I got an email from someone who was not only sitting in on Steven Rothberg’s keynote Best Practices for Using Facebook, MySpace and Other Social Networking Sites for Recruiting but she was also taking notes! The question was:

Steven was talking about the data coming from our ATS being 80% inaccurate when it comes to where candidates come from. Where does that statistic come from?

I believe the number was actually higher and that Steven was referring to a whitepaper titled ATS Sourcing Data – 83% Inaccurate, talking about traditional postings. In fact, John Sumser pointed the research out in his Electronic Recruiting News column in December last year:

Having spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on an Applicant Tracking System (ATS), HR Executives wrongly assume that the sourcing data has some resemblance to reality. Yet 5 out of 6 Candidates enter inaccurate data.

To the question about who can help with accurately tracking job posting responses Steven suggested a couple of options pointing to Don Ramer in the back of the room. Don’s company Arbita — one of Atlanta’s sponsors — provides a range of solutions worth checking out and publishes a good overview titled Global Jobs Cross-Posting Solutions.

Steven also addresses the issues and related topics in an excellent post, Consolidation in the Applicant Tracking System (ATS) Space.

Last, I posted a related item on RCI Recruitment Solutions’ Bells & Whistles blog called The Budget for Stupidity which has a few useful links.

If you have any questions or comments do share them please.