ATS (Applicant Tracking System) does the heavy lifting by organizing, tracking, and even ranking candidates based on qualifications and offers multiple benefits to recruiters.
In this article, I’ll explain how an ATS works, its key functions, and how recruiters use ATS to hire the right candidates.
How Does an ATS Work?
Below are 8 steps explaining how an Application Tracking System works.
Step 1: Receiving and Storing Applications
The ATS starts by collecting and organizing job applications from various sources—whether job boards, career websites, or direct applications. Once the applications roll in, the ATS stores all the data in a centralized database, ensuring every candidate’s information is accessible in one place.
Having a centralized database means recruiters never have to dig through endless email chains or scattered spreadsheets.
Everything is in one organized system, saving time and reducing the risk of losing valuable applicants in the shuffle. Plus, this central hub allows for quickly retrieving candidate profiles for future roles, ensuring no talent is overlooked.
Step 2: Resume Parsing
This is where the magic of automation begins. The ATS uses resume parsing technology to break down each resume into easily digestible chunks. It extracts key details like skills, experience, education, and contact information.
Then, this data is standardized, meaning every resume follows a consistent format, making it easier for recruiters to compare candidates side by side.
This process eliminates the headache of manually reading through hundreds of resumes. Instead, recruiters get neatly organized data ready for review. This ensures that important details aren’t missed, which is especially crucial when dealing with high volumes of applicants.
Step 3: Keyword and Qualification Filtering
The next step is where the ATS flexes its muscles since it will filter out candidates who don’t meet the job’s requirements. Using keywords and job-specific criteria, the system identifies the applicants who have the right qualifications based on the job description.
The success of this step depends heavily on how well the job description is crafted. Including clear and relevant keywords makes the ATS work more effectively, filtering out unqualified candidates and saving recruiters hours of manual work. This feature ensures that recruiters only spend their time reviewing top-tier candidates who actually meet the job requirements.
Step 4: Rankings and Scoring Candidates
Once the filtering is done, the ATS ranks and scores candidates based on various factors, such as experience, skills, and education. Advanced algorithms start here, prioritizing applicants who best match the job description.
Recruiters can quickly identify the most promising candidates without spending hours sorting through applications. And yes, while the ATS provides an initial ranking, recruiters can adjust these scores manually based on other criteria.
By focusing on top-ranked candidates, the hiring process becomes faster and more strategic, ensuring only the best make it to the next round.
Step 5: Communication and Collaboration
Effective communication is critical, and the ATS makes it seamless. It can automatically send personalized emails, reminders, and notifications to candidates at every stage of the hiring process, from acknowledging applications to scheduling interviews.
Internal collaboration is also boosted, as the ATS tracks all candidate communication histories and allows team members to collaborate easily. Hiring managers and recruiters can share notes, feedback, and candidate insights, ensuring everyone is on the same page without digging through multiple platforms.
Step 6: Interview Scheduling and Coordination
Gone are the days of endless back-and-forth emails to schedule interviews. ATS platforms integrate with calendars and scheduling tools, allowing candidates to book interviews directly based on availability.
This is beneficial since it improves the recruiter’s efficiency and the candidate’s experience. A smooth and coordinated interview process makes a great impression on candidates and reduces the chances of scheduling conflicts. Plus, it allows for easier rescheduling if something comes up, keeping everyone on track.
Step 7: Candidate Evaluation and Decision-Making
Once interviews are conducted, the ATS tracks all feedback from hiring teams. Whether it’s interviewers’ notes or assessment scores, all data is centralized, making it easy for recruiters and hiring managers to evaluate candidates.
Collaboration tools within the ATS allow for easy feedback sharing, enabling teams to make well-informed, collective decisions. There is no more isolated feedback or decision-making; everyone involved has access to the same information, ensuring a more balanced and informed hiring decision.
Step 8: Onboarding (Post-Hire)
The journey doesn’t stop once a candidate is hired. Many ATS platforms integrate seamlessly with HR software to manage the onboarding process. Once candidates are selected, their data transitions smoothly into the company’s onboarding system.
What tasks can it handle? From sending welcome emails and managing paperwork to scheduling onboarding sessions and assigning training, the ATS handles it all. Integrating ATS and HR systems ensures a swift transition from candidate to employee, reducing delays and ensuring a positive start for new hires.
An ATS doesn’t just make life easier for recruiters—it transforms the entire hiring process into a streamlined, efficient operation that attracts top talent while saving time and reducing human error.
Why Do Recruiters Use Applicant Tracking System (ATS)?
Recruiters today are tasked with managing a complex and often overwhelming hiring process. From sifting through countless resumes to coordinating interviews and keeping up with communication, it’s easy for things to get chaotic.
Speed and accuracy are crucial, especially when top talent is in high demand, and the competition to secure the best candidates is fierce. That’s where an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) comes into play. An ATS doesn’t just simplify recruitment—it transforms it, turning what used to be a time-consuming and manual process into an efficient, automated workflow.
With everything from the resume screening process to communication handled in one centralized platform, recruiters can focus on what really matters: finding and engaging the right talent. Here’s why ATS systems have become indispensable tools for modern recruiters.
How Do Recruiters Use ATS to Find Candidates?
In the fast-paced world of recruitment, time is of the essence. Recruiters need to sift through hundreds, sometimes thousands, of resumes to find the perfect fit for a role, and that’s where the Applicant Tracking System (ATS) shines.
A well-configured ATS allows recruiters to filter through resumes in seconds using keywords, ensuring they only review the most qualified candidates. But there’s a bit of strategy involved in how recruiters use these keywords to make their searches efficient and precise.
