Applicant Tracking Software (ATS): ATS Buyer’s Guide

Just like finding the right candidate, finding the right software can give you a tremendous advantage, as well as a tremendous headache. Both tasks are complex, time-consuming, and full of challenges. Fortunately, we can help you with both.

For help finding candidates, applicant tracking software (ATS) can help, and we can help you find the right software. We’ve created this guide to get you started. We know you want you to spend more time with the candidates and less time with paperwork, so we’ve cut the fluff.

This software guide will answer your questions about applicant tracking software and ATS solutions, such as:

What is applicant tracking software?
Why should you consider an ATS solution?
When do you need applicant tracking software?
How do you buy the right ATS solution for your organization?
What should you expect to pay for an ATS solution?
What are the basic and advanced features of a typical ATS?

We’ll give you tons of practical information so you have a solid understanding of how to select the right applicant tracking software solution for your organization.

What is Applicant Tracking Software?

Applicant tracking software is an application designed to help organizations manage and automate the recruiting and hiring processes. A typical ATS solution includes core functionality to manage:

Requisitions: workflow and approval, job library and templates
Job posting and sourcing: create and manage job postings, mass postings, internal job boards, integration with external job boards, browse and search for positions, online applications
Resumes: resume import from job boards, upload/attach documents, search and parse, boolean searches
Candidates: database, contact management, interview management, activity history, compatibility ranking, alerts
Screening: pre-screening, questions library, applicant scoring, application filtering and sorting
Workflow: approval and document workflow, activity logs
Compliance: EEO/OFCCP data collection and tracking, applicant flow logs, hire logs, data export, reporting

Applicant Tracking Software? Recruiting Software? Which is it?

There are two types of recruiting and applicant tracking software:

Software used by corporate HR departments and organizations to manage their hiring process (internal)
Software used by recruiting agencies, executive search firms, and/or recruiting process outsource (RPO) firms to manage the hiring of employees for other organizations (external)

To avoid the confusion and ensure that you are looking for the appropriate type of software, Capterra has defined and differentiated them as follows:

Applicant tracking software (ATS): used internally by corporate HR
Recruiting software: used by external staffing agencies

Note: It is common for software vendors to use the terms, “recruiting” and “applicant tracking” interchangeably. In fact, the majority of functionality is the same in both types of software. Some vendors, however, will focus more heavily on one user type or the other.

Related Software

During your search you will also encounter numerous software solutions available that either compliment and/or integrate with applicant tracking software to help you manage recruiting, hiring, on-boarding, performance management, and human resource management, such as:

Candidate management software: another term for applicant tracking software and focuses on internal hiring.
Staffing software: another term for recruiting software and used by outside agencies.
Talent management software: an application that covers a broader set of processes: recruiting, hiring, on-boarding, and performance management. Applicant tracking is typically included as part of talent management. May also be referred to as human capital management.
Human resource information/management systems (HRIS / HRMS): an application that covers the full range of human resource related processes. HRMS solutions may or may not have applicant tracking functionality included.

Why Should You Consider an ATS Solution?

Expenses related to your people are typically the largest, which is why more than 70% of CEOs believe that finding and keeping good people is their #1 priority.

Applicant tracking solutions have been proven to help you recruit and hire more efficiently and effectively, which reduces the expense and increases the likelihood of finding good people.

There are several good reasons to consider applicant tracking software…and a few bad ones. Make sure your reasons can be justified and align with your needs.

The best reasons for getting an ATS solution are the challenges your organization is currently facing. Is your organization…

Spending more time shuffling papers than talking to quality candidates?

Eliminate paperwork by accepting applications on-line, pre-screening applicants, and automatically following up with them.
Eliminate manual data entry by importing candidate information through job boards or your own branded careers website.
Eliminate the expense and administration associated with printing, processing, and passing paperwork with automated workflows configured for your organization.

Taking too long to fill positions with quality people?

Automate qualification and pre-screening by allowing applicants to complete applications and answer pre-screening questions on-line.
Sort and ranking candidates based on specified criteria.
Expand the candidate pool and find more quality candidates by integrating with job boards and social networks.

Struggling to track and report compliance activities and data?

Capture all communication and activity history for each candidate electronically.
Generate and export required applicant and hire logs.
Report and analyze data for proactive audits and reviews.

Unable to measure the effectiveness of the recruiting and hiring process?

Create dashboards, metrics, and reports to identify areas for improvement.
Enable managers and team-members as well as the HR department to access application information.

If so, you’ve identified significant business needs for considering ATS.

Reconsider an ATS purchase if you have caught yourself thinking:

The company down the street is using ATS, so we should get one too.
We aren’t getting enough applicants. Let’s get an ATS solution.
Our turnover rate is horrible. Let’s get applicant tracking software to fix it.

It’s important that any applicant tracking software you consider fits your organization, that you focus on quality not just quantity, and that you fix your internal issues first. ATS is a tool, not the solution.

When Do You Need Applicant Tracking Software?

It’s estimated that nearly all large organizations and roughly half of the mid-size organizations use an ATS solution.

