What Is An ATS? A Comprehensive Guide for Recruiters & Talent Acquisition Prfessionals

I was speaking with an internal recruiter for a recruitment agency recently who told me she prefers working on a spreadsheet over an ATS. Personally I couldn’t believe it, probably more so as I’m not organised enough to work on a spreadsheet but it’s definitely an option if you're adverse to using an ATS.

However I would always recommend using a specialist tools such as an applicant tracking system as it makes the whole process a whole lot easier, so much more efficient and less prone to mistakes occurring. I really believe that applicant tracking systems and recruitment CRMs have revolutionised the recruitment & talent space.

I’ve got a good degree of experience with them, I’ve used a few in my time, I set up and customised the ATS when I worked in-house for a major media company and I used to be a software developer for a major recruitment CRM. 

But what exactly is an ATS, and why is it so crucial for recruitment agencies and internal talent partners in the UK? In this pretty comprehensive guide, we will delve into the intricacies of ATS, exploring its functionalities, benefits, and how it can significantly enhance your recruitment efforts.

Understanding the Basics: What is an ATS?

An ATS, or Applicant Tracking System, is a sophisticated software solution designed to automate and optimise the entire recruitment lifecycle. From sourcing and attracting candidates to screening, scheduling, interviewing, tracking progress, keeping notes, generating reports and onboarding, an ATS acts as a centralised hub for managing all recruitment-related activities.

Think of it as a digital assistant that helps you navigate the complex maze of recruitment, ensuring that no stone is left unturned in your quest to find the perfect candidate.

Why Use an Applicant Tracking System?

I would say any organisation that has an internal talent function (even if it’s just one person managing everything) needs an ATS. The benefits in the long term will far outweigh the short term time & monetary costs. The benefits of an ATS are manifold, and they extend to both recruiters and candidates.

For Internal Recruiters and Employers: An ATS can help you:

1) Source and Attract Qualified Candidates: Your average ATS has become incredibly advanced over the past couple of years and most are plugged into some sort of external large language model to add further capabilities. By leveraging AI and machine learning, an ATS can create a profile of an ideal candidate, assess and identify skills, and predict success factors. This enables you to target the right candidates on the right platforms, increasing your chances of finding the perfect fit. Be aware of bias that might arise from the data it’s fed and it’s not full proof. You can’t replace the eye of a good and experienced recruiter. 

2) Better Overview Of Applications: It’s so much easier to track applications when you have an ATS in place. Everything is all in one place, open up the vacancy, see all the applications, all of their contact details and CVs, which stage they’re at and so much more. It’s so much easier than a spreadsheet. 

3) Easier Communication Between The Talent Team & Hiring Managers: If you’ve ever worked in-house then you know hiring managers can be notoriously hard to pin down to giving you feedback, giving you time for interviews, coming back on shortlists, etc. I’d always bed down near the hiring manager’s desk and team when working on one of their live roles but your ATS can give you another channel to chase them down with. 

4) Increase Candidate Engagement: An ATS provides greater visibility across the applicant lifecycle, ensuring that touchpoints don't fall through the cracks and that candidates remain engaged throughout the hiring process. You’re reminded of key stages throughout the progress and email updates and communications can be automated. Some ATS providers also offer a basic careers site as part of the solution, which could be a useful stop gap until you have the time and budget to invest into a proper careers site. 

5) Create Stronger Job Descriptions: Once you've easily created a vacancy on your ATS, it’s just as easy to create a job description & advert that translates this business need into core responsibilities, while also capturing the attention of relevant candidates. Your ATS will have keyword-rich, SEO friendly templates for job descriptions or tools that make creating job descriptions really easy.

6) Easy Job Posting: Your ATS should be integrated with a job multi-poster or should have an in-built system for this, allowing you to write one job advert and upload at once to several different hiring platforms, saving you time, effort and frustration. 

7) Improve Efficiency and Lower Costs: By automating manual processes and increasing visibility into the hiring cycle, an ATS can significantly reduce time-to-hire and cost-to-hire ratios. You should be trying to give your talent partners more time to focus on the human elements of the process such as telephone, video and face to face interviews. Ultimately you’ll be looking at faster applicant screening and a reduced amount of time spent on repetitive tasks. 

8) Remain Competitive: In a fiercely competitive market, an ATS can level the playing field by providing quicker access to candidates and streamlining the hiring process. If you’re a small organisation then you’ll likely be under more pressure to do more with less. Your ATS can really help to cut time spent on administration and make the process way more efficient, allowing you to compete better with larger firms who may be slowed down by bureaucracy and layers of management. 

9) Optimise the Onboarding Process: The right ATS can also assist in onboarding, ensuring that new hires have all the information they need to start making an impact from day one. Onboarding is one of the most important parts of the hiring process. A whole month’s worth of time and tens of hours of work sourcing for a role can be ruined if the onboarding process isn’t quite right. I remember joining a major advertising agency as an internal talent partner and the onboarding process was abysmal - I was basically just given a laptop and roles to recruit for on day one and that was it. I knew I’d made a mistake joining them and was looking to leave straight away.

