Building Influence as an ATS Champion Key Actions for TA Leaders
Al Sabah |MyNextHire | March 5, 2025
Al Sabah |MyNextHire | March 5, 2025
In today's competitive talent landscape, having the right technology can make all the difference in recruiting success. Yet implementing an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) is only half the battle – the real challenge lies in driving organization-wide adoption and maximizing its potential. As a Talent Acquisition leader, your role as an ATS champion can significantly impact your team's effectiveness and your organization's hiring outcomes.
Before diving into the "how," let's understand the "why." Championing your ATS isn't just about promoting software; it's about:
Action step: Create a simple one-page document that maps specific ATS capabilities to business outcomes relevant to different departments.
Rather than attempting a full-scale rollout immediately, identify departments with:
Action step: Identify 1-2 departments for your pilot, establish clear success metrics, and create a communication plan to share wins.
Every organization has ATS skeptics. Rather than avoiding them, identify the most influential resisters and:
Action step: Map out the top three skeptics in your organization and develop a personalized engagement plan for each.
Raw ATS data rarely inspires action. Effective champions transform metrics into compelling narratives that drive decisions:
Action step: Create monthly "hiring intelligence" reports that share insights (not just metrics) derived from your ATS data.
Sustainable influence requires more than one champion. Identify and nurture allies across:
Provide these champions with special training, early access to new features, and recognition for their support. Together, you'll create a powerful network that amplifies your message.
Action step: Host a monthly "champion roundtable" where your allies can share successes, address challenges, and learn about upcoming features.
For both yourself and your team, explicitly connect ATS championship to professional development:
Michael Rodriguez, VP of Talent at Techstar Solutions, notes: "My promotion from Director to VP was largely built on the documented ROI of our ATS implementation. By quantifying the 62% reduction in time-to-hire and $1.2M in recruiting cost savings, I transformed a technical project into a strategic business initiative."
Action step: Create a "value delivered" document that tracks all measurable improvements since ATS implementation, and update it monthly.
Focus on metrics that matter to the C-suite: cost-per-hire, time-to-productivity, and quality of hire improvements. Whenever possible, express benefits in actual dollar values rather than percentages.
Identify their specific pain points and customize training to address them. Often, resistance comes from fear of complexity – demonstrate how the ATS simplifies rather than complicates their work.
Create friendly competition by publishing department-level adoption metrics. Recognition for teams with high engagement can reignite momentum across the organization.
As your influence grows, your role evolves from promoting a system to becoming a strategic talent advisor who:
Building influence as an ATS champion isn't about technical expertise – it's about connecting technology to business value, solving real problems for stakeholders, and consistently demonstrating the impact of your solution. By following these key actions, you'll not only drive successful ATS adoption but also elevate your strategic position within your organization.
Remember: technology changes quickly, but the principles of influence remain consistent. Focus on delivering and communicating value, and your position as an ATS champion will continue to strengthen over time.
As you build your influence as an ATS champion, don't limit yourself to just one solution. Forward-thinking TA leaders should explore innovative platforms like the MyNextHire app, which offers complementary features that can further enhance your recruitment ecosystem. With its intuitive mobile interface and specialized candidate engagement tools, MyNextHire can address gaps in your current ATS while providing additional data points for your hiring intelligence reports. Taking the initiative to evaluate emerging technologies demonstrates your commitment to continuous improvement and positions you as an innovation leader within your organization.