Historically, ATS solutions were expensive and used exclusively by large businesses but recent trends have made it a possibility for small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) and organizations as well.

Organizations will benefit most if they…

Receive a lot of resumes but have no way to effectively and efficiently accept, review, and manage them.
Consistently have a large number of job opportunities and/or seasonal positions to fill.
Are still using manual processes, paperwork, and homegrown applications to screen, manage, and communicate with applicants.
Have established processes in place for recruiting and hiring and a dedicated person or team to “own” the system.

Recent ATS Trends

Vendors are creating applications sized for SMBs
Hosted / SaaS versions are making it cheaper and easier for SMBs to take advantage of ATS
Focus on configuration over customization is enabling SMBs to implement an ATS solution themselves
Emphasis on usability and simplicity rather than extra features
Increase of social network recruiting tools

How Do You Buy the Right ATS Solution?

The first step is finding a few resources and experts that can help you through the selection process. Below are a few to get you started:

Capterra’s Software Selection Guide covers the whole process: defining your needs, identifying matching options, and selecting the right software.

Capterra’s Applicant Tracking Software Directory contains over 225 solutions and tools to help you in your evaluation, including:

Product Filtering enables you to specify your requirements and find products that match
Product Comparisons give you the ability to quickly compare up to four products at a time
Expert Advice Library gives you additional insight and help through the process

FREE Expert
Consultation

If you want even more help Email us or call us at 855.GO.SOFTWARE

Applicant Tracking Software Selection Tips

(Note: These are specific to applicant tracking software and supplement our Software Selection Guide.)

Document your entire recruiting and hiring process
Cover everything from requisition to offer. Define the multiple roles (recruiter, manager, candidate, etc…) involved with the process and how/when they interact.
Talk to everyone involved with the process
More teams and individuals are involved with the hiring process these days. It’s important that you discuss the needs of all the stakeholders, especially those that will be accessing the system on a regular basis. What is their current process? Is it possible to automate any of it? What information do they need that they don’t currently have? What would help them identify and qualify good candidates? The answers become your needs and wants.

Advice From Your Peers...

Ask yourself how you will get everyone on-board with using the system. User adoption has been a big problem in the past, primarily because usability was not great.
Buy a long-term solution, not a short-term fix. Buying an ATS in order to get more resumes is a recipe for failure. Buy it to improve the process.
Consider how much you will have to customize the system. Lots of customization is bad on both sides. It makes the system more difficult to maintain and probably means you’re not using best practices. Go with best practices and the ability to configure the system to your needs instead.
You now have options to long-term contracts, expensive packages, and rigged demos. Make sure you get a free trial of a full-featured application. Look for tiered pricing that lets you scale as you need to and contracts without cancellation penalties.
Define your requirements to meet the common hires rather than the one time per year hire. You’ll waste your money on “cool” features to deal with the exceptions. Make sure the system works flawlessly for your core process. You can always deal with the one timer the old fashioned way.

What Should You Expect to Pay for an ATS Solution?

Your specific requirements, desired features, and environment will, in large part, determine how much an applicant tracking system will cost you. There are several things that you must determine that will also impact price:

Do you want to pay up-front (license fee) or each month (recurring)?
Do you want to pay per user or a flat fee (unlimited users)?
Do you want a hosted solution (SaaS or Cloud) or an on-premises solution?
What additional software, hardware, or services will need to be purchased?

Answering these questions will help get you the information necessary to calculate the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). When comparing systems, be sure to compare the TCO for each.

Many of the software vendors listed in Capterra’s directories have supplied us with price ranges for their products. Based on that data, you should expect the following price ranges for a typical ATS solution:

Monthly (recurring): less than $50 to potentially thousands of dollars
One-time license: less than $500 to potentially tens of thousands of dollars

With this large range of possible prices, it’s possible to find a quality system at a price that fits your budget. It’s important to think about and start discussing your budget as early as possible in the process in order to find one that fits.

What Are the Basic and Advanced Features of a Typical ATS?

There are hundreds of features in an applicant tracking software solution. Some you will need, most you will not. Focus on the top 10 – 15 that you really need.

Basic Features (found in most ATS solutions):

Requisite management
Applicant profiles, filtering, and ranking
Resume database and search/parsing
Interview tracking and scheduling
Job application management
Candidate matching
Contact management
Jobs board / careers website
Pre-screening
Pre-employment testing/assessment
EEOC and compliance management
Workflow management

Advanced Features (not included in all ATS solutions):

On-boarding
Background screening
Certification tracking
Referral management
HR integration
MS Outlook integration
Social network recruiting tools
Candidate self-service
Offer letter automation

Need more help? Have questions?

Call us for a FREE Expert Consultation (855.GO.SOFTWARE).

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PCRecruiter by Main Sequence Technology is a powerful web-based solution for recruitment, HR sourcing, RPO and staffing. Featuring Outlook integration, mobile access, integrated job posting, candidate screening, virtually unlimited storage, automated resume import, full text searching, VOIP integration, import/export from major 3rd party services, and completely configurable data views. The Main Sequence team has over a decade of experience and thousands of customers worldwide. [Learn more]

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