The ATS
Buyer’s Guide
Uncover the features you really need
and find out how to assess the options available.
The ATS Buyer’s Guide 1
Contents
3 Introduction
4 Do you need an ATS?
6 Building a use case
9 What’s your budget?
11 Features to look for
15 Get to know the vendor
18 You’re set!
20 ATS evaluation kit
The ATS Buyer’s Guide 2
Introduction
The quality of a company’s hires is the single best predictor of its future success.
Software should be at the heart of getting this right but for far too long applicant
tracking systems (ATS) have gotten in the way of business success. In recent years a
new breed of ATS has started to right this wrong.
The first generation of ATSs evolved to help employers take that old standby, the
paper resume, and scan it into a database. Like most technologies that replicate the
analogue way of doing things, it left a lot of room for improvement. Some of that
improvement came with the first online applicant tracking systems – but end users
found them unnecessarily complicated and hard to use.
Bad software meant human resources, recruitment and talent sourcing teams were
underserved by technology, left to peek over the shoulders of their better-served
counterparts in sales and marketing.
The advent of the cloud has spurred a renaissance in recruiting software that is
delivering a sophisticated and streamlined hiring process to companies of all sizes.
More intuitive design and smarter features are changing what’s possible. Now, along
with the tools to track and manage candidates, integrated sourcing options are
helping to fill the talent pipeline. The ATS is no longer the poor cousin of the CRM.
The ATS Buyer’s Guide 3
Do you
need an ATS?
At Workable we speak to thousands of companies who
want to improve their hiring process. Every organization
is unique, so this can mean different things to different
companies. Broadly speaking, we’ve found three common
scenarios driving the search for a better way to hire.
The ATS Buyer’s Guide 4
1. Growing pains
Fast growth too often means an unpredictable hiring process and mixed results.
Companies with growing pains are typically looking for some predictability and
structure across candidate sourcing and hiring.
2. Drowning in email and spreadsheets
A traditional approach to hiring means trying to stay afloat with manual methods
like email and spreadsheets. Email folders for resumes and columns of feedback
in Excel are no longer scalable. Companies are looking for more efficient ways to
manage candidates and collaborate as a team.
3. Outdated software
The existing ATS has passed its sell by date. Clunky and hard to use, it’s shunned by
hiring managers. Outdated software fails to help with hiring goals and companies in
this situation are looking for a modern, efficient approach to deliver on the original
promise of an ATS.
A modern ATS, chosen with the right criteria, will relieve these common
pain points. Take a step back and think about how your recruiting could
be improved with the right tool.
The ATS Buyer’s Guide 5
Building
a use case
Wrestling with a broken hiring system is a thankless task.
Typically the only team who knows the hiring process
is broken is the team doing it. Sometimes it’s just one
person and they’re suffering in silence. If you’re reading
this, it’s probably you.
The ATS Buyer’s Guide 6
Remember the consequences of this struggle will take a toll on the rest of the
business. Acting decisively now can turn a struggle into a competitive advantage, as
you fix something that too many companies are failing to address.
But you need to make a case for changing the status quo. Here are some
common pain points we’ve encountered to get you started:
AA Your careers page isn’t up to date or it’s not showcasing your employer
brand. You want a beautiful, up to date careers site but you can’t find the
resources to make one and you’re not sure how it would be maintained.
AA You’re spending more time than ever submitting the same job ad to
multiple job boards.
AA Irrelevant applications from unqualified candidates are choking your inbox.
AA Sourcing passive candidates and manually entering data into a spreadsheet
or database takes more time than you have.
AA Candidates are applying from multiple sources and without a central
repository there’s no way to track who came from where.
AA Interviews are not delivering the best hires. It’s impossible to review all
relevant feedback on candidates and prep for interviews quickly.
AA You’re wasting time manually compiling hiring reports. You want to take
stock of your hiring efforts but there’s no real data to work with.
AA You saw a potential star last time you were hiring but the position wasn’t
right. Now you’re hiring again you can’t find them.
AA You had a great candidate but the hiring team was slow to deliver feedback.
The candidate experience was poor and they turned the job down.
AA There’s no process. People are hiring in different ways and there is no
transparency or repeatability.
