Fast Implementation

Get Started Sooner

A typical installation of an applicant tracking system has historically been in the range of three weeks to six months. Why, in this tech savvy age are we faced with such long implementation roll outs… with uncertain results at the end? In our view, there are simply not enough unique requirements for recruitment that necessitate months or a year in setup time!

Now, current technologies allow the StartDate ATS to be implemented in a matter of days.Configurations can be made on the fly within the system and typical installations take around 3-4 business days from start to finish, depending on delivery of necessary materials.

Branded Careers Page

The simplest and most popular solution is to have a StartDate hosted careers page, with your website linking to this page. Your logo will appear at the top, and the colour scheme is branded with your company colour. The text is styled using your own website’s CSS to match your website’s look and feel.

A more customizable solution is to use our provided XML or JSON feed to display your jobs within your own website. While this solution requires more technical knowledge and time to implement, it allows for full customization of how and where the job postings are displayed.

Training & Support

HireGround offers training webinars or phone calls to walk new users through the system. StartDate’s intuitive interface makes it very easy to understand, so training sessions are typically less than an hour. If there are any questions or concerns once you’ve started using the system, we are always happy to help. See more about HireGround’s personal approach.

Cloud-based

HireGround’s StartDate Applicant Tracking Software is offered as a SaaS (Software as a Service)based solution or hosted model. This means we host the software, perform updates and maintenance, as well as back up and store your data. There’s no need for extensive implementation, downloading updates, special hardware, or a dedicated IT team. The only requirement to access the system is a current internet browser.

Job Posting

Job Templates

Do you frequently hire for certain positions? Instead of creating a job from scratch,or copying and pasting each time, templates save the job details so posting is quick and painless. With templates you only need to add minimal information before hitting ‘post’.

Instant Updates

Manage your careers page with no need of tech support. Schedule a job to post on a future date,
cancel a job, or edit any part of a posted job at any time.

Multi-language friendly

Post your jobs in English and/or French with our seamless language tool. The entire application process can be bilingual, including the careers pageinterface, job descriptions and question forms.Translate only the questions and jobs which require a second language –this is flexible to fit your job applicants’ and business needs.

Online Applications

Mobile Applications

Enable applicants to search and apply for jobs on their preferred device. With almost 70% of job seekers using mobile devices in their search, your careers page and smartphone friendly application process can now cater to a growing number of users. StartDate uses a responsive design, with touch-friendly links and buttons.

No Login Required

Applicants can apply right away, without being asked to create an account or register. StartDate aims to eliminate time consuming processes and make applying as painless as possible! The system accepts resumes and also allows applicants to copy/paste or type their information.

Custom Application Questions

For each job, you can choose to require a resume, use a questionnaire, or both. Custom questions will give you the information you really need to screen, rank and filter applicants. A questionnaire provides an easy, mobile-friendly and fast way for applicants to provide the necessary information. Collect essential information in an instant at career fairs and events.

Upload Additional Documents

Allow applicants for particular jobs to upload one or more files in addition to their resume. Customize the message for applicants: ask for the specific information you need, such as a driver’s abstract,from the candidates you want. All files are stored as part of the candidate profile within the system.

Parsing Technologies

Candidate resumes are parsed upon upload so that the information is indexed. This allows the system to perform more accurate searches, including using phrases and contextual search,similar to a Google search.

Highlight Internal Applicants

Internal Postings

Post a job separately as an internal position. Jobs can be posted as internal, external or both depending on which start and end dates you choose. Only those designated as current employees can view or apply to internal-only positions.

Internal Tags

Automatically mark candidates from within your company with an internal flag for any job.This can be done through multiple IP addresses or through specified email domain names. In a job list, the flag is easy to spot and internal applicants are given a ranking boost by the system.

Plan your Hiring Process

Custom workflows

Choose which hiring workflow best fits each type of position. Some jobs may require fewer hiring stages than others, or need input from hiring managers at different parts of the process. With custom workflows, hiring for any type of job can be managed efficiently, from hiring part-time students, to permanent management positions.

Assign specific questions

StartDate’s question form builder enables you to pull relevant groups of questions and assign them to a job. Perhaps certain jobs require technical skills questions, while others require availability information – StartDate lets you ask only the questions that are relevant to the job.

