An ERP system is a collection of numerous applications that are inter connected together to share the same database, thus reducing errors, and aiding information flow, and faster access to information among the various units in an organisation. The dwindling economic situations experience in most parts of the world with its attendant high job loss has placed a huge demands on the labour markets and human resources practitioners, thus increasing their job load by having to sort through thousands, and even tens of thousands of applications whenever there are few openings.

This challenge has led to the need of an application commonly known as an Applicant Tracking System. An Applicant Tracking System (ATS) or Candidate Tracking System is software application that organisations uses to shortlist applicants for a position based on some keywords inputted. ATS as an application has been known to have been in existence for close to two decade now, but gained wide popularity in 1998/1999. ATS software exists either as paid or free, that is open source that can be downloaded free from the internet.

An ATS application is a multi functional applications use mainly by recruiters to make the entire recruiting process less cumbersome. Some of its features includes the ability to post openings on an organisation corporate website, screen the resumes sent in by applicants based on some keywords, sends out interview requests via email to shortlisted applicants etc. The desire of every organisation is to be able to have unhindered access to data/information that top management can make use in taking quality decision that would propel the organisation higher.

It is a known fact that it is the desire of every applicant to work for a blue chip firm, a multi-national organisation. This has in a way make the recruitment process in big organisations more cumbersome, owing to the large number of applications they receives. ERP systems implementations are known to be highly capital intensive , that can only be afforded by large organisations. Incorporation Applicant tracking in ERP would help increase greatly the efficiency of the recruitment process. A lot of ERP vendors have incorporated an applicant tracking system in the human resources module of their ERP.

Below are 7 of the most common features that are part of applicant tracking in ERP.

Website Integration:

A lot of applicant tracking systems has a website incorporated into them, that allows applicants to enter their details into a customisation online application. Once this is completed, the resumes submitted are screened based on the selected keywords. The result from this are saved in a database for future purpose. Also some ATS contains features that allows job openings to be published in the organisation website, external job portals or on social media platform.

Candidate Screening and Ranking:

This feature allow an applicant resume to be screened based on the keywords defined in the ATS, and applicants are ranked based on how their resume based on how well they performed during the screening process. Multilingual Capabilities: A lot of ATS are multilingual in nature. They have the ability to extract needed information from a candidate resume irrespective of the language such a resume is written with.

Parsing:

This is another feature that is common among ATS found in an ERP. Parsing allows an ATS software to extract needed information from an applicant profile, which would be used to populate certain field in the organisation database, thus reducing human error and saving time via the process.

Email Integration:

This is another feature that is common among applicant tracking system in ERP. This allows the ATS to integrate with email providers like gmail, and outlook. With this functionality, the recruiter can have direct access to his mails thus allowing him to work faster.

Recruitment and Job Advertisement:

ATS has the ability to handle all activities during the recruitment process, starting from the application process to the hiring process. Some ATM includes a module that automatically informs applicants of the receipt of their applications, and also when such applicant application has been rejected owing to the inability of such application to meet certain criteria defined by the ATS.

Efficient Collaboration, and Messaging:

Information sharing among recruiting staff is vital during the recruitment process. Most ATM allows for efficient and seamless sharing of information throughout the hiring process. Mail merge feature is equally supported, thus making it possible for a hiring manager to send a single mail to many candidates at a time.

Applicant Tracking System generally has become a necessity in this fast paced world we live it. They bring a lot of efficiency in the recruitment process. Having an applicant tracking in ERP would help such firm to make less mistake in their recruitment process.