The ATS Buyer’s Guide 7
Start by putting together your own list which can become your case for making an
investment in new recruiting software.
Tim Sackett @TimSackett
HR/Recruiting Talent Pro
We moved into this space in our history where recruiting
technology has never been so affordable, meaning organizations
no longer have an excuse not to have it. Great tech is so cheap
now that if you don’t have it, you’re making a personal choice to
stay in the dark ages of recruiting! For SMBs this has never been
more real. SMBs can now have even better recruiting technology
than their enterprise peers. While enterprise folks get big, vanilla
based recruiting technology, SMB shops can move faster to
integrate the latest and greatest tech on the market. It’s such an
exciting time to be in talent acquisition, the availability of world
class technology is transforming how we all recruit on a daily basis
The ATS Buyer’s Guide 8
What’s
your budget?
Prior to the arrival of a new generation of applicant
tracking systems your choice was basically a toss up
between two flawed options:
1) A robust but clunky and expensive ATS
2) An affordable ATS that lacked the necessary features
Happily there is now more choice and better options.
The ATS Buyer’s Guide 9
The kind of features that large corporations were spending their entire software
budget on are now available to ambitious companies of all sizes. In fact, it’s the
multinationals who have been left wondering whether it’s time to leave legacy
software behind and move to modern cloud-based solutions.
The ROI of recruiting software
The most obvious advantage is the time saved throughout the hiring process:
AA Faster resume screening
AA Quicker interview scheduling
AA Faster and more informed decision-making.
This time is golden. But a modern ATS does more than save time, it helps attract the
best candidates with smart sourcing features and unlocks better hiring decisions by
delivering the data you need when you need it.
Considering free software?
When budgets are severely constrained, free software can be tempting. It can work
for teams who have the technical capacity to install it, adapt it and maintain it. Even
then it means living without many of the standard features of the modern ATS. A
solution that’s free now can be very expensive in the medium to long term.
The ATS Buyer’s Guide 10
Features
to look for
A modern ATS does more than organize resumes.
It helps you improve all areas of recruitment and build
authentic hiring expertise in your organization.
The ATS Buyer’s Guide 11
Candidate sourcing
There are two ways to hire the best candidate: attract candidates to your careers
page, or proactively source passive candidates from networks and communities
online. Your ATS should have tools to help with both scenarios.
AA Your careers page is the shop window for your company. A modern ATS will
deliver a beautiful careers page and maintain it for you.
AA Job boards are still one of the
quickest ways to tap into the
Note: When you’re ready to
active candidate market. A
evaluate specific products
modern ATS makes posting to
or do a product demo,
multiple job boards a simple,
jump to the Modern ATS
single submission. Is the ATS only
evaluation checklist at the
integrated with a small number
end of this guide.
of free boards or does it give
you access to paid or specialist
boards?
AA If you’re hunting for harder to find passive candidate a modern ATS should
offer smart tools like browser extensions to copy profiles from social
networks to the candidate pool in your ATS.
AA A modern ATS should take the data entry out of hiring, while more
advanced ones will automatically enrich your candidate profiles with data
from public sources like social media.
The ATS Buyer’s Guide 12
AA Referrals are well known to be the best source of candidates. A robust ATS
will make it easy for your colleagues to refer candidates even if they don’t
have a resume, boosting the number of referrals you receive.
Applicant tracking and talent CRM
Candidate management is the bread and butter of an ATS. The best applicant
tracking systems help you organize your hiring into structured pipelines and offer
smart tools like bulk email. Simple features for creating interview kits and structured
interview feedback will deliver better informed hiring decisions.
By providing a clear structure and repeatable process, a modern ATS keeps you on
track with your hiring plan as you scale your company.
Reporting
To master hiring you need to be able to dig into your process, understand what’s
working well and where there is room for improvement. A modern ATS should offer
robust reporting and analytics without the accompanying headache of compiling
data sets.
These are the key reports to look for:
AA Candidate Source Reports
AA Pipeline Reports
AA Time to Hire Reports
AA Productivity Reports
Already an advanced data analyst, or on your way to becoming one? Look out for
The ATS Buyer’s Guide 13
an ATS that can provide your raw recruiting data so you can conduct your own
custom analysis in tools like Tableau or Chart.io.
