Applicant tracking systems (ATS) are software tools recruiters, HR teams, and hiring managers use to source, screen, and manage job applicants for open positions. Businesses use these tools to create and distribute job postings, parse resumes for relevant information, schedule interviews, and source candidate information, cover letters, and references. In addition, they also automate time-consuming manual tasks such as interview scheduling, communicating the next steps, and sending alerts to candidates. ATS solutions track hiring metrics like time-to-hire and cost-to-hire, enabling companies to optimize the ROI of recruiting software investments.
Some best-in-class applicant tracking software can tie into greater recruiting features such as job board and career site job postings, candidate sourcing, resume parsing, employee referral assessment, applicant screening, recruitment marketing, interview scheduling, candidate relationship management, onboarding, and recruitment data analysis functionalities. Some ATS platforms may offer candidate relationship management software capabilities to help recruiters proactively discover and nurture potential candidates via email marketing, scheduling, and periodic communications.
Recruitment professionals across industries use applicant tracking tools to extract candidates’ educational backgrounds, skills, and work histories from resumes, enabling recruiters to find the most qualified candidates for their organization. These tools allow hiring teams to source and manage candidates from multiple sources, including social media, referrals, and job board websites. ATS systems also ensure collaborative hiring, coordinate multiple calendars while scheduling interviews, and integrate with existing recruiting software to boost hiring process efficiency.
To qualify for inclusion in the ATS category, a product must:
-Collect, sort, and screen resumes and any associated candidate information
-Manage talent pools within a custom workflow
-Enable communication between HR personnel, hiring manager, or recruiter and candidate
