You’ve built your business case, the budget has been signed off and you’ve commenced your search for the perfect piece of recruitment technology for your organisation.

It’s an exciting time; however, introducing recruitment technology isn’t always smooth sailing. If you’ve previously been involved in a technology implementation project, you might be aware of the challenges associated with user adoption.

If you’re about to embark on a new ATS or HR system project and you’re concerned about user adoption rates or you’ve just implemented an ATS and found your hiring managers aren’t using it, consider following Webrecruit’s tips below:

Make future technology users aware of the project ASAP

When rolling out new technology within your organisation, clear communication is important. Once you’ve had sign-off for the project, advise hiring managers in your business about what you’re planning to do and provide them with loose timescales for implementation.

Communicating details of the project with hiring managers at an early stage ensures they feel included and informed, and prevents any shock reactions to the changes further down the line. By giving plenty of notice, you’re giving hiring managers time to get used to the change.

Explain why you’re introducing technology – and make it relevant

Context is everything. If employees don’t understand why you’re changing internal processes, it can make it difficult to get buy-in for new ways of working. Try and provide context at the earliest stage and continue to re-iterate these benefits as the project continues.

When explaining the benefits of recruitment technology, make reference to particular pain points associated with current hiring manager processes. For example:

“Hey, you know how it takes ages to get sign off to advertise a new job? Now we can automate the workflows within our new software so your job requisitions will get approved faster!”

One of the main reasons why users are resistant to new technologies is because they don’t understand why they’re being introduced. If you can provide examples of how it will improve ways of working, your team are more likely to get on board.

Include as many stakeholders as possible in the supplier selection process

If you’re concerned that lack of technical ability will hold back some people in your organisation, it’s important to include the less tech-savvy members of your team in any demos during the supplier selection process.

You might be competent with technology and think an ATS is easy to use, however if you’re the only stakeholder involved in selecting a supplier then you’re probably not the most accurate representation of the tech skill levels of the rest of your business.

Picking technology that is intuitive and easy-to-use will ensure that everyone in your organisation can quickly get to grips with it and will make your life a lot easier when it comes to roll-out.

Asking for involvement during the supplier selection process is also a great way of obtaining useful feedback for system requirements and considering any potential problem areas. By providing this feedback, users will feel included in the project and are more likely to buy in to its success after implementation.

Take advantage of training from your vendor

With most software suppliers, you’ll be provided with an allotted training allowance; ensure that you take advantage of this! Plenty of suppliers also offer additional training resources, such as user guides or instructional videos, so make sure you are utilising these and all hiring managers in your business are aware of them.

Additionally, if you feel confident in using your new system, you can even conduct basic training sessions for hiring managers yourself.

Assign a selection of internal ‘System Champions’

If there are any hiring managers in your organisation who are particularly enthusiastic about the project or who you know are more adept with technology, ask them to be ambassadors of your system and encourage other members of staff to use your ATS.

The message is likely to have more of an impact coming from other hiring managers, rather than HR, and will help to embed technology use within your organisation’s culture.

Be patient

It’s important to manage your expectations and not to expect enthusiasm and 100% adoption rates from the day your system is rolled out.

Employees will likely have questions and concerns so handle them to the best of your ability and be patient; remember, everyone responds to change in different ways.