To attract new talent, you’re going to need a new approach. When schools limit their recruiting window to a predetermined “hiring season,” they also limit the number of qualified, value-aligned candidates they can reach. That’s why the most innovative schools have moved from a hiring mindset to a recruitment mindset. In a recruitment mindset, schools actively pursue top talent year-round, regardless of current openings, to build their own candidate pool.
Hiring mindset:
A focus on hiring only in response to currently open positions, interest in connecting with potential applicants exclusively when positions become available.
Recruitment mindset:
An openness to connecting with promising potential candidates at any time, proactively looking for promising educators, developing a network, and cultivating a pool of possible candidates.
Shifting to a recruitment mindset can help you create a more robust candidate pool and reach previously untapped talent. But connecting with candidates year-round raises an important question: How do you manage all of the new applications?
An applicant tracking system (ATS) is an electronic platform that allows organizations to create a central database of applicant information and manage the recruitment and hiring processes. ATSs can help to reduce recruiting expenses, save administrative work, and make your recruiting and hiring process run more efficiently and effectively. An ATS plays an important role in streamlining aspects of your hiring process and managing the increased volume of candidates that comes with adopting a recruitment mindset.
Role of technology platform in supporting a recruiting mindset
| Enables Shift to Sustained Recruitment Activity | Manages Increase in New Candidates |
| Platform reduces administrative burden on hiring manager, provides time to focus on recruiting efforts | Increased recruiting efforts lead to influx of candidates, larger talent pool |
| Captures candidate information, tracks leads, matches past candidates to current job openings | Technology platform ensures incoming talent is appropriately captured, tracked |
While all applicant tracking systems offer unique combinations of features, a good ATS allows you to build candidate profiles, standardize and track communication with candidates, manage multiple workflows, keep records of promising current and future candidates in one central location, and generate reports using data from the hiring process.
Benefits of using an applicant tracking system
| Centralizes Information | Streamlines Hiring Process | Creates Candidate Database |
| Allows for stakeholders to easily access information about candidates, process | Reduces administrative work related to consolidating information, data entry, logistics | Stores information about applicants, prospective candidates including resumes, interactions, information collected during interviews |
| Increases visibility into hiring trends, allows for increased data analysis | Creates formal process steps ensuring consistent candidate experience |
There is no shortage of applicant tracking systems available on the market. In determining which one is right for you, it’s important to consider available features and how they align with your hiring priorities. To see how one partner school uses an applicant tracking system to streamline and support their hiring process, check out the first installment in our Hiring Top Talent webconference series, “Laying the Foundation for Effective Hiring.”
As you begin your search for the right ATS, consider the following applicant tracking systems, which work with or within popular HR systems in independent schools. This is by no means an exhaustive list, nor do we specifically endorse one platform, but this gives an overview of platforms that we heard about most frequently throughout our research.
Integrated systems
If your school already uses iSolved or Paycom for your larger HR platform, the following two applicant tracking systems are offered as a part of their larger technology suites.
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iSolved Hire
For schools already using iSolved for their HR needs, iSolved Hire provides an ideal ATS solution. iSolved Hire allows you to instantly push job postings to over 600 job boards, store job descriptions for future updates and duplication, manage multiple workflows, communicate with candidates through integration with GSuite, build email templates for each stage of the hiring process, tag candidates for future roles, and create a candidate database.
Additionally, iSolved Hire offers you a library of pre-built standard reports to analyze your school’s recruiting and hiring process or custom reports to cater to your specific needs.
Assess candidates on what matters most
Watch part II of our webconference series to creating an evidence-based hiring process.
get the recording and slidesPaycom Talent Acquisition
For schools already using Paycom for their HR needs, Paycom Talent Acquisition offers a wide range of ATS features. Paycom’s Talent Acquisition products allow you to track time to hire, identify the most effective recruiting sites, distribute job openings to free and fee job board accounts, and develop customized reports.
The Candidate Tracker tool focuses on turning passive potential candidates into members of your candidate pool. Paycom helps you build a customized database of applicants and enables easy searching by qualities like degree, zip code, skill set, and employer.
Standalone systems
If your school doesn’t use iSolved or Paycom, this section outlines two popular standalone ATS options. It’s worth noting that while both systems can work independently from any existing HR platform, they are also designed to integrate with ADP Workforce Now.
ApplicantStack
ApplicantStack allows you to score and rate candidates, manage multiple workflows, customize email templates, send and receive emails from candidates, and store candidate profiles in one central location. It also gives you the ability to run reports on different elements of the hiring process.
Schools using ADP Workforce Now can seamlessly shift ApplicantStack hires to the payroll platform at the time of their choosing.
ApplicantStack advertises itself as an affordable option–with pricing ranging from $95-$135/month depending on whether you purchase recruiting services, onboarding services, or a bundled package.
Hear how your peers hire top talent
The Pingry School joined EAB to provide an in-depth look at their priority-focused interview schedule.
get the recording and slidesiCIMS Recruit
As with ApplicantStack, iCIMS Recruit works both as a standalone ATS and an integrated platform with ADP Workforce Now. iCIMS offers a bi-directional connector that allows schools to work across the iCIMS Recruit and ADP Workforce Now platforms.
iCIMS Recruit allows you to tailor and manage workflows, integrate scheduling with current calendaring tools, communicate with candidates through bulk actions, and automate job postings to popular and niche job boards. It also offers robust reporting capacity for a closer look at the sources and efficiencies in your hiring process.
You can still have a recruitment mindset without an ATS
An applicant tracking system isn’t the only way to track data. If your school isn’t prepared to invest in an ATS yet, use our Faculty Hiring Data Compendium to centrally collect hiring data, select metrics to measure during the hiring process, and compile and analyze the data prior to the next hiring cycle.
