“Lessons Learned” for a Smooth ATS-Background Screening Integration

An ATS-background screening integration streamlines the initiation of the employment screening process, improves your recruiting and human resource teams’ productivity, accelerates time to hire, and provides a superior candidate experience. It is important that the integration of these two systems runs smoothly and efficiently.

Cisive has worked for many years with the leading ATS providers and our integration team has compiled five “lessons learned” to ensure a smooth ATS-background screening integration. We’re happy to share these tips with you!

1. Know your internal processes

Oftentimes stakeholders involved in the integration process may not have the full picture of what is involved in the recruiting and hiring process. It is important to invite and/or collect feedback from all teams such as recruiters, compliance, HR managers, legal, finance, etc. For instance, workflows may have too many unnecessary or repetitive steps. Applicants have to provide information to your screening provider, as the applicant tracking solution (ATS) does not feed over all of their data.  You want to avoid forcing applicants to re-enter previously provided information. Finance would like to have invoices separated by the cost center, department, or location, but this information is not collected by the ATS or background screening provider without planning.

2. Know your previous and current pain points

Lessons learned are important to a smooth integration. Below are some questions your team should have the answers to before moving forward:

• Are there common issues that client users have to deal with on daily basis?
• Have job applicants provided feedback on items that could improve the candidate experience?
• Are there additional manual steps that users have to jump through to compensate for inefficiencies or gaps in the ATS/HRIS?
• Do recruiters have access to all information needed in the ATS or do they have to log in and out of multiple systems to fully understand what stage an applicant is currently in?
• Will additional email notifications help to keep users updated on the progress?
• Has a single sign-on approach previously been considered?

3. Validation rules

ATSs do not always enforce validation rules for applicants to provide required, accurate data for background screening purposes. Some examples are dates of residence history and proper match of city/state/zip code. Companies should review data that is collected from applicants. Applicants may be asked to provide too little or too much of the data that is not required for background checks. There could be room for improvement; candidate experience with the ATS is part of the overall hiring process. Companies should not lose great talent to their competition just because applicants are discouraged and overwhelmed with the application process. For instance,

• Do applicants have to provide personally identifiable information (PII)?
• Are you sure your company is protected from possible discrimination claims if recruiters, HR or hiring managers are exposed to applicants’ PII?
• Should applicants be asked to provide employment and education history when only criminal record searches on residential addresses are being conducted?
• Are you requesting salary history while some states are passing legislation barring employers from requesting applicants’ salary history?

Discuss best practices with your ATS and background check providers and continue to invest in improving the candidate experience.

4. Select ATS integration package wisely

ATSs may offer many different solutions and packages. Please consider implementing only what you need; do not be “a kid in a candy store.” Package deals may offer your company features that users will never need but the company will pay for in a form of monthly or annual fees. Over-customization may bring more disadvantages than advantages to your processes. Consider discussing additional features with your background check provider instead.

5. Discuss customer support in post-deployment stages

It is a common practice for ATSs to use consultants from other companies for implementation processes. Some questions you should ask your ATS provider or your consultant/systems integrator before your company signs a contract are:

• What happens once the ATS integration goes live?
• Who will support your company’s account?
• Does the ATS have all of the documentation to be able to assist during post-deployment monitoring or future change management processes or does this documentation remain with the consultant?
• Do you have a designated representative to your account?

To learn more about how to efficiently integrate your ATS and background screening solutions, read Cisive’s informative white paper, How to Improve Efficiency and Candidate Experience by Integrating Your ATS and Employment Background Screening Solution.

Click here for more information on Cisive’s completely flexible HR technology platform, call 1-866-557-5984 to speak with an onboarding specialist or visit www.cisive.com.

 

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