The first applicant tracking system (ATS) came into use in the late ’60s as a basic IBM program that allowed users to search resumes with keywords. Since then, the technology has become far more advanced, and hundreds of companies have put their own ATS versions forward.
At their core applicant tracking systems help accurately process and organize large volumes of resumes against a set of hiring requirements. Applicant tracking systems are used primarily by recruiters and human resource departments and have become so popular that the ATS market is set to grow to over $11 billion in the next 7 years.
It's a crowded market that’s only becoming more confusing to navigate each year. Each ATS platform comes with its own added features, usability benefits, etc., but we’d argue that HubSpot is one of the first platforms worth considering. Many know it as a marketing and sales platform first, but this powerful CRM can also be a highly effective recruitment tool.
To understand why, keep reading. We’ll break down key features and recruiting benefits HubSpot offers businesses and answer not only the question of “What is an applicant tracking system?” but what makes a truly effective one.
Why Use HubSpot as an ATS?
Hiring top talent is a challenge that just about every business faces. It’s not just finding great hires that’s the problem, but making sure that they don’t get missed in a sea of applications. Both tasks can be expensive and time-consuming. Thankfully, a platform like HubSpot can be highly effective in easing that burden.
Hubspot is a customer relationship management (CRM) platform that assists businesses with everything from marketing and sales management to customer service. Its automation technology, sales tracking, and customer support tools can be just as useful in a hiring context as they are when it comes to marketing.
The All-Inclusive ATS Essential
One of the main reasons why HubSpot is such a useful ATS option is that it can perform a wide variety of functions. Instead of worrying about the extra cost and headaches of adding different software platforms to your business processes, HubSpot can address multiple needs in a single place.
Think of HubSpot as a Swiss Army knife for dales, marketing, and customer service. It’s all-inclusive features also can be scaled to address application tracking needs and to help save businesses the cost of adding a separate ATS to their hiring process. However, to use HubSpot as an ATS you will need to subscribe to HubSpot Marketing Hub Pro and either Service Hub Pro or Sales Hub Pro.
If you’re unsure which HubSpot Hub would suit your needs best or how to get the most out of your existing subscription with the platform, fear not. We’re here to dive into how HubSpot works as an ATS and explain how it can improve your hiring process.
HubSpot Marketing Hub Pro as an ATS
Talent shortages are a frequent complaint across industries these days, leaving many scrambling to attract great hires before someone else does. What’s often missing from hiring strategies is a strong marketing outlook.
HubSpot Marketing Pro is a one-stop shop for all things CRM and can be used to marry both the marketing and ATS side of things for a truly potent recruitment approach:
Landing Pages
We have all seen online job ads and postings. Sadly, businesses often ignore the importance of fundamental advertising techniques when posting and tracking job openings. For example, landing pages: In any normal marketing context, an ideal landing page must have easy-to-read information to attract a target audience. Unfortunately, the power of the landing page can be overlooked in most hiring situations.
A great landing page should be a central part of engaging any target audience. So, when recruiting landing pages help engage top talent so they apply for your job openings. The benefit of using HubSpot as an ATS, specifically with a HubSpot Marketing Hub Pro membership, is that businesses can use the platform’s landing page tools and best practices to attract top talent and track engagement as well. You get all the best marketing capabilities but with a recruitment bent.
Lead Capture Forms (Applications)
In a sales context, lead capture forms are intended to capture details of potential customers so that businesses can send them marketing materials and convert them into buyers. Used as part of an ATS, they can be repurposed as online job application forms or, at the very least, contact forms that recruiters can then use to follow up.
HubSpot’s CRM provides everything businesses need to create these forms and ensures that all the data added to them is stored in a centralized database for easy accessibility. Businesses can customize forms in just about any way they like. They can ask applicants for minor details such as email addresses, as well as bigger application questions regarding experience, etc.
The benefit of this all occurring on a lead capture form is that the data is that much easier to manage and process. Instead of sifting through dozens of emails with attached resumes, for example, HubSpot provides the data in a single Excel spreadsheet that can be searched and organized.
Workflows
Whether you’re dealing with customer or applicant leads, there’s a fairly standard workflow that haunts each. Once information has been provided in an online application, there’s all the follow-up work of emailing, scheduling interviews, and updating applicants’ statuses as they move through each phase.
