Best Applicant Tracking System in 2024

What is an Applicant Tracking System (ATS)? 

An applicant tracking system, or recruitment tracking system, is a software solution that is specifically designed to simplify, streamline and speed up the hiring workflow. Thanks to a centralized database, this tracking tool increases the efficiency and productivity of the recruitment team. Moreover, it empowers the hiring team to create engaging job descriptions and post multiple job openings across numerous channels. 

Assess the suitability of a candidate for the current job opening at your organization with applicant tracking systems. With candidates exploring newer avenues for suitable jobs that suit their profile, businesses, and organizations have begun automating employee screening processes with applicant tracker software.   

Aside from helping companies save time and resources, online applicant tracking software offers important features for social media integration, career page branding, email templates, AI analytics, and flexible workflows. You can post a new job, create an interesting job description, attach your company's credentials, send it across multiple channels with the help of an applicant management system.

How We Select the Best Applicant Tracking Software for You?

Applicant tracking software helps organizations streamline the recruitment process and reduce the cost of hire per candidate. It can help you with sourcing candidates, tracking applicants, parsing resumes, managing the talent pool, and so on. In case, you want an ATS tool for your organization, then this guide might be of great help. To help you choose the right ATS, we have done a detailed comparison of software based on the pricing, functionalities, free trial, and so. 

The detailed comparison is done on several features like talent pool management, applicant tracking, candidate sourcing, interview management, and so on. Many ATS systems that have been listed offer a free trial to test their features. Some of them are open-source and completely free to use. Some of the applicant tracker software options are completely paid for and come with a subscription.

What are the Features of the Applicant Tracking System (ATS)?

An Applicant Tracking System comes with unique features to streamline the recruitment process for the talent acquisition team such as importing and exporting data, creating job descriptions, and posting job openings on various portals. Some common features of ATS platforms are enumerated below: 

• Job templates: Applicant tracking systems help with the most important part of the job creation and approval process. These provide pre-built job templates to simplify the work of an organization by creating application processes for different vacancies. Also, there is a separate vacancy approval section for each kind of job published. 

• Customizable career pages: Along with job templates, online applicant software provides customizable career pages, which can be trimmed to perfection with the company's logo, guidelines, and perks offered. It is critical to attract the most suitable candidates. 
• Advanced search tools: Advanced search tools make it easy for recruiters to search for a candidate with the desired variables. For instance, if you are looking for a candidate with a scientific research degree and knowledge, you can enter details such as degree, research interest areas, work experience, location, specific achievements in the field to find the best job candidates. 
• Reporting and analytics: Candidate management system provides a built-in analytics tool for reporting on data, such as acquisition costs, hiring time limits, and diversity compliance. Further, these  applicant tracker software tools provide an insight into where exactly improvement needs to be made within the entire hiring process. 
• Pre-screening: Assess new and prospective appointees by utilizing applicant tracking software's pre-employment assessment tests, such as video interviews, personality tests and pre-set questions. Such tests save a lot of the company's time and resources in selecting the deserving candidate. 
• Systems integration: Integrate the applicant tracker software with other critical software solutions for your organization, such as payroll checker, HRIS software, background check services, etc. Software for tracking applicant's info thus transforms into a powerful toolkit for handling recruitment profiles.

• Candidate feedback: With this feature, you can easily provide feedback to employees once their interview is completed. You can send feedback in an email to the candidate mentioning both positives and negatives of the interview in a hassle-free manner.  

• Interview Management: The applicant management system can also be used for scheduling and managing the interviews for the prospective candidates. You can send interview mail, schedule interviews, share the calendar with team members, and so on.

• Communication logs: Look for an candidate management system that provides an intuitive calendar, automatic replies, email templates, and communication logs for quick response time. The entire communication channel is further streamlined when the applicant tracking system gets integrated with email channels like Gmail, Outlook, Messenger, etc. 

• CV analysis: CV parsing technicality is of important use to candidates and companies alike. While a candidate can automatically attach a CV to application forms, the company in question too can organize CVs by sorting them out as per qualifications, work experience, and other chosen criteria 
• Custom recruiting workflows: Improve the quality of hiring processes by managing custom recruiting workflows. Once the workflow for job recruitment is set up, it becomes easier for a company to receive an overview of the entire hiring process. Your business with an applicant system can check for the candidate's ranking, the total number of applicants, and communication history.
• Automated communication: Send bulk recruitment emails to applicants with an applicant tracking system. You can also attach email templates for conducting video or face to face interviews and do necessary follow-ups with applicant tracking system's automated communication tools.
• Integrated career page: An integrated career page provides a complete overview of an organization in terms of its achievements, vision, focus areas, core team members and company's guiding principles. Online applicant tracking platforms help with the creation of company pages using pre-built design templates for candidates to view and apply for the next job opening.
• Multiple job board support: Candidates use multiple job portals to search for new jobs. Companies too in a similar way opt for candidate management systems that help track and manage candidates’ interests and submissions from different job portals.

