How to better manage inbound applications with Greenhouse ATS

When you post a new job requisition, there’s no doubt you’ll be flooded with inbound applications, many of which don’t match your requirements or aren’t qualified to fill the open role. 

Let’s say 1,000 applications land in your ATS. Of those, only 3-5% can be considered qualified. The problem isn’t attracting applicants, but your ability to efficiently and accurately sort through the volume to find the right talent. 

An ATS like Greenhouse can help you collect these applications, store data about every applicant, and track what’s happening with each candidate. Keep reading to learn how you can tackle your inbound problem with Greenhouse ATS.

What are inbound applications? And why are there so many now?

Inbound applications refer to job applications submitted by candidates who proactively apply for open positions. The two most common channels include company career pages or job boards such as Indeed and LinkedIn.

The practice of handling, organizing, and evaluating job applications from these sources is commonly known as inbound application management. While having an applicant tracking system (ATS) like Greenhouse is critical to effectively organizing the steady volume of inbound applications in one place, recruiting teams still struggle to tap into this channel.

Common challenges to managing inbound applications

1. Handling inbound applications: The volume of inbound applications can be too much for one recruiter, and even one recruiting team, to handle on their own. 
2. Organizing inbound applications: Recruiting teams can store inbound applications in an ATS, but data becomes outdated as soon as it's entered. Plus, most ATS systems have limited search capabilities.
3. Evaluating inbound applicants: Because of the volume of inbound applications, qualified applicants can slip through the cracks while ATS systems fill with a backlog of mismatched talent.

Together, these challenges compound to create massive headaches for recruiting teams. They waste time reviewing hundreds of inbound candidates and risk missing the best-matched candidates because their ATS lacks automatic ranking and sorting.

The clock is always ticking to fill open positions, so recruiters faced with this problem often go back to the familiar: sourcing cold candidates on LinkedIn. But there’s a better way, and it starts by making the most of the ATS you’re already using.

Greenhouse ATS: How to manage inbound applications

Greenhouse is a recruiting platform most widely known for its industry-leading ATS. On G2, Greenhouse has received a 4.4/5 rating with more than 2,300 reviews and ranks as the top choice for mid-market and enterprise companies. With an easy-to-use interface and integrations across most talent acquisition tools, it’s the ATS of choice for companies and recruiting teams alike.

These integrations enhance Greenhouse, making it a powerful tool for inbound application management. Let’s dive into the three areas where it can be most effective.

Streamlining the application review process

Out of the box, Greenhouse simplifies the manual task of sifting through inbound applications. When candidates apply for a job, Greenhouse automatically logs them in the ATS, creating a centralized location for recruiters to track and manage applicant information.

Dashboards in the ATS make it easy to view all inbound applicants in a single view and monitor the status of each candidate. When recruiters are ready to take action, Greenhouse offers specific tools to reject or move candidates forward in the recruiting process.

Greenhouse automatically parses resumes and extracts relevant information for each candidate, saving talent teams from manual data entry. Customizable filters automatically sort and rank candidates based on their qualifications and fit with specific job requirements.

Enhancing candidate engagement and experience

Greenhouse ATS is a powerful tool for candidate outreach. Recruiting teams can leverage Greenhouse’s proven email templates to send automated messages to candidates. Candidates receive timely messages from the moment they apply until they’re rejected or offered a job.

The ATS also gives talent teams access to interview scheduling solutions and consolidated feedback. This ensures hiring managers, recruiters, and the rest of the organization are on the same page before reaching out to a candidate for next steps.

Data-driven decision making

With every inbound applicant stored in Greenhouse, the ATS offers a treasure trove of data and insights directly in the platform. Recruiters can track applications over time, the time it takes to review applications, and the number of qualified candidates based on criteria built into the system.

They can also see where inbound applications are coming from, to determine the channels most popular with qualified candidates. If the careers page is creating an abundance of unqualified talent, for example, it may signal the need to update the page with proper messaging and information.

Taking inbound management to the next level with Greenhouse + Findem

While Greenhouse is a powerful ATS solution for candidate organization, outreach, and management, it’s even more effective when integrated with recruiting software like Findem.

Findem’s Copilot for Sourcing automatically generates search criteria from job descriptions when you open a requisition. It then automates search across all of your hiring channels and prioritizes best-matched inbound candidates until the role is filled. Ranking and filtering so you can focus on the best-matched, highest interest candidates first. 

When you’re ready to reach out to top candidates, you don’t have to leave the Findem platform to send an outreach email. Greenhouse email templates are available directly within Findem, so you don’t have to manage changes in two systems. 

You can take immediate action on the talent you know is the right match for the opening. Or, you can take action with those who are not a match, adding them to your CRM for nurture or thanking them politely for their interest.

Within the Findem platform, you can also pull data and insights not readily available in Greenhouse. While Greenhouse offers granular visibility into inbound applications, Findem analyzes data across all of your hiring channels to deliver a more holistic picture of which hiring channels are delivering the best leads and the most hires.

Manage the surge of inbound applications today

Integrating Greenhouse with Findem elevates your ATS, making it a more effective tool for managing inbound applications. Backed by 3D data and AI that automatically enriches and surfaces best-matched profiles in your ATS, Findem delivers the highest intent talent that can add value to your business.

Whether you’re ready to engage or not, an integration with Findem ensures you’re always putting candidate experience first. 80% of applicants who don’t hear back will never apply to your company again. With Greenhouse templates available directly in Findem, it’s easy to respond to every applicant, no matter the volume.

Explore our Copilot for Sourcing to learn how you can leverage Findem’s 3D data to make Greenhouse ATS an effective solution for inbound application management.