What are Applicant Tracking Services?

As anyone who has been responsible for keeping track of applicants and matching them up with available employment positions knows, nothing helps keep the task within reasonable limits like the use of applicant tracking services.

The purpose of applicant tracking services is to ensure that all qualified applicants are properly classified and logged in the event that positions become available that are right for their skill sets. From this perspective, these services can be effectively used for both the new applicant who wants to come to work for the organization as well as current employees who wish to keep applications on file for the chance to advance within the company.

Tracking applicants begins with an organized means of referencing and cross-referencing each individual application that is kept on file. Application tracking services can help to electronically organize the data found on the applications, cross-referencing any experience or educational background to the basic requirements for each position currently functioning within the company. What this does is create an easy way for a busy human resources department to scan the current bank of applications when a job opening occurs. Qualified applicants can be contacted, interviews arranged and hopefully the position can be filled in a short period of time.

Most applicant tracking services have some built in safeguards to keep the data current as well. For example, the service may use a software program that will automatically purge resumes and other data from the system after five years. In other cases, someone applying for a different position may have the option of updating his or her applicant profile in the database, making it easy to reevaluate their data and cross reference it to new job opportunities. Applicant tracking services can also be used to flag applicant profiles and remove them from consideration if the applicant does not respond or refuses job interview offers after four or five attempts.

The task of applicant tracking can be an involved one, especially for corporations that routinely employ hundreds or thousands of people. Overburdened human resource departments may find that the job of keeping up with application data keeps them away from other important matters, such as improving employee benefits and working conditions. Choosing to use outside applicant tracking services can help maintain a balance of important human resource tasks, as well as maintain a working roster of potential labor resources for the company.

Professionally bonded and devoted to confidentiality, these applicant tracking services can make a huge difference in the way your company finds the right people for the right job. Making use of these services as a means of keeping applicant data in order and available for consideration as needed can go a long way toward keeping the task manageable.