What are the Benefits of Using Applicant Tracking Software? 

Hiring the right candidate for a job role is a vital part of your organization's success, but it is a time-consuming process and requires a lot of resources. But with an applicant tracking software, most of the problems associated with the recruitment process can be streamlined. For example, it can help you in sourcing qualified candidates, collaborating with potential prospects, and effectively scaling the recruitment pipeline. 

Let's look at the other benefits of using applicant tracker software and how you can use it to save time & money:

Post Vacancies on Your Official Website and Third-Party Job Portals

With an applicant tracking system, there is no need to spend extra on recruitment agencies. You can easily post and track vacancies across various employment boards as well as your own website. The software provides you the facility to shortlist suitable candidates from tons of fresh applications.

Moreover, it also tells you about websites that are not giving your positive returns, so this again saves you from burning a hole in the hiring budget.

Streamline the Onboarding Process

Once you hire the candidates, you can welcome them with an effective onboarding process. According to a study by Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), out of all the employees who attend a personalized onboarding session, 69% of them are more likely to continue to work for the same company for more than 3 years.

An applicant tracking system makes the hiring process more organized while giving new candidates clarity from the first day itself.

Automate Mundane Tasks and Reduce Paperwork

The next big advantage of using an ATS platform is that you can automate daily tasks like resume screening, attendance tracking, record keeping, and more. It allows you to spend more time on the tasks that require your attention, rather than spending time on mundane work.

Unnecessary paperwork also causes a lot of stress and leaves less time for training, employee engagement and strategy making. But with applicant tracking software you can digitally manage and store your documents. Moreover, it also allows you to Everify critical documents for employee background checks.

Builds Your Brand Reputation

During the hiring process, it's important to leave a long-lasting impression on your candidates. Whether you hire them or not, the candidate should have a positive experience with your hiring process. It can only happen if you properly notify them about each stage of the interview process and tell them about their selection, rejection, and next round of interviews.

Thanks to an ATS system, you can ensure transparent and prompt communication with candidates. Not only candidates, but the software also allows you to provide instant status updates to the higher management.

Manages the Talent Database 

Job boards can provide you with several candidates who are likely to be the right fit for the open positions in your organization. However, some of them might not be the immediate fit but can be considered in the near future. This pool of candidates is called the talent pool. ATS software can help you in maintaining the database of all these candidates so that you can contact them in the event of opening job positions in your organization. 

Minimizes the Hiring Cost 

By using ATS software, you can reduce the overall cost of hiring procedure. As it integrates with several job portals, it highlights which portal is providing you with the best candidates. This enables you to spend time only on those portals from where you are getting the most candidates. Moreover, it eliminates the need to hire external recruitment agencies by automatically parsing resumes and ensuring only the good candidates are selected for the next phase. 

How to Find the Best Applicant Tracking System Software? 

Look for the following critical features within ATS  platforms to identify the best solution for your business:

• Social media integration: With applicant tracking software, look for social media integration. Candidates these days make full use of social media channels to search and apply for new jobs regularly. 
• Mobile application: Most users prefer downloading job applications on their mobile phones for quick searches. Therefore, find an applicant system, which supports mobile applications. This way, the current opening in your company can be visible to a larger audience. 
• Automated screening: You can automatically filter out the deserving profiles with a candidate management system. Ruling out applications not fit for the current job profile saves a lot of time and resources. 
• Integrated personality tests: Surfing through the right candidate profile becomes easy with integrated personality tests.  Such tests let all the current applicants answer questions related to not only personality assessment but also the suitability of prospective candidates for the current job role. 
• Analytics dashboard: The analytics dashboard creates data regularly to provide insight into the entire recruitment process of a business. It is a managerial tool deployed by organizations to bring forth improvements as necessary to develop a productive hiring channel.

What to Know When Selecting an Applicant Tracking System? 

Keep the following things in mind before choosing an applicant tracking software for your organization:  

• Create a list of the relevant features necessary for your business
• Check customers’ reviews and vendor’s reputation before choosing any software 
• Look for an ATS system which is easy to use and navigate  
• Check whether it can be integrated with your existing systems  
• Ensure that the cost of the ATS tool fits within your budget  
• See if any vendor offers a free trial to evaluate software features  
• Make sure the software is updated regularly for the latest features  

What's the Usual Cost of Applicant Tracking Systems?

The price of applicant tracking systems starts at as low as Rs 500 per month. However, it depends on multiple factors like customization, pricing model, number of users, etc. You can opt from the following pricing models to get the right ATS software.

