What is an Applicant Tracking System?

What is an Applicant Tracking System?

An applicant tracking system is a centralized, digital platform that supports the processes vital to a talent management team. This includes recruitment and hiring, from creating a job post through interviews and background checks. The right talent management system will connect all the necessary HR processes through an integrated ecosystem, allowing data to flow seamlessly from one step to another. An applicant tracking system is a vital piece of a talent management system, simplifying the talent acquisition process for recruiters and hiring managers. Applicant tracking systems allow HR professionals to create and share job postings, receive and review applications, engage candidates, and schedule interviews, all in one system.

 

What makes PeopleAdmin’s Applicant Tracking System different?

PeopleAdmin’s HigherEd platform is a talent management software designed specifically for higher education, featuring customizable modules that support the unique workflows of colleges and universities. Our hire-to-retire platform supports end-to-end virtual hiring and onboarding, offering a comprehensive single source of truth for all of your back-office activities. With connector technology, the system connects with outside vendors and platforms already in use on your campus, such as job boards, reference checks, background checks, I9 verification, HRMIS and ERP.

 

Built for HigherEd

College graduates throwing their caps.

PeopleAdmin’s flexible and configurable Applicant Tracking System supports the complex, multi-department structures found in higher education. Many colleges and universities use manual processes, including paper forms, homegrown systems, and excel sheets, to receive applications, track open roles and candidates, and examine EEO data.

These processes are time-consuming, repetitive, and don’t easily preserve information for future analysis. The Applicant Tracking System simplifies hiring, increases efficiency, and helps you achieve your academic mission through a templatized orchestration and rules engine.

 

Simplified Job Posting

ATS allows users to easily oversee and manage the entire recruiting process. Before posting a job, customize unique forms and criteria for different position types. Then easily share your open position on your website and cross-post on social media or to job boards like Higher Ed Jobs and Inside Higher Ed Careers, as well as enabling internal candidates and referrals to broaden your search.

The application portal is mobile-friendly and supports your institution’s branding, offering applicants a seamless visual experience and removing barriers to hiring. More candidates than ever are applying to jobs on mobile devices—PeopleAdmin’s Applicant Tracking System makes sure your institution is reaching candidates where they are.

 

Building a Talent Pool

Professional applicants sitting in chairs waiting to interview at university.

When applications come in, hiring managers can initiate reference checks, share candidates with hiring committees, and create offer letters all in the same system. Applicant screening options and resume parsing help easily narrow down applications for a specific role. Users can also create applicant pools to save the information of qualified candidates for future roles, saving time and ensuring high-quality candidates in the next search.

With real-time visibility, stakeholders know exactly where each open role is in the hiring process and can be notified of necessary next steps, like screenings, interviews, or background checks, without any back-and-forth over email. Search committees can provide collaborative, real-time feedback on the same documents, making it easier to collaborate. Time-to-fill is twice as long for positions in higher education as in other industries—and 2.5 times longer for faculty positions. Reduce the time-consuming roadblocks in your talent acquisition process with PeopleAdmin’s configurable workflows.

 

Deliver on DEI

Recruiting diverse faculty and staff is a priority for many colleges and universities, and PeopleAdmin’s Applicant Tracking System supports your institution’s diversity initiatives. With more access to applicant data—including big picture and drill-down capabilities—as well as real-time goal benchmarking and simplified EEO compliance reporting, HR professionals can gain insight into diversity in hiring. Cross-campus data connections also help administrators understand retention and see vital information like gender balance or salary breakdowns across different departments.

 

Actionable Insights

Women on tablet at university desk.

With powerful analytics dashboards, an Applicant Tracking System ensures EEO compliance while keeping track of vital hiring KPIs without any manual data manipulation. HR professionals can take an up-close look or view the broader picture, examining hiring metrics including retention, time-to-hire, salaries, open vs. filled positions, and diversity statistics by department, role type, or time period. Refine your recruitment marketing strategy by analyzing where most of your successful candidates are finding your postings or which job descriptions are getting the most traction.

 

Integrations

Of course, the hiring process doesn’t occur in a bubble, which is why our solution’s integrations are so important. PeopleAdmin’s ATS integrates with your institution’s existing ERP and HRIS, bi-directionally communicating data so HR professionals only have to enter information once. Increase accuracy and free up time for strategic work by removing these repetitive administrative processes. Connections to the entire PeopleAdmin solution platform, including Employee Records and Performance Management, mean that hiring data carries over through the entire employee lifecycle, from onboarding to performance reviews and beyond, giving your HR team insight into retention, performance, and new employee ROI. With a single repository of data, you’ll find cross-campus visibility and more actionable insights for your entire team.

 

Hire Better, Faster

The right Applicant Tracking System is a game-changer for any human resources department. A digitized, centralized platform helps attract candidates and increase engagement, simplify recruiting processes, remove repetitive work, and reduce time-to-fill. For higher education, where hiring workflows are more complex, PeopleAdmin’s Applicant Tracking System is the configurable, interconnected solution that solves unique challenges and helps hire the right faculty and staff.