HubSpot’s automated workflow tools are ideal for streamlining these tasks. Though primarily designed to move leads through the sales flywheel, it also translates well to an ATS context. Consider how laborious it is to send follow-up interviews regarding interviews and manually check if applicants have confirmed for them or not. Using HubSpot as an ATS means that all that work is automated and the data stored centrally as well so that at any point, hiring managers can quickly click on and see where applicants are in the pipeline.
The structure and stability of a well-organized workflow aren’t just a time-saver, though. It can lead to better hires. There’s greater transparency, and businesses are less likely to lose hold of a great applicant simply because there wasn’t an adequate follow-up.
Social Media Integration
Depending on the target audience for a job opening, it’s likely that social media promotion could prove to be valuable. There again, using HubSpot as an ATS is highly effective. The platform makes it simple to set up social media ads for job openings, schedule when posts are published, and track engagement.
Their tools also make audience targeting easier. For example, if a business is looking for a specific age range to fulfill a job posting, HubSpot social media integrations can guarantee that the job ad is pushed primarily to that group. This kind of targeting ensures that from the start, the applications coming through are from people who fit the hiring ideals.
Email Automation
We mentioned this as part of the workflow feature on HubSpot, but it’s worth giving some dedicated attention to the email automation services the platform provides and why it works so well in an application tracking system. A crucial part of keeping applicants in the pipeline through interview rounds is the simple act of sending out personalized email follow-ups with interview reminders and application status updates.
If you’re dealing with large application volumes, that work can quickly take away from the actual task of interviewing and getting to know applicants. HubSpot’s email automation takes this off hiring managers’ desks and ensures that follow-up emails go out on time and with very little manual effort. They can also be sequenced so that as candidates complete each stage of the hiring process, the follow-up email is ready to go without a hitch.
HubSpot has easy templates to use scheduling tools and a central dashboard where all stats are visible, such as whether an email was opened, whether included links were clicked, etc. All of this helps automate applicant communication and ensures that candidates don’t get lost in the fray.
HubSpot Service Hub Pro as an ATS
While HubSpot Marketing Hub Pro is primarily an inbound marketing tool, HubSpot Service Hub Pro is focused more on customer service and relationships.
Taking care of applicants and their queries is its own kind of service and one that, with the right tools, can yield big rewards. Here are some of the main ways that HubSpot Service Hub Pro can be used as an ATS to help hook great talent and keep track of them:
Ticketing System
When asking, “What is in ATS?” the first thing you’ll always hear is that it’s software that makes applications easier to track. It’s the crux of any good ATS, and HubSpot manages to deliver with its ticketing system. In a traditional customer service environment, HubSpot’s ticketing feature is used to keep track of customer queries. From the moment a customer interacts with a business’s support desk, HubSpot creates an automated “ticket” or document that will go on to hold that customer’s proverbial case file.
The HubSpot Service Hub Pro ticketing tool also stores applicant details, thus allowing for easier tracking of their status throughout recruitment. The way data is stored on HubSpot’s ticketing tool means that a candidate’s interactions with the hiring manager, as well as their details and resume, all live in one place for easy access and later referencing.
Pipeline Management
HubSpot’s pipeline management software allows users to visualize the sales cycle, or in this case, the “hiring cycle,” and customize each step of the pipeline to keep candidates engaged. Each stage of recruitment hits on different operational touchpoints. There’s the initial application submission, then interview rounds, follow-up queries, reference checks, and the possibility of a final rejection or offer. It’s easy to lose great candidates in this process if they’re not dealt with properly.
Managing things through HubSpot’s pipeline management makes it far easier to tailor each of these steps to the candidates while still maintaining a birds-eye view of the whole recruitment process. If there’s a candidate who requires some added negotiation to attract, or perhaps a delay on one candidate’s interview that will impact the overall recruitment timeframe, pipeline management makes it far easier to keep hold of everything in one place. Ultimately, this makes it easier to juggle multiple applicants without losing touch with the exceptional ones.
Automation
Automated ticketing, applicant support chats, and workflows are central to why using HubSpot Pro as an ATS is so beneficial. There’s also automated contact sequencing, which allows businesses to build a sequence for each applicant that sets off automated actions depending on where they are in a sequence.
For example, businesses can set up automated “thank you” emails once a candidate has submitted their application. This then moves them over to the “consideration” phase of the sequence, whereby a different action is triggered depending on whether they’re approved for an interview or rejected based on their resumé. HubSpot’s strength is how easily programmable its automation software is – making it especially easy to adjust to a business’s individual recruiting needs.
