You’re sold on applicant tracking software and you realise the benefits that it can deliver. But now, you have to get the support of your business and backing from your MD.

When you’re armed with impressive statistics, this might seem like an easy task. However, if you’re working as part of a team who have always used traditional methods, such as spreadsheets, to track your vacancies it may prove to be harder than you first thought.

Perhaps your colleagues insist that the long-established and habitual methods of managing your recruitment process are the most reliable. Or maybe the cost of applicant tracking software strikes fear into the heart of your MD.

Whatever doubts they may have, it’s important to highlight the benefits that recruitment technology can bring to your business so they can make an informed decision.

So, how should you go about doing this? Webrecruit explores the top three points to make when convincing your MD that applicant tracking software is the way forward:

1) Increased efficiency

Applicant tracking software can not only help you to manage your vacancies more effectively, it can also decrease the requisition process and the time that it takes to sign off your vacancies.

This means that, instead of spending hours filling out unnecessary paperwork, you can spend more time on the phone talking to candidates and actually filling your vacancies. A large amount of admin work is never fun and is most likely a big annoyance amongst your team.

Additionally, having all candidate information stored in one system will allow you to access applications with ease, rather having to constantly trawl through your emails.

2) Improved reporting

If your business is currently using more traditional methods to manage your recruitment, you might be able to log your activities but how do you currently analyse your data and draw conclusions from it?

Applicant tracking software removes the stress of reporting and allows you to easily access important data to measure your progress. This is particularly important if you’re in the midst of introducing direct sourcing to your business or you’re looking to identify ways of improving efficiencies and eliminating bottlenecks in your processes.

Even the most experienced HR and in-house recruitment professionals can struggle when it comes to analysing key metrics and an ATS can reduce data-induced headaches and do the hard work for you.

3) Reduced cost

While your MD might express concerns about the initial set up cost of recruitment software, in the long-term, it has the potential to save your business a great deal of time and money.

Before taking the plunge, it’s important to consider the recruitment requirements of your business. There are several different types of HR and recruitment software, some off-the-shelf and some completely bespoke.

Whilst an off-the-shelf solution might seem like a good compromise in the short-term, if your business requirements are more complex, investing in fully tailored applicant tracking software might be the best thing to do.

Additionally, an applicant tracking system not only ensures a smoother recruitment process – it also stores candidate information, giving you access to an instant talent pool when you next need to recruit, thus driving down your overall time and cost per hire.

Managed to obtain buy-in? Find out more about Webrecruit’s recruitment software.