Privacy and other System Users

Assign one or more recruiters to a job to allow only those people access to the candidate list. Otherwise, jobs are open to all recruiters. Assign a hiring manager to give them access to candidates in certain stages of a job.

Broaden your Reach

Post to job boards

With the job board package, your postings can be published on Indeed, SimplyHired, Glassdoor, Trovit, WowJobs & HireGroundJobs. Choose which boards to post to, and track their success with the Applicant Source report. Unlike when aggregators like Indeed ‘scrape’ your careers page, edits made in the StartDate system will be reflected across the third party job boards, and deposting jobs early will cause them to be removed from all sites.

Reach a broader audience and gain maximum traffic to your jobs with the job board integration.

Manage Candidates

Quickly compare applicants

Compare applicants by viewing their resume, profile information and application responses. Flip through candidates while viewing only information that is pertinent and hiding the rest (ie. Education) to compare qualifications. This encourages a quick decision making process, where a candidate is moved to the next stage or rejected with a click of a button.

Intelligent Ranking and Filtering

Candidates are ranked in a job list based on their resume, job description, system history and on answers to weighted application questions. Filter applicants by sending them directly to the ‘Reject’ stage using stop questions, or a filter keyword. View performance on application questions at a glance with our star rating system.

In‑App Resume View

Quickly view candidates’ resumes inside of StartDate as plain text or as an original PDF. No longer will recruiters have to download and open resumes one by one, click through emails or search for paper files when browsing candidates. A candidate’s resume is open and displayed as a PDF with all of their other application information ready and waiting for your recruiters.

System Notes

See if the candidate directly applied for the job or was moved there by a recruiter as well as how many other jobs they’ve applied to at your company. View how long they’ve spent in each stage, and why they were rejected.

Duplicate Profiles

Duplicate candidates are handled automatically: if a candidate applies for the same job twice, using the same email address, only the most recent resume and application information are shown. Candidates are still able to apply for multiple jobs at the same time with the same email address. View all candidates’ profiles and application history on a detailed candidate history page.

Black Flags

Is there a candidate who is not a good fit for your company, yet keeps applying for jobs? When you ‘Black Flag’ an applicant, they are immediately rejected for that position, as well as any future positions they apply to.

Score Candidates

Custom weighted questions

Ask questions to score a candidate’s qualifications and suitability. Multiple choice, multiple answer, short and long answers can all be given weighting. Assign the highest amount of points to the most important questions, or make an unacceptable response a stop question to automatically reject a candidate.

A candidate’s score determines how they are ranked in the job list: those who have given the most ideal answers will be higher in the list than those who do not fit the criteria or those who scored lower. See at a glance what a candidate’s overall score was, based on their answers to individual questions.

Search for Prospects

Smart Elastic Search

Search for candidates by name, keyword, location and date. Search the resume text, cover letter or notes section of their profiles. The advanced elastic search includes plural forms and suffixes in the results, for example a search for Engineer, will return candidates with the word Engineer, Engineering or Engineered in their profile. Use Boolean operators for additional filtering, for example, search using a phrase, add, or exclude terms.

Candidate profile information

View a candidate’s information and history with your company directly from the search results. See the jobs they have applied to and how far they made it in the hiring process. View their contact information and profiles used when applying as well as responses to application questions.

Copy Candidates to a job

From the search results page, select one or more candidates to instantly move them to a specific job. The system will never copy a candidate into a job they are already in to avoid duplicate profiles.

Inform your Decisions

Collaborate using notes

Make notes on a candidate to share with other interested parties. The system will track who made the note, when and for which stage of the hiring process. Collect opinions and feedback from others in the hiring team in one place to make an efficient collective decision.

Encourage timely decisions

View how long a candidate has been in a stage to encourage decision making. A label shows the number of days a candidate has spent in that stage waiting to be moved along or rejected. Keep that number low for a fast and efficient hiring process.

View Questionnaire rating

See at a glance how a candidate performed on your ranked application questions using our star rating system. Look at those 24 out of 25 star candidates who have given the most ideal answers to your questions before those with only a few stars.

Full transparency

See when and which recruiter or hiring manager moved a candidate. See when a candidate was rejected, who rejected them and the reason they were rejected. You can also view if any changes were made to the job posting, and who did the editing.

