When managed properly, online recruiting can reduce the overall cost per hire when compared to traditional recruiting solutions. The explosion in recent years of online job boards, company career sites, and email has opened up a surplus of new, cost-effective channels for recruiters to reach talented professionals. The successful recruiter will take advantage of the electronic organization tools available today to maximize their recruiting efficiencies. This can mean quickly reducing thousands of resumes down to the top 10 qualified resumes that best match the criteria. Before we begin, let's take a look at the definition of the recruiters' ultimate electronic tool...the Applicant Tracking System.

An applicant tracking system (ATS), also called a candidate management system, is a software application designed to help an organization recruit employees more efficiently. An ATS can be used to post job openings on a corporate Web site or job board, screen resumes, and generate interview requests to potential candidates by e-mail.

Other features may include individual applicant tracking, requisition tracking, automated resume ranking, customizable input forms, pre-screening questions and response tracking. Roughly 50 percent of all mid-sized companies and almost all large corporations use some type of applicant tracking system.

However, getting recruiters to use an ATS can be a challenge, even with the advantages of increased organization and effectiveness.

An applicant tracking system will help your HR department get better organized as well as save significant time and money.

• Centralize: Maximize Efficiency and Savings
o Centralize and streamline the recruiting process
o Reduce cost per hire and agency fees
o Reduce data entry with data entered by each candidate
o Reduce resume management costs with easy integration of email, fax, online job boards, corporate job sites, and internal intranets
o Most integrate with human resources information systems

• Organize: Increase Quality Candidate Selection
o Appeal to the more technologically advanced candidates
o Fill positions faster with integration to job boards: many systems have features that include auto post, auto collection, and auto response, making posting and editing job descriptions quick and easy
o Pre-employment screening for the best match
o Build a customized database of applicants
o Perform a detailed search of your own applicant database to find the best fit

• Analyze: Gain Strategic Business Intelligence
o Comprehensive management and EEO reporting
o Get insight into resource allocation with real-time reports
o Improve budgeting and return on investment

Recruiters can only capitalize the use of the Internet if they have an organized human resources software system to handle the massive influx of data from so many different sources alongside resumes from traditional referrals. Without an applicant tracking system, recruiting can result in missed opportunities and even costly administrative inefficiencies.

A few of these ATS software packages include: iApplicants, myStaffingPro, pcRecruiter, HRMDirect, Cyber Recruiter, hiredesk and JobPoint. There are several other products worthy of review, but there is simply not time to list them all here.

Customization of the software is certainly preferable for the best success. Canned software programs can be more of a hindrance to productivity than manual tracking, so do your research before making a selection. My favorite is Cyber Recruiter. The software is capable of interfacing with multiple database systems across a variety of industries. It has proven particularly successful for government contractor Affirmative Action purposes, particularly for applicant flow data collection and reporting requirements.

No electronic system can ever replace the value of a manual job requisition log for speed and convenience when used in conjunction with an electronic applicant tracking system. Let me explain. The goal is to get your job openings posted immediately on your electronic system in order to quickly point potential candidates to the online openings to apply. Maintaining a manual log of these openings can save significant time when the priority is to first post your positions to your website. Don't waste your time trying to get a spreadsheet or database filled in with all the information. Record the absolute necessities in a manual log first. You can go back and fill in the blanks of your manual entries in your electronic system later. It is always recommended that you keep this same data in an electronic format, but using a manual paper system to quickly record positions allows you to move on to the recruiting. A manual log is also convenient to reference while you have multiple websites open and need access to position titles, open dates, etc. for resume search boards and job posting sites.