Collaboration and ease of use
A modern ATS recognizes that hiring is a team sport, with a range of colleagues
involved in the process from early phases like candidate screening, through to
interviews and offers. Smart collaboration tools enable a more transparent flow of
information.
A modern ATS gets teams to buy into its benefits by being simple and intuitive to
use.
When everyone from recruiters, to HR directors, hiring managers and the CEO can
hire in concert, it delivers real, measurable improvement.
Mobile
You, your hiring managers and exec team are working from mobile. Modern
software we use at work is accessible on mobile, why should your recruiting
software be the exception?
When reviewing an ATS look closely at the mobile functionality available. Too often
this is limited to a basic feature set, meaning you’re still locked to your desktop. The
best ATS will provide all the features you need to hire on the go. They’ll highlight the
most important recruiting tasks, and alert you to candidates that need attention,
providing full access to your candidate database and candidates’ profiles.
Decide how your team will work best. Are you happy with a mobile version of the
desktop application or would your team engage faster with a native Android or iOS
app?
The ATS Buyer’s Guide 14
Security and Performance
When you’re handling sensitive candidate information, you need to be sure that it’s
secure, and that your company remains compliant with local data protection laws.
AA How secure is your data and what information can they provide you with on
their security features?
AA Do they offer a Service Level Agreement for availability/uptime?
AA How often do they release new features?
AA Do they maintain a public page where you can view historic downtime?
AA Will you receive advance notification of scheduled maintenance or
downtime?
AA Can they tell you what their next releases are and when to expect them?
The ATS Buyer’s Guide 15
Get to know
the vendor
A Modern ATS will have all the features you need. It
will take the hassle out of the setup, help with team
onboarding and support you for as long as you’re a
customer. These are some important questions to ask
any potential ATS provider.
The ATS Buyer’s Guide 16
1. How many customers do they have?
AA Are they a go-to solution for 1000s of companies?
2. Are they well-rated on software review sites? Try:
AA SoftwareAdvice.com
AA GetApp.com
AA Capterra.com
AA TrustPilot.com
3. Do they offer onboarding assistance?
AA Will they help set up your account?
AA Do they offer training to get you started?
AA How long does the set up usually take for a company like yours?
4. What support do they offer?
AA Is it email only or do they offer phone support too?
AA What is their average response time?
AA What time zones do they cover?
AA Do they have 24 hour support coverage or do they only offer support
during working hours?
AA Do they have international support teams to cover you and your colleagues
in other countries around the clock ?
The ATS Buyer’s Guide 17
AA Will you have an account manager?
AA Do they have online support resources and video guides?
You’re set!
You’re ready to start evaluating and move a step closer to improving
your hiring with a Modern ATS. Next steps? Use the evaluation
checklist to make the right choice for your company.
The ATS Buyer’s Guide 18
About Workable
Workable is trusted by over 5000 companies globally, to streamline their
hiring. From posting a job to sourcing candidates, Workable provides
the tools you need to manage multiple hiring pipelines. Transparent
communication, organized candidate profiles, structured interviews and a
full reporting suite gives hiring teams the information they need to make
the right choice. Workable is available for desktop and mobile.
OVER 5000 COMPANIES TRUST WORKABLE TO
STREAMLINE THEIR HIRING, INCLUDING:
The ATS Buyer’s Guide 19
ATS evaluation kit
ATS evaluation | VENDOR NAME:
GETTING STARTED AND ONGOING SUPPORT
How many customers do they have?
What onboarding assistance is offered?
How much will it cost?
How long does it take the average company to implement?
Can they migrate data from your existing ATS/spreadsheets?
Is the support email only or is phone support also available?
Is there an additional cost for ongoing support?
What is their average response time to support emails?
Do they have customer support teams in multiple countries
to support international offices?
Is support available 7 days per week?
Are online support articles provided and easily accessible?
What documentation is available regarding the
application’s security and performance?
What is the uptime Service Level Agreement (SLA)?
Is a free trial available?
CANDIDATE SOURCING
Do they offer a free hosted careers page?
Do they offer a customizable and embeddable job widget to
work with your existing careers page?
Do they offer customizable application forms?
