44%
0
20
40
60
80
100
High-performing TA firms
Lower-performing TA firms
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What Are the Most Exciting Major
Innovations of Today and Tomorrow?
Finding: Participants are most likely to cite text messaging capability as an exciting new improvement and innovation
This year’s respondents are most likely to choose “text messaging capability to improve candidate engagement” and “integration with new hire onboarding process” as examples of exciting improvements and innovations (cited by 56% in both cases).
The movement of text messaging to the top response is an interesting development. In 2019, 51% of participants cited text messaging as an important development, but it was only the fourth most commonly chosen item. However, this year we asked the question a little differently, referring to “excitement” rather than “importance.”
What makes this capability so exciting? It allows recruitment professionals to engage in one of the most effective means of candidate communication.
According to Aman Brar, CEO of Canvas, “Texting...is different. A job candidate can respond in less than 1 minute without disrupting his or her day. It’s fast, obscure, and doesn’t pull the candidate away from current work. With robust recruiting platforms, the average time to screen a candidate is just 4.4 minutes.”1 Of course, because it is such an intimate form of communication, text messaging brings its own challenges and recruitment professionals must use it with care.
As for integration with onboarding, this is probably viewed with 1 Brar, Aman. 5 Ways Text Interviews Will Surprise You. Undercover Recruiter. Retrieved from http s://t heundercoverrecruiter.com/text-interviews/
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excitement because it, among other things, makes the onboarding process more seamless. One of the chief complaints about current ATS is their inability to integrate effectively with other key systems or applications. This is slowly changing as vendors respond to user needs.
Two other exciting innovations mentioned by more than half of participating HR professionals include “improved capability to ‘autofill’
application from candidates’ resumes and online social profiles” and
“integration with online social media sites such as LinkedIn.”
Survey Question: What recent improvements and innovations in ATS excite you most? (select all that apply) Text messaging capability to
56%
improve candidate engagement
Integration with new hire
56%
onboarding process
Improved capability to “autofill”
application from candidates’
52%
resumes and online social profiles
Integration with online social
52%
media sites such as LinkedIn
Ability to better communicate with
candidates who do not complete
46%
applications
Ability to monitor
45%
diversity in hiring
Mobile ATS features
44%
Use of artificial intelligence
to improve screening of
41%
candidates
Emergence of
recruitment marketing
23%
technologies
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
39
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www.hr.com | 877-472-6648 | copyright © HR.com 2020
Finding: In the next three to five years, participants say they expect to see greater personalization and improved assessment Internet users encounter an astounding amount of highly personalized online experiences every day, so it makes sense that applicants expect to see similar levels of personalized content and information in their job search and application process. Sixty percent of HR and recruitment professionals say greater personalization will be among the most beneficial ATS enhancements over the next three to five years.
The second most widely cited near-future enhancement is “improved assessment and filtering tools.” When they work well, such tools can boost the productivity of talent acquisition professionals by automatically filtering out less qualified candidates. However, there is also a danger that the wrong kind of assessments or filters could have an adverse impact on people based on their ethnicity, age, sexuality, gender, etc. To help prevent bias from creeping into the recruitment process, more recruitment professionals are seeking to “anonymize applicants and/or candidates (to reduce the potential for bias).” This is seen as a beneficial possibility by 48% of respondents.
Survey Question: What do you believe will be the most beneficial ATS enhancements over the next three to five years?
(select all that apply)
Greater personalization
60%
Improved assessment
and filtering tools
58%
Ability to anonymize applicants
and/or candidates (to reduce the
48%
potential for bias)
More flexible reporting capability
47%
Integration of features that
harness artificial
46%
intelligence capabilities
Appending data with current
25%
publicly available data
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
40
The State of Applicant Tracking Systems 2020
www.hr.com | 877-472-6648 | copyright © HR.com 2020