For Candidates: An ATS can offer the following benefits to candidates:

1) Enhanced Candidate Experience: Job seekers expect a frictionless digital experience during their search. We expect fast websites, great customer service and instant feedback. An ATS automates many cumbersome aspects of job hunting, providing a more seamless and enjoyable experience for candidates. Send out blanket rejection emails to all unsuitable and unsuccessful candidates, automate interview scheduling, deliver general updates in bulk and so much more!

2) Greater Efficiency in the Hiring Process: An ATS helps avoid negative issues, getting applicants hired faster, and creating a more positive impression of the brand.

3) Immediate Impact after the Hire: An ATS streamlines the onboarding process, making the transition from candidate to full-time employee a smooth one. It’s a centralised hub for all of their information, address details, email address, contact number, passport and visa details, all of which can be shared easily with the HR department. It’s easy for the talent team to check in on them and schedule updates during their first few months with the company. 

How Applicant Tracking Systems Work

There are 4 basic steps to how an applicant tracking system works:

1) A need for someone / a new position is raised, signed off and a job requisition enters into the ATS. This requisition includes information about the position, such as the job title, salary, location, department, hiring manager, desired skills, and required experience.

2) The ATS then uses this information to create a profile for the ideal candidate and posts the vacancy as an advert to the company careers site as well as other free and paid for job platforms and relevant social media channels.

3) As applicants submit their resumes, the ATS parses, sorts, and ranks them based on how well they match the profile. The talent partner can also sort through profiles, rank them, and pass them through the process. 

4) Once hiring managers have received the shortlist they can then quickly identify the most qualified candidates and move them forward in the hiring process. 

What’s The Difference Between An ATS And A Recruitment CRM?

When it comes to recruiting software in this specific context, there are two main types of systems we tend to talk about: 

• Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS)
• Candidate Relationship Management (CRM) Systems 

ATS software is typically used during the hiring process and I tend to reserve this term for internal talent teams, as opposed to the system an agency recruiter would use. Recruitment CRMS can also have some of these features but an ATS includes features such as CV parsing, candidate screening, and assessment tools. The downside to ATS software is that it only tracks job candidates that have already applied to your company - either in regards to the current live role or previous vacancies you have advertised both internally and externally. 

Recruitment CRMs, on the other hand, are used during the recruitment process to target potential candidates who haven’t yet applied to your company but also hold CVs of candidates that have applied to live vacancies and previously advertised roles. I would tend to reserve this term for the system a recruitment agency would use. CRM features include email marketing, scheduling, and communication tools to build relationships with possible candidates, as well as CV parsing, screening tools, matching and integrations with websites, messaging tools, etc. Recruitment CRMs in my opinion give you more options around talent pooling as well. 

Key Features of an Applicant Tracking System

A robust ATS comes equipped with a plethora of features designed to streamline and optimise the recruitment process. Some of the key features include:

1) CV Parsing: Extracts data from CVs, such as contact information, work history, educational background, and skills, transferring all of this into the system's relevant fields, saving everyone so much time! We’ve all used Workday on the candidate side so I’m sure we can see the benefit of this. 

2) Advanced Search: Enables you to filter applications by specific keywords, job titles, skills, experience, education, location and more. This should form the foundation of every new search but unfortunately I see consultants and talent partners look to LinkedIn too quickly. If your database is kept clean then all of the candidates on the system should be roughly relevant to your company, vacancies and already engaged and interested in having a conversation. 

3) Candidate Sourcing: Allows you to actively search for, identify, and reach out to potential candidates for open positions. So many applicant tracking systems fully integrate with portals such as LinkedIn. I actually worked on the full, two way integration between LinkedIn and Mercury Recruitment CRM.

4) Multi-Channel Candidate Sourcing: Lets you search for potential candidates using multiple channels, including job boards, social media, and employee referrals.

5) In-Built CRM Software: Some ATS also feature CRM software to cover all your needs in one platform.

6) Email Templates: Most ATS offer email templates to ensure that all your correspondence with candidates is consistent and professional. This allows you to deliver feedback, updates and communication in a set, revised and perfected manager giving applicants the best possible experience. 

7) Advanced Analytics and Reporting: Allows you to generate detailed reports on job seekers, hiring trends, and other data. 

8) Various Integrations: Means the ATS can connect with different types of software, such as email marketing software, accounting software, your careers site, messaging tools and CRM systems.

9) Ability to Schedule Interviews: Automates interview scheduling, saving you time and effort. No more back and forth trying to set up interviews between candidates and a busy hiring manager. Just use a tool such as Calendly to block out time in a hiring manager’s diary and let candidates pick a time suitable for them. 

