Strategic Talent Planning

I often talk with recruiting leaders about the exciting times we live in with so much technology available to improve recruiting efforts but not all leaders share my excitement and I completely understand why.  First of all, they have less resources to work with, less budget to spend, and less recruiters to do the work.  It’s not easy to implement new tools if there is no time to do it.  And secondly, the more choices there are, the more research is needed to determine if the tool is needed and, if so, which one is best for the company.  Less choices means keeping it simple, which is always easier to manage (see my post about simplifying the recruiting process – “Keeping it Simple: 5 Ways to Streamline Recruiting  ”).  It’s difficult to balance the cost/time commitment versus efficiency and automation.  But it’s clear that if you’re recruiting the same way you did five years ago, consider an upgrade now.

This month, we focus on technology from how to avoid hidden costs of implementing to choosing the right applicant tracking system with the goal of providing practical tips.  If you’re going to upgrade your technology, let’s do it right!

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The ATS Guide: Selection, Optimization, and Future Trends

Selecting an ATS tailored to the needs of your organization is critical for maximizing its value.  With numerous options available, it’s crucial to take a strategic approach to vendor selection.  I wrote a recent article that provides details on choosing the right system (Choosing the Right Applicant Tracking System).  Today I want to address the broader question of why optimize your ATS at all.

An ATS serves as the backbone of corporate recruiting, automating tasks, organizing candidate data, and providing analytics. However, as businesses evolve, an unoptimized ATS can lead to inefficiencies, data inaccuracies, and frustrated recruiters. There are many reasons to optimize, especially today when new AI tools are being introduced regularly.  Key reasons to optimize include:

🔹 Streamlined Workflows: Reducing cumbersome processes to improve time-to-hire.

🔹 Data Integrity: Ensuring accurate data for better reports and decision-making.

🔹 User Experience: Enhancing usability to boost recruiter productivity.

If you agree that optimization makes sense, then the next question that arises is “When?”.  I recommend annual audits to identify inefficiencies, data quality issues, and especially to ensure the system is aligned with business goals. Then, when the time is right, you want to understand how to optimize.  Evaluate these criteria:

1️⃣ Determine the current strengths and weaknesses of your ATS.

2️⃣ Define clear goals for improvements, such as faster hiring or improved candidate experience.

3️⃣ Involve stakeholders, especially hiring managers who are active recruiters, to align the system with organizational needs.

4️⃣ Identify places where streamlined workflows and automated repetitive tasks would improve the process.

5️⃣ Keep an eye on metrics.  Determine what customized ATS settings could leverage analytics for data-driven insights.

And, if it’s time to upgrade the whole system, be diligent about choosing the right one.  Refer to my ATS Selection Guide to access the 15 questions every recruiting leader should ask when selecting an ATS.

Summary: Years ago, the rise of applicant tracking systems was at the forefront of technology inventions in the recruiting space.  It’s only been 30 years since the invention of the ATS (shoutout to Taleo as first major system to market).  Today 98% of Fortune 500 companies use an ATS.

Today, ATS platforms include virtual onboarding features, AI powered resume screening and predictive analytics, automated recruiting advertising tools, and many more features that reduce time to fill roles, increase the candidate experience, and boost data security.  It truly is the golden age of applicant tracking systems with much more to come!

Quick Insights: Tips for Implementing a Vendor Assessment Strategy

Selecting the right technology partner is as important as the technology itself. A structured vendor assessment strategy is your best defense against buyer’s remorse, ensuring the tools you choose truly transform—and don’t just complicate—your recruiting process.

Here are three quick tips to implement a robust strategy:

1️⃣  Define “Must-Have” Outcomes, Not Just Features

Before even looking at vendors, clearly define the business outcomes you need to achieve. Don’t start with a feature checklist (“must have an AI chatbot”); start with the problem you need to solve and the measurable result (“reduce time-to-schedule by 40%”). This is important!  This focuses your assessment on a vendor’s capability to deliver results, not just their marketing materials.

• Tip: Prioritize three to five non-negotiable outcomes. Any vendor that can’t clearly demonstrate a path to achieving them should be immediately filtered out.

2️⃣  Standardize Your Request for Proposal (RFP)

A common mistake is allowing vendors to answer questions in their own format. To make true apples-to-apples comparisons, standardize your RFP template. Ask the same questions in the same order, using weighted scoring criteria.  You can request an ATS Vendor Assessment Scorecard, which I highlight below, by sending me an email.

• Tip: Include a mandatory use-case scenario that requires the vendor to demonstrate their product using your specific data or a common challenge your team faces. This bypasses generic demos and shows you how the tool works in your world.

3️⃣  Involve Future End-Users Early and Often

The most powerful technology is useless if your recruiters won’t use it. Recruiter adoption is a critical metric. Involve a diverse group of your end-users (recruiters, coordinators, hiring managers) in the final assessment stages, such as the product demo and pilot phase.  If end-users are part of the solution, they go above and beyond to make sure the solution works.

• Tip: Assign a “Product Champion” from your recruiting team to be the primary tester. Their feedback on user experience, integration, and training required should be heavily weighted in the final decision. A happy end-user means a successful implementation.

