In particular, pre-employment questionnaires are being used by companies in order to “identify candidates who most closely fit what they're looking for” in an employee. These questionnaires have numerous benefits to employers, in that they can help narrow down a crowded field and identify key qualifications (like whether candidates have a given degree) before resumes are even considered.
As big data becomes part of the new normal for businesses, it has begun to factor into recruitment and hiring as well. This was an inevitability in some respects, but it is also a solution to the problem that of candidates generated by inbound recruiting, 80% to 90% tend to be less than qualified for the job at hand.
We can think of applicant tracking systems almost as second layers of people analytics, covering the latter half of the recruitment and selection process. That is to say, people analytics processes can narrow down and sort candidate fields –– but applicant tracking systems do the same with those candidates who actually apply.