3 ATS reports you need

Are you getting to grips with an ATS reporting suite and trying to establish which 3 ATS reports you really need to be using?

When you first start using your new ATS, it can be overwhelming to see the amount of reporting features available.

While volume will vary amongst Applicant Tracking Systems, there are some essential reporting tools that should come as standard.

We offer a range of standard and bespoke reports as well as industry-leading tools such as data visualisation.

It’s important that your ATS supplier can provide you with a full suite of reporting tools that collate candidate and job data.

Reports can help you to evaluate your processes and measure the success of your recruitment campaigns. But which 3 should be your focus?

ATS Report Number 1:  Time to Hire

Time to hire provides metrics to best measure the efficiency of your hiring process.

It does this by measuring one of two key parameters – the time to hire from when the job was first created or from when the job went live.

If you notice the time between the job being created and it going live is particularly long, it could mean there are inefficiencies in your vacancy approval process.

In another instance, you may notice that some vacancies take longer to fill than others.

This could demonstrate a need to review your recruitment strategy for particular roles.

Reducing your time to hire can provide a better experience for your team and your candidates.

One way of doing this could be by automating administrative tasks, as StepChange Debt Charity did using the Hireserve ATS interview scheduler tool.

ATS Report Number 2: Source Reporting

To measure the effectiveness of your campaigns you need to know where the candidates are applying from.

Which platforms are your strongest candidates using? Are job boards producing high levels of applicants for you? Is your careers site the prime source of top talent?

Source reporting can answer those questions in a couple of ways. Your ATS may integrate with Google Analytics or capture information from the “source” field on candidate application forms, or free text questions (such as ‘Where did you hear about us?’).

This level of information and reporting should be able to tell you the best and worst performing sources of candidates.

This can help focus your spend and resources for future recruitment campaigns.

ATS Report Number 3: Section statistics

This report provides you with real insight into how your application forms are performing.

A valuable feature of section statistic reports is the ability to show you who started an application but didn’t complete it.

This will highlight which specific points of the form those candidates dropped off.

You can then determine whether an application process is too long or giving your candidates too many hoops to jump through.

Understanding your ATS reports

The three ATS reports we’ve highlighted can shed light on areas of your internal processes or application experience.

They provide you with the information you need to make tangible changes to save money, reduce time needed and enhance both candidates’ and colleagues’ experience.

Your Applicant Tracking System may come with a comprehensive reporting suite, but unless you know how to articulate that data you might find it tricky to distinguish which metrics hold the true value.

The best point of call is always your supplier. They’ll be able to support you with additional training to help you get the best out of your system’s reports.

Some Applicant Tracking Systems offer more bespoke reporting options, like our Report Builder, where you can create customisable reports. Or data visualisation, where you can bring your reports to life with intuitive charts, graphs and more.

With the right support and training, you don’t need to be a code breaker to unlock the information and insights from your ATS data.

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