ATS EVALUATION SHEET / 1
ATS evaluation | VENDOR NAME:
Do they support mobile optimized job descriptions
and application forms?
Can candidates apply with LinkedIn?
How large is their job board syndication network?
Is there an employee referral program?
Do they provide unique job links for sharing via social media?
Is there a Chrome extension for sourcing?
Can they offer an external recruiter portal?
Do they support resume parsing?
Can they support bulk resume upload?
Do they have automatic candidate source tracking?
APPLICANT TRACKING
Do they offer hiring pipelines to keep candidates organized
by job and stage?
Can they support interview scheduling with calendar integration?
Is there an easy way for the hiring team to add a candidate
rating or evaluation?
Do they offer interview kits to prepare hiring managers
Do they offer inbuilt scorecards for interview feedback?
Can you run background checks within the product?
Is it mobile ready?
ATS EVALUATION SHEET / 2
ATS evaluation | VENDOR NAME:
REPORTING
Do they offer candidate source reports to identify your best
candidate sources?
Do they support current and historic pipeline reports to track
the existing and historic state of your hiring funnel?
Can they provide productivity reports to track hiring
activities over time?
Do they offer time to hire / time to fill reports?
Can they monitor referral tracking and reporting?
Do they provide automatic EEO/OFCCP surveys and reports?
Do they integrate with business intelligence tools?
TALENT CRM
Can they provide 2-way email sync?
Can they support bulk email?
Do they offer customizable email templates?
Are candidate profiles automatically enriched with
social media links?
Do they have a searchable candidate database?
Can you set “Snooze” reminders to contact candidates?
COLLABORATION & EASE OF USE
Is there a limit to the number of users they support?
ATS EVALUATION SHEET / 3
ATS evaluation | VENDOR NAME:
Do they offer privacy settings for confidential notes/emails?
What are the different user-level access rights?
Are there comment and messaging functions for
team collaboration?
Do they have a user-friendly interface that requires
minimal training?
ADDITIONAL NOTES
ATS EVALUATION SHEET / 4
ATS FEATURES CHECKLIST
CAREERS PAGES
Brandable, hosted careers site
Customizable application forms
Optimized for desktop & mobile
API for custom integrations
Widget to auto-update existing pages
JOB ADVERTSING
Free job board integrations
Premium job board integrations
Social referral links
Facebook Jobs Tab
Candidate source reports
CANDIDATE SOURCING
Integrated sourcing tool
Automatic social profile gathering
Trackable employee referrals
Resume parsing
Add candidates via email
APPLICANT TRACKING
Visual pipelines / intuitive interface
Candidate profile and timeline
Fast application review
Bulk progress / disqualify
Candidate evaluations at every stage
Trackable team communication
2-way email sync (Gmail / Outlook…)
ATS FEATURES CHECKLIST / 1
ATS FEATURES CHECKLIST
APPLICANT TRACKING (CONT’D)
Bulk email with duplicate detection
Private comments for hiring mangers
INTERVIEWS
Interview scheduling
External calendar integration
Custom interview stages
Interview kits for multiple stages
Scorecards for multiple stages
Aggregated scorecard results
Company-wide interview templates
Automated interview reminders
TALENT CRM
Talent pool creation
Searchable candidate database
Share candidates externally
Snooze a candidate
Trackable candidate communication
TEAM COLLABORATION
User access rights and permissions
Task management and alerts
Include external recruiters
MOBILE RECRUITING
Mobile-optimized website
Dedicated Android app
Dedicated iOS app
ATS FEATURES CHECKLIST / 2
ATS FEATURES CHECKLIST
REPORTS & ANALYTICS
Integrated reporting suite
Candidate Source Report
Hiring Pipeline Report
Time to Hire Report
Productivity Report
Custom analytics
SUPPORT
Dedicated account manager
Onboarding assistance
In-app live chat in correct timezone
Phone support
Email support
Help center
INTEGRATIONS
HRIS (HR information systems)
Email / calendar
Background checks
EEO / OFCCP compliance
Job boards & social networks
LinkedIn / LinkedIn Recruiter
Custom integrations via private API
SECURITY
US / EU data protection
SSL & data encryption
Disaster recovery
ATS FEATURES CHECKLIST / 3