Streamline Communications

Email Templates

The number one complaint from job seekers is the lack of communication from potential employers. Our automatic regret letter elegantly solves this issue, by using email templates to send letters to applicants who didn’t get the job. The system will never send out a duplicate email. Informing applicants about their status in a job is one great way to improve your image as an employer.

Personalization

Email placeholders are available to personalize each email with the candidate’s first and last name, the job they applied to and your contact info. Sure, you may be sending out a stock form letter, but that doesn’t mean it has to look like one.

Leave a note

When working with a team to fill a position, use the notes section to gather opinions at a time that is convenient for everyone. It can be hard to schedule time to discuss candidates, but by writing notes you can ask and answer questions and let others know your thoughts on an applicant. Notes are job-specific, so they don’t interfere with discussions from other job lists an applicant may be in.

Email Alerts

Instead of frequently checking in on your jobs to see if there is an applicant requiring attention, let the system notify you via email an email notification. The alert will be sent out when a candidate is moved into a stage you are assigned to. This feature is currently available and optimized for Hiring Managers only.

Configure whether you receive a notification instantly, daily, hourly or not at all.

Manage User Permissions

Add, edit, replace and remove

StartDate Admin users have full control over assigning user licences. It’s easy to see at a glance how many users of each type have been assigned and how many are available. Add, edit or delete users quickly, without the need to call us. (You can still call if you want, we love to chat).

User Types

There are four different types of users, with varying permission levels.

Recruiter level users can post and manage jobs, and view candidates in all jobs, except ones they are specifically not assigned to. Recruiters can also search the database and view reports.

Hiring managers can only see candidates in the jobs they are assigned to, in stages that you designate as ‘hiring manager stages.’ Hiring managers can make decisions and notes on these candidates.

Admin users have access to the system settings, to manage Users, Questions, Workflows, Templates and other global administrative features.

The Super Admin user has access to everything in the system, including all Recruiter and Admin functions.

Get Informative Reports

The Numbers Don’t Lie

See what’s working in your hiring process and where the issues may be. Each report can be filtered by job location, custom categories, date, and more to compare or pinpoint the areas you are interested in. All reports are exportable, and can be viewed as a graph or a table.

Jobs Posted

View the number of jobs posted within a given time range. Filter this report by location, category, job type and workflow.

Job views and applications

Track the overall views job postings receive within a given time range. See where most candidates drop off in the application process for different types of jobs. Are a lot of people stopping after reading the job description, or are they giving up when they reach your questionnaire?

Candidate Source

See where candidates are finding your jobs to know which advertising channels are most effective. Choose to view the sources for Hired candidates only, as well as by location, category and other filters.

Time to Hire

See how many days it takes to hire candidates for various types of jobs in a given time range.

Individual Job Reports

In addition to the aggregate reports listed above, each job has its own reports to show how it performed. See data for job views and applications as well as candidate sources.

Customize with APIs

What is an API?

API: Application Programming Interface. It is a set of instructions and standards for allowing communication and data exchange between two applications. APIs are designed for computer-to-computer communication (not people). They maintain data privacy by exposing specific functionality while safeguarding other parts of the application and data. An API must be implemented by other developers, as each implementation is unique to your company’s existing software systems and specific needs.

Integration Opportunities

Our API makes integration possible with other HR systems your company may use, such as HRIS or payroll. Bring specific candidate information from StartDate to payroll for new hires.

An API can also be used by your web team to further integrate StartDate into your corporate website, as well as many other possibilities.

High Security and Privacy

100% Canadian

HireGround is a Canadian owned and operated company, so your data is housed on Canadian servers and your information is regulated according to tight Canadian privacy laws. Unlike many other applicant tracking providers, we do not use any third-party software based outside of our borders.

Best Practices

We use the very latest in industry best practices for privacy & security:

Encrypting passwords with a one-way secure algorithm, storing and backing up all data and encrypting web content through SSL.

• Flexible, scalable user roles with fine control over permissions, cryptographically irreversible password storage, and short-lived one-time security tokens to reset a password.
• Our servers are located at a Tier 3 data center in Canada; a highest level engineering centre surpassing uptime, security, cooling and power redundancy standards of other hosting facilities. The network is fully redundant and excels in speed, reliability and security.