the time it takes to implement new functionality. Yes, SaaS is eaiser/faster than before, but most ATS vendors have only 2 major releases a year (and most releases still require a project team). Compare that to solutions that are able to push out new functionality constantly.
There are still areas of an ATS that haven't been imporved upon yet, such as headcount/requisition approvals, complex/enforceable workflow management, etc. but recruiters don't care. The thing recruiters love most about these solutions is their usability. They just work and are intuitive. None of the ATS vendors have nailed usability yet. Until they do, organizations will continue to spend money on these point solutions, bolting them on to their ATS, redefining the role an ATS plays within a company.
Ed
Mike
What we're really seeing now is a birth of new products that finally connect the marketing/employer branding aspect of recruiting to the systems where recruiters (i.e. sales) can easily access the candidates/leads. I wouldn't count so much on the legacy ATS vendors to move the ball forward - most of them are waiting and hoping to be acquired by bigger fish while spending very little on R&D.
I predict that we'll see CRM/Sourcing technology vendors build ATS as one component to a much more sophisticated, broad, and intuitive talent acquisition platform that will include, in addition to ATS, all things talent/recruiting/sourcing - events management, campus/UR, referral programs, executive search, competitive intelligence, mobile, social, ad distribution, web analytics, SEO, social, requisition management, reporting, internal mobility, diversity/inclusion, MPS, vendor management, etc. etc. etc.
Is ATS dead? As a required/compliant process amongst many processes, no. As a system the way they look today, yes.
Nick Leigh-Morgan
Ed
Nick Leigh-Morgan
Given that iKrut and Smartrecruiters have several thousand companies using our products already (and growing by the hundreds each month), if I were a major ATS vendor I'd be getting nervous.
Heather Right
Recruiters hate using ATS systems b/c most are complicated and over- featured.
Only tech companies, very progressive mid-sized companies and larger multi-nationals understand the concept of a "talent community". Too early for a revolution. The progressives will need to "mature" this market. So, thanks for writing about this.
As for some of the comments about free ATS...you get what you pay for. Most free or nearly free solutions are garbage. HR Tech products are not turnkey solutions even for SMB's.
Nick Leigh-Morgan
Dubbiode
Turnkey Commissions Review
SysiIazcEK
http://sdgblog.wordpress.com/
These tablets are frequently over the a hundred and fifty mark
but offer you a considerably broader and longer lasting expertise.
They only need to spend more affordable value for the
technologies meanwhile they can get the exact same satisfaction as
when they use i - Pad.
??? ???