Automation like this is at the heart of modern application tracking systems. It ensures greater efficiency, makes applicants feel more cared for, and helps keep the entire recruitment process running more smoothly.
Knowledge Base
Candidates will always have questions, and with bigger application pools, those questions can become deafening. Hiring managers trying to sift through resumés are forced to weed through queries on interview timelines, company policies on EEO, etc. Not being able to answer these questions might mean missing out on a strong candidate, but trying to keep up can grind recruitment to a halt.
The solution to this lies in the creation of a knowledge base, which HubSpot makes particularly simple. They have tools in place to create and customize an FAQ and resources page that can be used to answer common candidate questions and keep HR’s inbox a little clearer.
Businesses can also track engagement through HubSpot to see which help articles or FAQ points are getting the most clicks. This can provide insight into what candidates are most concerned about and possible improvements the knowledge base might need.
HubSpot Sales Hub Pro as an ATS
As its title suggests, HubSpot Sales Hub Pro is all about sales support, which, as we’ll show, is also what makes it so useful as an applicant tracking system. It has many of the same features as HubSpot Service Hub Pro but with a greater focus on sales rather than customer support. Let’s take a closer look:
Deal Pipeline Management
On the Sales Hub’s pipeline management software, candidates are managed as “deals” rather than “tickets”. Besides this, the main difference compared to the Service Hub is that it’s easier to integrate deal “properties” such as candidate skills, the roles they’ve applied for, interview feedback, etc., and use that to automate where they fall in the pipeline. If certain software skills are necessary to clinch an interview and an applicant doesn’t have them, the pipeline management tool will note that and keep them from progressing, thus saving hirers time and energy.
Regardless of which HubSpot platform a business uses, the benefits of their pipeline management remain largely the same. It allows hiring managers to build a full picture of the recruitment pipeline and easily track where applicants fall on it and where they’re headed next. This ensures that effort is only put into the “deals” (read: candidates) that meet the necessary criteria. It’s also one of the primary features of a strong ATS – that it processes applications with minimal manual intervention needed, especially in the early stages.
Using HubSpot as an ATS with Sales or Service Hub
Email Sequences
We’ve mentioned a few times in this article already that Hubspot offers email sequencing and automation software, but it’s worth reiterating just how useful the software is in a recruitment context. So much administrative time usually gets wasted on follow-up emails chasing candidates for necessary documents or reminding them about interviews. Email sequencing takes all that work away while also making it much easier to track engagement.
Businesses don’t have to wonder if a candidate bothered to open their interview invite email. They can see it on HubSpot’s dashboard. They can also see if follow-ups are operating as needed and if further optimization is required to keep candidates engaged. It’s also worth noting that any responses to emails are also then kept in a central database, which further assists with the organizational side of recruitment.
Task Automation
Recruitment is a lengthy, administrative-heavy process. This is especially apparent when hiring managers break down the list of tasks that need to be fulfilled just for an applicant to reach the interview stage, let alone be offered the job.
Using HubSpot as an ATS gives businesses access to their programmable automation tools, such as task automation. The platform allows users to create task queues that ensure the timely completion of things with automated reminders and follow-ups regarding interview scheduling, reference checks, and offer letter submissions.
Attention to detail is a crucial part of good hiring practices. If a business takes too long to make an offer or accidentally skips a reference check, the consequences can be massive. It’s why an ATS platform like HubSpot that offers task automation is so beneficial.
Meeting Scheduler
HubSpot’s meeting scheduler is a game-changer for overrun hiring teams. It syncs directly with recruiters’ calendars to avoid double bookings, makes it easy to customize meeting links for each stage (such as screening calls versus panel interviews), and has an option for calls to happen through the HubSpot platform so that recordings are accessible from a central place. HubSpot also keeps a record of calls made so that it’s easy to see where an applicant is in the process and how much time has been given to them.
Another feature to note with HubSpot’s meeting scheduler is that recruiters can use it to send out booking links. This means that instead of a time-consuming back and forth on when their schedule aligns, they can just see a recruiter’s availability directly and slot in. The same can be done with a scheduling page that candidates can be given access to on a business’s website.
HubSpot as an ATS Reporting Platform
Here’s an overview of what HubSpot can offer in terms of ATS reporting:
Time-to-Hire
HubSpot’s service hub allows businesses to track the average time it takes to fill a position and identify bottlenecks that may be slowing things down.
