How to Know if You Need a New ATS and Where to Find the Right One

An applicant tracking system (ATS) is a multi-functional technology tool used by a talent acquisition specialist. As with all things technology related, ATS can quickly become outdated. Newer ATS versions can sort through hundreds of applicants quickly using machine learning algorithms to sort attorney and other legal staff candidates that best match your needs.

Ideally, your ATS should be utilized through every step of the hiring practice. Recruiters and hiring managers use ATS to find qualified candidates, initiate contact, and keep information organized. Team members also use the system to offer feedback about potential candidates. The ATS system is used to schedule and follow-up interviews for the most highly qualified candidates.

Finding the right ATS and the best vendor is not as complicated as it seems. The first step is to make sure the recruiter you use specializes in legal recruiting. HiringPartner is a powerful tool that allows you to post your legal jobs to over 100 job boards including big players such as LinkedIn, LawCrossing, and Glassdoor. The ATS allows you to find the best attorneys, legal staff, and paralegals while keeping track of every step of the hiring process.

To figure out when it is time to look for a new ATS, please ask your current system the following questions:

• Does your ATS platform make the job of your legal recruiting specialist or hiring manager easier? These are the professionals that will use ATS the most, so how do they feel about your current system? Are they spending their time attempting to use multiple platforms, instead of a single platform that handles the entire recruiting and hiring process?
• Does the current ATS handle all administrative tasks related to the legal hiring process? An up-to-date ATS should either provide or easily connect to all the tools needed from posting a job to screening and background checks to generating offers of employment.
• Does the current legal applicant tracking system provide state of the art metrics and analytics? The system you are using should be able to identify what actions are resulting in successful hires of attorneys and legal support staff. The system should also provide your conversion rate and other metrics that help you determine which recruiting efforts are providing the majority of successful hires for the law firm.
• Does the ATS support fluid communication between everyone involved in the hiring process? Hiring legal staff for a law firm is a delicate process that generally requires input from numerous partners, the hiring manager, and other attorneys. ATS should facilitate ease of communication.

If you answered no to any of the above questions, it is time to consider updating your ATS. A capable ATS is essential to quick and efficient hiring, and in the fast-paced legal field, time spent on the hiring process means time away from revenue generation.

Talented and experienced attorneys, paralegals, and other legal professionals are in high demand. Bottlenecks in the recruiting process can result in losing out on the best candidates as other firms quickly snatch the best candidates.

The legal industry is quickly changing in an attempt to keep up the pace with the impact that technology is having on the world. An updated applicant tracking system is necessary to remain competitive in finding and attracting new legal talent. Having the best ATS should be a priority for every law firm.

What HiringPartner can do for your law firm

HiringPartner fills a unique niche in the legal hiring process. The company recognizes the exhorborant costs of hiring specialized outside legal recruiters that can often charge 20-30% of an attorney’s annual salary. While they can find excellent candidates, technology levels the playing field and HiringPartner can help your firm attract the same candidates at little or no cost.

Underutilizing law firm staff in a firm’s HR and the legal recruiting department is a waste of talent and money. Posting jobs, manually reviewing each resume, scheduling interviews for both internal and external candidates, and fielding phone calls and emails related to each legal job posting can tax your recruiting department. All of those things can be steamlined and handled by the ATS at HiringPartners, freeing up your recruiting department to focus on the essential tasks of networking and interacting with potential legal candidates.

HiringPartner can also help your firm project a professional image to each potential legal candidate. All applicants going through HiringPartner will then be directed to the career page on your firm’s website. Streamlining the process each legal applicant goes through gives your firm a unified and professional appearance. When recruiting across legal job boards, a legal applicant tracking system can assure that each potential legal candidate sees the same sleek and professional information about your firm.

New job sites pop up daily in the legal field, and the various ways of attracting applicants change at breakneck speed. HiringPartners are experts in legal recruitment, and the company is capable of rapidly adapting to constant change. HiringPartners takes pride in always understanding the best practices standards in legal recruitment. Their applicant tracking system, and years of experience, help each firm reduce recruiting costs and fill legal positions more quickly.

Utilizing technology through an ATS to provide your firm with the best qualified legal candidates reduces the time that positions stay open. The faster a law firm fills positions, the quicker the new hire generates revenue for the firm. HiringPartner recognizes the need to act quickly to attract the best legal candidates and allows your internal recruiters to focus on converting potential hires to new associates, partners, and other legal staff.

Without a streamlined hiring process, it can take weeks to sort through potential candidates and schedule interviews. During this delay, many of the most qualified attorneys and legal staff will assume your firm is not interested and move on to other firms that are processing potential candidates quicker. HiringPartner streamlines your hiring process, ensuring that qualified attorneys and paraprofessionals are not getting lost in the cracks of your hiring process. HiringPartner will manage candidates throughout the hiring process and inform those who are under consideration of their status. These steps will help prevent the loss of your most promising prospects to a drawn-out hiring process.

About Harrison Barnes

Harrison Barnes is the founder of BCG Attorney Search and a successful legal recruiter. Harrison is extremely committed to and passionate about the profession of legal placement. His firm BCG Attorney Search has placed thousands of attorneys. BCG Attorney Search works with attorneys to dramatically improve their careers by leaving no stone unturned in job searches and bringing out the very best in them. Harrison has placed the leaders of the nation’s top law firms, and countless associates who have gone on to lead the nation’s top law firms. There are very few firms Harrison has not made placements with. Harrison’s writings about attorney careers and placements attract millions of reads each year. He coaches and consults with law firms about how to dramatically improve their recruiting and retention efforts. His company, LawCrossing, has been ranked on the Inc. 500 twice. For more information, please visit Harrison Barnes’ bio.

About HiringPartner

HiringPartner is a data-driven recruiting and applicant tracking system. Hiring Partner delivers the intuitive, integrated management tool you need, while maximizing your attraction of top talent through our exclusive network.

There are many job boards, applicant tracking systems, and ways to recruit law firm attorneys out there—but there is only one Hiring Partner. Hiring Partner is the most powerful legal recruiting tool ever for law firms. In other words, Hiring Partner is not just an organizational tool, but also a talent magnet. For more information, please visit https://www.hiringpartner.com/