10) Real-Time Collaboration: Allows people from different parts of the organisation to get involved in the sourcing, screening, and decision-making regarding new hires. Easily share CVs and shortlists with hiring managers, chase for feedback via the system, allow hiring managers and candidates to add feedback themselves, give colleagues access to your role to help manage your workload while you’re away. 

11) Automation Based on Certain Events and Conditions: Means your ATS will only be triggered to do something if a specific scenario occurs. Automations can lack personalisation but can be a huge time saver and when you’re dealing with hundreds of applicants for a particular role, automations can mean make or break when it comes to filling it quickly. 

How To Purchase An Applicant Tracking System

Once you’ve decided you need an applicant tracking system for your organisation, it’s time to work out what you need from it and start researching some potential options. 

I’d recommend drawing up a list of the top 10 applicant tracking systems, through Google research and referrals and look through each of their websites drawing up a list of features and questions. Then set up 5-6 conversations with providers that look like they could fit your needs. Go into the call with a list of questions, be prepared to think of new questions on the spot and ask for a full demo of the system. 

Employers, HR and talent team should know their business’ appetite for change and willingness to adopt new tools. You need to know you can get buy-in from senior directors, heads of departments and ultimately hiring managers. You must also be firm on budgetary restraints and be able to justify the cost and budgetary costs through a firm return on investment. 

Understand Your IT Infrastructure

The range of available ATS solutions varies considerably in complexity and features. More comprehensive, full-service ATSs can be quite intricate and can often require significant time and IT resources for implementation and integration. These aren't simply plug-and-play solutions; the process can span months (or even years). When I was in charge of setting up and customising an ATS for a major media company the whole process from purchase to deploying was around 6 months. Additionally, integrating an ATS may necessitate adjustments to your existing IT infrastructure. The ATS might need to connect with external software crucial to your hiring process but not typically included within the ATS itself, such as tools for pre-employment drug screenings or background checks. Understanding your company's specific needs and technological capabilities is vital to selecting the right ATS solution. I’d recommend sitting down with your IT team and getting them involved in all technical conversation with your prospective ATS provider. 

How To Set Up An Applicant Tracking System

Once you’ve purchased an ATS you’ll then need to set it up and this will be a lengthy process over 2-3 months, lots of conversations back and forth as you map up your organisation, departments, functions, who needs access, the level of their access, and so on. Be prepared to plunge tens of hours into this stage as you map out your company and how the system should look and work. You’ll normally be assigned a technical account manager who will help you through the process with regular meetings updates and milestones to hit. 

The Future of Applicant Tracking Systems

With the huge leaps AI, ML, programmatic advertising and automations are making at the moment I really have no idea what an ATS will look like in 2-3 years time but I know the future of ATS is bright, with continuous innovation and advancements on the horizon. Some of the key trends to watch out for include:

1) Mobile-First, Information Based & Led, Rapid Adaptability & Scalability: Systems that are able to work on all devices, laptops, mobiles and tablets as workforces are more dynamic, working from home, in the office and on the go. The needs of a multigenerational workforce are constantly changing, and your ATS must be flexible and adaptable to meet those expectations.  

2) User Experience: ATSs will continue to refine and optimise the candidate journey, providing a more seamless and intuitive experience for both candidates and recruiters. 

3) Leveraging Social Platforms: Social networks are essential to the recruiting process, and ATSs will be more fully integrated with social media to identify top-end passive and active candidates. 

4) AI: AI will play an even more significant role in the future of ATS, enabling greater efficiencies and providing a more nuanced, detailed portrait of an ideal candidate. 

5) A Cloud-Based, Fully Integrated Ecosystem: The future of ATS will be in the cloud, eliminating the need for on-premises maintenance and management while leveraging third-party infrastructure, scalability, and security capability. Cloud based services tend to be of better value, manage capacity & resources better and often more secure than what the average company can deliver for itself. 

6) Stronger Diversity and Inclusion: The ATS of tomorrow will use data and hiring patterns to identify and eliminate intrinsic bias in the hiring process, opening businesses to a more diverse set of skilled applicants. From what I’ve seen so far AI & ML are based on live data sets, which can mean bias is perpetuated. Sometimes it’s best to have a human involved to balance the process. 

7) Integrations: I see the ATS becoming the central part for all talent teams, with the system easily integrating into all the tools you use, such as job boards, LinkedIn, social media platforms, telephone and email systems, video interviewing tools and all the other bits of software you use on a daily and weekly basis. 

Conclusion

In conclusion, an ATS is an indispensable tool for any recruitment agency or organisation looking to streamline its hiring processes, improve efficiency, and attract top talent. By automating manual tasks, providing greater visibility into the candidate journey, and leveraging AI and machine learning, an ATS can significantly enhance your recruitment efforts and help you stay ahead of the curve in the ever-evolving recruitment landscape.

If you're a recruitment agency in the UK looking to take your hiring processes to the next level, investing in a robust ATS is a decision you won't regret.