Source of Hire or Applicant
The Marketing Hub is particularly useful for tracking different recruitment channels. The platform can generate reports showing if clicks came primarily through a web page, social media ad, or email link, which in turn helps recruiters allocate resources to the most productive sources.
Candidate Pipeline
The pipeline software available on both HubSpot Sales and HubSpot Service provides an overview of the recruitment process and the stage each candidate is at. This allows businesses to see where candidates perhaps drop off and to note any patterns with the ones that last throughout.
Cost-Per-Hire
The marketing hub will phrase it as a “cost-per-sale”, but it’s nonetheless applicable to a hiring context. HubSpot can show just how much hiring a new employee costs, especially in ad spend.
Recruiter Performance
The Service and sales hub tracks everything from the moment a ticket or deal is logged, including which recruiter handled each. Reporting on this then gives businesses insight into how long recruiters took to fill a position, the number of hires, and even candidate satisfaction by the end. This information can hugely strengthen recruiting efforts and help motivate teams to get even better at what they do.
HubSpot Onboarding for Your HubSpot ATS
Integrating an ATS into a hiring approach has many benefits, but it’s not without its challenges. Businesses often find that what keeps them from implementing the technology isn’t that it doesn’t work but that onboarding is too tricky.
Here are some of the key ATS onboarding difficulties that businesses tend to face and how HubSpot helps eliminate many of them:
- Integrating with Existing Software:
Poor integration is a major problem that many have with ATS platforms. HubSpot, however, can be used alongside existing ATS or marketing software for a fully integrated experience. This makes for a much smoother implementation process. - Limited Onboarding Approaches:
HubSpot has multiple plans and onboarding approaches that allow businesses to tailor the process to their needs so that they get the most out of it. - Scaling with Business Growth:
HubSpot has various sub-platforms and memberships that are each scalable, but getting the best from them requires sticking to the tools most relevant to your recruitment needs. That way, onboarding is less likely to get bogged down by unnecessary features. - The Need for Technical and Strategic Guidance:
HubSpot has strong technical guidance and help articles to help businesses implement and get full use of the platform’s tools, be they for marketing or recruitment. This makes it far easier to overcome the initial technical barriers that might hinder onboarding and ensure that businesses get to experience HubSpot CRM’s full potential for candidate management, workflow automation, and tracking metrics.
Overall Benefits of Using HubSpot as an ATS
Using HubSpot as an ATS empowers businesses to manage, track, and measure the entire hiring process. Here are some of the advantages it brings:
Attract Top Talent
It’s one of the key benefits of an ATS, and HubSpot’s easy social media integration, landing page tools, and automated email systems are what make it so effective on this issue of attracting top talent. So much of good recruitment is getting job ads into the hands of the target demographic and having strong enough marketing tools in place to attract an application. That’s exactly where using HubSpot as an ATS shines most.
Reduce time-to-hire
Repetitive tasks such as social media ads, meeting schedules, and follow-up emails can all be automated through HubSpot’s platforms. The advantage of this is that HR and recruitment teams aren’t as distracted with administrative burdens and run a much faster hiring mission as a result.
Cost Efficiency
The above-mentioned automation that HubSpot has saves on labor needed for recruitment while also boosting efficiency. This, in turn, means a far lower cost-per-hire than if everything was done manually. Using HubSpot also means that businesses get both the benefits of an ATS and a marketing CRM from a singular platform, which again reduces spending.
Ensure Compliance
The data tracking and centralized records that HubSpot keeps throughout email sequences and ticketing ensure a much more transparent hiring process. This has major compliance benefits.
Employment laws and regulations often require that records be kept in case of inquiries, but there are also candidates to keep in mind. If they ask for information on their application status, HubSpot makes that easy to check and provide.
Data-Driven Decisions
Using HubSpot as an application tracking system doesn’t just mean that all relevant information is stored properly but that it’s more easily available for analytics and reporting. Businesses can use the platform to see customized reports that reflect the recruitment process and get greater insights into improving their approach and maximizing results.
In Conclusion
HubSpot is an ideal applicant tracking system for any business looking for an ATS that goes the extra mile without requiring extra effort or spending. The automation tools, job ad tracking, reporting, and pipeline management on HubSpot ensure that businesses get a fully streamlined hiring process.
If you’re curious about how the CRM can be leveraged to meet your recruitment needs, click here for a free consultation with a member of our team.
