Your ATS Implementation Will Fail for This One Reason
Less than half of applicant tracking system (ATS) implementations are delivered on time, and only 32 percent are delivered at or under budget, according to a 2017 study[1] by HR technology consultancy Aptitude Research Partners. But why’s this the case?
In the past, recruiters could legitimately blame the software—ATSs were clunky platforms that were hard to set up and even harder to use[2]. Nowadays, with so many intuitive, highly flexible options[3] to choose from, this excuse doesn’t hold water.
That’s why we’re covering three change management best practices that can make your ATS adoption process much smoother. These practices will help make sure your implementation stays on time, on budget and—most importantly—doesn’t cause you to mismanage or miss out on qualified candidates.
1. Establish Your Recruiting Workflow Early and Refer to It Often
If your company has done its due diligence in selecting an ATS—separated its software “needs” from its software “wants,” considered numerous options and demoed extensively with different vendors—your new ATS should align pretty well with your team’s ideal recruiting workflow already.
Even so, new software has the tendency to motivate even the most steadfast organizations to tinker with their processes to death. Stakeholders start discovering all of the new functionality they have to play with, new requirements get tacked on and suddenly everyone is left chasing a moving target.
This is a classic example of scope creep—a problem that hinders half of all projects[5], according to the Project Management Institute. It can wreak havoc on effective change management.
Watch: “4 Tips on How to Manage Scope Creep”
To combat ATS implementation scope creep, Brett Kashanitz, vice president of operations at CareerBuilder[6], recommends that buyers create “a fully documented and agreed-upon recruitment workflow with as many details as possible.”