Internal Resume Database Builder vs ATS. What do I need?

Before giving this a read, please do check out the articles in the series, What is an Internal Resume Database?, Why build an Internal Resume Database?, and How to build/maintain an Internal Resume Database?, if you haven’t already.

In this article, we address the million-dollar question, “Am I looking for an ATS or an Internal Resume Database Builder (IRDB)?”

To answer that question, let us first try to reasonably define ATSs and Internal Resume Database Builders and outline what they do.

ATS or Applicant Tracking System: It is software that is designed to make the recruitment process as organized and efficient as possible. And as the name suggests, it tracks the flow of a candidate application from start to the end of the hire. As a consequence, it typically includes features like creating jobs on the system, posting of jobs to job boards, adding/organizing the candidate applications received into jobs, moving candidates down the funnel, scheduling interviews, sending out tests, automating common tasks, improving the candidate experience, and so on. It definitely helps organize the recruitment workflow and save time wherever possible. The focus of an ATS is always on building a highly-optimized hiring process. Its success is usually measured by how much time was saved during the entire process. Simply put, it is a process management solution.

IRDB or Internal Resume Database Builder: It is software that acts as another candidate sourcing channel. Like any candidate sourcing channel, its job is to build and maintain a database of candidates and be highly accessible/searchable. Naturally, its features are similar to those of standard sourcing channels like external candidate databases. Its most defining features include automatically creating and organizing the candidate database, making it highly accessible with a fast and accurate search engine (to find the right candidates at the right time), and finally keeping the database active (having as many up-to-date resumes as possible) with email campaign drives to engage with candidates and find their most recent career developments. This system’s success is measured by the number of successful hires made from the internal database. The Internal Resume Database Builder can be viewed as a content management solution.

Now that we are clear on the role each system plays, it is much easier to answer the question, “Do I need an ATS or an IRDB?”

Simply ask yourself, “Am I looking to optimize/organize my recruitment process or am I looking to use my internal resume database as another sourcing channel?”

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