• Per-User Pricing: It is the most widely used pricing model of applicant-tracking software, where a company pays a monthly fee based on the number of users. The company that has ten users will have to shell out more than the one that has only 4 users. While this plan has a lot of flexibility, this also has a drawback as the companies are bound to pay more when multiple individuals are involved in the hiring process.
• Pay for Every Job Posting: It’s a preferred model for small-scale companies that don't hire as frequently as large MNCs. But companies with large hiring volumes may not opt for because of the budget constraint.
• Pay for Each Module: This pricing structure is mainly followed by companies that have integrated ATS systems with the HRMS suite. Training, HR functions, payroll management, attendance tracking, and performance management are the popular modules of the suite. Moreover, businesses pay a certain amount to incorporate ATS module in the HRMS software.  
• Flat Rate: Regardless of the number of users and job listings, organizations pay a fixed monthly or annual amount to use an applicant tracking system.

What's the Difference Between HR Tools and Recruitment Tools?

Recruitment tools are a subset of HR tools and offer specific features to streamline the recruitment procedure. On the other hand, HR tools are used to manage everyday human resources operations like payroll, timesheet management, attendance tracking, and so on.  

However, some features will be available in recruitment software and not in HR tools. Here are some major differences between these two in terms of features:

Major Differences Between HR Tools and Recruitment Tools
Metrics	HR Tools	Recruitment Tools
Employee Scheduling	Yes	No
Automated Data Gathering	Yes	Yes
Applicant Tracking	Yes	Yes
Payroll Management	Yes	No
Attendance Management	Yes	No
Candidate Evaluation	Yes	Yes

Misconceptions about Applicant Tracking Systems 

Although the ATS system can be a great asset for your organization to streamline the recruitment process. However, there are certain misconceptions people have in mind about the ATS system as enumerated below: 

AI Specifies Which Candidate Should be Selected and Interviewed 

The AI-based applicant tracking system helps recruiters review job applications, candidates' profiles, resumes, and so on. However, it does not specify which candidate should be selected or dismissed. Instead, all this procedure is done by people involved in the screening process. Knock-out questions like experience required and minimum qualifications help recruiters eliminate prospects who do not meet the bare minimum criteria. Moreover, they can also archive talent to be referred to in the future. 

Recruiters Reach Out to Candidates in Bulk without Reviewing their Resumes 

This is another myth about the ATS tool that recruiters reach candidates in bulk without even reviewing their resumes. Some people believe that talent specialists utilize an ATS to send generic emails instead of tailored emails to candidates.  

However, it is not completely true. Instead, the talent acquisition teams use ATS tools to send bulk emails to candidates who are matching the job position requirements. They also personalize messages and emails to candidates to ensure that they receive only relevant messages. 

Candidates Can Easily Trick the ATS Recruitment Software to Get Accepted. 

This is the most common misconception about ATS recruitment software. Many candidates update their resumes in a way to get their application accepted by the ATS software. They do this because they feel that the applicant tracking system can auto review their resumes based on phases and keywords required by the recruiters. 

However, many ATS offer this functionality, but it is not completely true. Instead, the hiring teams go through the applications and use knock out questions to eliminate all unqualified candidates. Moreover, they also consult with other team members before selecting the best candidates. 

The ATS System is Only Beneficial for Recruiters 

This is one of the most common misconceptions about ATS software. However, it is equally helpful for candidates as well. When the candidates’ resumes are selected, they are constantly engaged and nurtured throughout the selection process with the help of ATS. A follow-up email is sent to prospects with ATS recruitment software to keep them updated at every stage of recruitment. 

Applicant Tracking System Trends 

Here are some of the popular trends related to application tracking software:  

Social Recruiting 

To find the best candidates, recruiters can also reach out candidates on social media channels. Many ATS solutions now come with built-in social recruiting features to post all the relevant information about open job positions on various social media channels and job boards. With the analytical feature, you can also identify which social media is helping you in attracting more potential candidates. 

Remote Recruiting 

Post Covid-19, many companies are shifting towards work from home. The same applies to recruiting as well as many ATS comes with functionality to recruit from anywhere. These systems are optimized to work on mobile devices easily.  

This implies that candidates can easily fill out applications using any device and recruiters can view profiles and check an application status directly from the mobile-friendly ATS. Moreover, they also offer integration with video interview software to take candidates’ interviews remotely. 

Use machine learning & artificial intelligence to your advantage   

Although recruitment is a human led process, machine learning and AI is used to automate mundane tasks, promote better decision-making and promote more jobs to qualified people. In order to communicate with jobseekers, companies can implement conversational chat box with ARI (Automated Recruiter Interface). This way, candidates can interact with the brand through their preferred messenger service, such as Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp etc. at their preferred time of the day.