ATS and Social Networks

At Pan Eight, we are big fans of Ning. Our Collabor8 community is developed on the Ning Platform as it provides an easy and rapid way of implementing and growing your own social network and community.

Ning powers thousands of groups, including some on recruitment marketing and technology like RecruitingBlogs.com, Jobboarders and TalentBar, as well as The Talent Cloud.

In using the Ning platform and those sites, there are some things that applicant tracking system (ATS) providers can take away- here are some of things that all ATS solution vendors should be thinking about today:

1. Single Sign-On
Once you have a Ning login, it works across all the Ning-powered social networks you want to join and participate in. This would be great for ATS providers to adopt - so if you have a Taleo login, you can more easily apply for jobs from any Taleo client, the same for StepStone and so on. Obviously, an even more universal login like OpenID or TypeKey would be even better. But off-course, there would be many objections to this, such as:

The Employer - "I don't want to share my candidates with other companies!" Not a problem, the job seeker's profile (and CV if applicable) would only be activated when he or she explicitly chooses to share it with each specific company that uses the ATS.

- Who is doing this today? JobScore and Standout Jobs already are using universal logins across all their clients, and JobScore even offers the community recruiting concept described above.

2. Web 2.0 concepts and direction
Web 2.0 is about social collaboration and networking. Ning provides a great way to connect members of networks, plus lots of simple ways for users to start their own networks. While we don't see this viral loop occurring in online recruiting, we feel that job seekers need more ways to connect with companies, and recruiters need more ways to broadcast their opportunities. While almost every ATS now has a "tell a friend" link for each job, that's simply not enough. – especially in today’s on-demand, collaborative world.

- Who is doing this today?? Have a look at Jobvite, which involves all employees in the recruiting process by empowering them to share opportunities with their network (and those recipients with their contacts - sounds viral?). It's about building an internal talent network - not just posting jobs and waiting for resumes. Also, Standout Jobs is the only ATS I know of that allows job seekers to comment (and the company to comment back) on job pages.

3. Customisation is About Product, Not Implementation
Typically, ATS implementations have customisation phases, after which the company has to undertake a separate project to make any changes to their system. While that made sense 10 (or maybe even five) years ago, there should be more flexibility now in what companies can add (and subtract) from their ATS systems. When we talk to some clients about candidate source tracking, they either say they broke their tracking in the customisation phase, or they don't want to pay more to add it. If you look at Ning, it supports gadgets (including Google's OpenSocial) that network owners (and even members) can use to add features on the fly, rather than as a separate development project.

- Who is doing this? Standout Jobs again in this point, as it allows its ATS clients to add a bulletin board, videos, photos, employee bios, polls, a blog and more to their career sites as part of the core product.

The power of the internet and Web 2.0 concepts is within grasp of every recruiter, recruitment agency or talent management team. For very little, or sometimes zero cost – we can all embrace new technology innovations and help attract top talent to your organisations.

If you would like to discuss the concepts, principles or direction highlighted within this article, feel free to contact Pan Eight Consulting.