By focusing your vendor assessment on outcomes, standardization, and user adoption, you build a foundation for successfully deploying truly transformative recruiting technology.

• Start with Skills, Not Just Roles: Map out the critical skills your organization will need 6-12 months from now. Many of your future hires might not fit traditional job descriptions, but they’ll have the skills to drive success.
• Create Hiring Manager Partnerships: Schedule monthly check-ins with your top hiring managers. Understanding their evolving needs prevents last-minute “urgent” requests that derail your strategic planning.
• Build Talent Pipeline Maps: For your most critical roles, maintain a pipeline of 3-5 potential candidates at all times. This transforms reactive hiring into proactive talent acquisition. Read my detailed pipeline strategy here.
• Implement 30-60-90 Planning: Break your annual talent strategy into 30, 60, and 90-day action items. This makes large strategic initiatives manageable and keeps momentum strong throughout the year.

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Tool Spotlight:  The ATS Vendor Assessment Scorecard

It’s best to be organized and efficient when evaluating ATS vendors.  Evaluations should focus on key areas that directly impact recruiter efficiency, candidate experience, data integrity, and compliance.  Use a tool that rates qualities and weights them according to importance.  Below is an example of a rating system for Recruiter Efficiency:

Want a complete evaluation tool which evaluates all four elements mentioned above?  Send me a note at estewart@ESTalentSolutions.com and it’s yours (free, no strings attached).

Client Success Story: A Global ATS Implementation Success Story

The Challenge: A global company faced a critical challenge that many organizations encounter: fragmented recruitment processes across multiple countries, inconsistent data quality, and limited visibility into talent acquisition performance. With lean teams managing hiring across Europe, Asia, and the Americas, leadership struggled to understand the full scope of recruitment efforts beyond basic metrics like time-to-fill and open requisition counts.

The stakes were high. Without reliable data from their previous systems, the decision was made to start fresh with a new applicant tracking system implementation—accepting the reality that no historical data would transfer over.

The Solution: The project was launched with a notably small core team managing a global rollout. Rather than a phased country-by-country approach, resource constraints demanded a comprehensive launch across all markets simultaneously.

The team encountered typical implementation challenges, including navigating vendor support inconsistencies and managing expectations around deliverables. However, they made several strategic decisions that proved crucial to long-term success:

🔸 Process Integration – ESTS built approval workflows, job postings, candidate management, and approval paths directly into the system, creating a single source of truth from requisition creation to onboarding.

🔸 Smart Training – Given timing and limited resources, instead of blanket training sessions, the project team conducted live calls exclusively with hiring managers who had active openings.  Training sessions were recorded for future managers and recruiters provided on-the-spot training when needed.

🔸 Global Adoption – Despite client concerns about markets that had never used structured system before, every country successfully adopted the platform, from Asia to Europe and the Americas.

The Results: Yearly post-project check-ins with the client has shown their remarkable transformation.

◼ Data-driven story telling – In the client’s own words, “Conversations shifted from ‘Why aren’t we filling roles fast enough?’ to demonstrating substantial work happening at every stage.

◼ Executive Impact – During a recent executive leadership team presentation, the CEO selected recruitment metric slides to present, recognizing the value of the insights now available.

◼ Data Quality – Data quality has remained consistently high, enabling confident decision-making.

The Bottom Line: Today, this organization has transformed talent acquisition from a reactive function into a strategic operation with clear visibility, consistent processes, and compelling data that resonates at the executive level. The investment in proper implementation—even with a lean team and compressed timeline—has delivered lasting value that compounds with each quarter of insights.

If this newsletter has provided value, I would appreciate you sharing with other recruiting professionals who might benefit from these insights. Building a community of strategic-minded talent leaders benefits everyone.

Let’s Connect

These strategic planning principles have helped my clients reduce time-to-hire and improve quality-of-hire metrics. If you’re looking to move from reactive hiring to strategic talent acquisition, I’d love to discuss how we might work together.

Feel free to schedule a consultation call – I always enjoy talking with fellow recruiting leaders about what’s working and what challenges you’re facing.

About the Author

As Principal Consultant at ES Talent Solutions, Eddie Stewart is focused on developing talent acquisition strategies for dynamic, growth-oriented companies. With over 25 years of experience in recruiting, he enjoys helping companies optimize recruiting processes so they can efficiently attract the best talent.

Eddie’s experience includes Recruiting Assessments; ATS implementations and enhancements; Technology Assessment and Vendor Selection; Process Optimization; Staffing Strategy; University Strategy; Project Management; Employer Brand and Social Media Development; Recruiter Skills Development; Hiring Manager Interview Training; and Candidate Pipeline Development.

Prior to ES Talent Solutions, Eddie led the recruiting function at Radius Health, a biotech pharmaceutical company. He began his recruiting career at Spherion and worked at PriceWaterhouseCoopers prior a recruiting role in IBM Business Consulting Services Division.  Eddie also spent eleven years in progressive leadership roles at Johnson & Johnson, including leading recruiting efforts for J&J’s Janssen Pharmaceutical Sector and overseeing all global early talent recruiting efforts.