This is going to sound crazy to the old guard enterprise software enthusiasts out there. Ready? It’s not about more features anymore. The game has changed. The features arms race is dead. More features is increasingly taking a backseat to better functionality, a close relative of usability. This is where user adoption comes into play, a concept that’s become the focal point of the business software industry. The less features an application has, the less confusing it is and consequently, more people are willing to use it. There’s a concept – people other than just recruiters actually using applicant tracking software and not just finding ways to work around it.
What we’ve learned is that when recruiting software achieves something valuable without being distracting or requiring hours of training, only then will it live up to its potential (those enterprise guys call this concept “return on investment”). Let’s face it: it’s usually harder to do simple things exceedingly well, than to just pile up features. The 80/20 rule applies here too: do well what 80 percent of your users do all the time, and you’ll create a good user experience that promotes user adoption. That’s the goal isn’t it?
Here are some tips that we put together regarding promoting adoption for applicant tracking software. These concepts can be applied to just about any technology.
Say goodbye to the age of more features. Say hello to the age of the killer usability.
Here are 7 tips for promoting applicant tracking software user adoption
1. Your users don’t care about the technology. What counts is what it does for them.
2. Forget about that one killer feature. Say hello to the age of the killer user-experience.
3. No one likes software training. Any ATS that requires extensive training will only be adopted by a small number of users
4. Avoid confusion. Its a deal-breaker.
5. Remember, only features that provide a good user experience will be used.
6. The 80/20 rule applies to user adoption. Choose an ATS that does well what 80 percent of your company does all the time.
7. Shop for usability. You won’t make ATS software easier to adopt by shopping for the most features.