1. Using Keywords to Search for Candidates
Keywords are the foundation of an ATS search. The recruiters enter the system to find resumes matching the job’s requirements. But how do recruiters choose the right keywords? They focus on the job description, looking for the core skills, qualifications, and experiences that are non-negotiable for the role.
For example, a recruiter hiring a project manager might use keywords like “PMP certification,” “Agile,” or “budget management” to ensure that the candidates they see possess these essential skills.
These keywords can be individual words or phrases commonly related to job titles, technical skills, or specific qualifications. The more tailored the keywords are to the role, the better the search results. However, if a candidate’s resume doesn’t contain these crucial terms, it won’t make it to the recruiter’s shortlist.
In essence, the ATS is programmed to filter out resumes lacking the specified keywords, meaning some potentially strong candidates may never be seen if their resumes aren’t keyword-optimized.
2. Combining Multiple Keywords for Refined Results
Recruiters rarely stop at just one keyword. They combine multiple keywords to filter candidates even further to get more precise results.
For instance, in a job that requires both “Java” and “team leadership,” a recruiter will enter both terms to ensure they find candidates with the right mix of technical skills and managerial experience. It’s all about creating a focused search that aligns with the specific needs of the job.
When recruiters combine several keywords, only resumes containing all the specified terms will appear in the search results. If a resume lacks just one of the key phrases, it may not even show up in the ATS rankings or be ranked lower, making it less likely to be noticed.
By using multiple keywords, recruiters can narrow down a large pool of applicants to those who are most qualified and relevant to the position.
If a resume includes only a few specified keywords, the ATS may still display it, but it will likely appear lower in the rankings. Recruiters prioritize resumes that meet all the keyword criteria, as those are the best matches for the job.
By focusing on the top-ranked candidates, recruiters can streamline the process and avoid spending time on applicants who don’t fully meet the position’s requirements. This ensures they are reviewing the most relevant candidates first, improving efficiency in the hiring process.
3. Importance of Keywords for Candidates
Understanding how ATS keywords work is crucial for job seekers to get noticed in today’s competitive job market. Proper keyword optimization in a resume is essential because it directly influences whether or not the ATS will flag the candidate as a good match.
How many keywords should be included in a resume? There’s no magic number, but as a general guideline, candidates should aim for around 10 to 15 well-chosen keywords spread throughout their resume. These keywords need to be naturally integrated into key sections like job titles, professional summaries, skills sections, and descriptions of past roles. Simply listing keywords without context won’t work; they need to be woven into the narrative of the candidate’s experience.
Keyword placement significantly affects how well a resume ranks within an ATS search. Resumes with key terms in prominent sections, such as job titles, headers, and skills areas, tend to perform better since the system often weighs these parts more heavily.
Strategically placing relevant keywords in these sections helps ensure the resume stands out, ranks higher in search results, and increases the likelihood of moving forward in the hiring process.
Ultimately, keywords are the linchpin in ATS searches, and understanding how to use them—or optimize a resume for them—can make all the difference in getting a resume seen by the right people. For recruiters, it’s about honing in on the best candidates quickly, and for candidates, it’s about crafting a resume that speaks the language of the ATS.
Key Functions of an ATS
The key functions of an ATS include resume parsing, interview management, reporting and analytics, and more.
- Resume Parsing: Automatically scans and extracts essential details from resumes, such as contact information, education, and work experience, allowing recruiters to sift through relevant information without manual data entry quickly.
- Search and Filtering: With advanced search features, ATS systems use keywords and filters to identify potential candidates who meet specific job criteria, speeding up the application process of finding the best matches without reviewing each resume individually.
- Interview Management: Helps schedule interviews by syncing calendars, sending reminders, and even collecting interviewer feedback, making the whole interview process smoother for both candidates and hiring teams.
- Automated Communication: Ensures timely communication by sending personalized emails for follow-ups, interview invitations, or rejections, keeping potential candidates informed and engaged throughout the recruitment process.
- Reporting and Analytics: Delivers comprehensive reports on hiring metrics such as time-to-fill, cost-per-hire, and candidate sources, providing insights that help improve recruitment strategies and track performance over time.
Types of Organizations that Use ATS
ATS platforms aren’t just for big corporations with fancy offices and a million applicants. Whether you’re a startup hustling to build your dream team or a staffing agency juggling resumes, an ATS can make life so much easier.
Let’s start with startups and small businesses that are growing fast but don’t always have the resources (or patience!) to sort through piles of resumes. That’s where the ATS comes in to save the day. It automates tasks like resume sorting and interview scheduling so small teams can focus on what really matters—finding the right person for the job without getting bogged down in paperwork.
Next up, staffing agencies! These are the real pros who live and breathe hiring. With so many candidates to handle, an ATS is their secret weapon. It helps them sift through many applications, pick out the top talent, and track every candidate’s journey. Plus, they can save candidates for future job openings, building a talent pool ready whenever a client needs someone fast. It’s like speed dating for jobs but with much more success!
Then you’ve got large corporations—tech giants, retail chains, and healthcare networks. These companies usually hire for multiple roles simultaneously and sometimes across different locations. Imagine trying to track all of that without an ATS. Whether a software developer in San Francisco or a nurse in New York, the ATS keeps everything organized. It’s like having an entire HR department in one tool, keeping things consistent no matter how big the recruitment operation gets.
Final Words
As you can see, an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) isn’t just a piece of software. This system helps take the hiring process from a maze of paperwork and endless resumes to a streamlined, automated flow. With the ability to collect, store, and organize applications, parse resumes for relevant skills, and filter candidates based on targeted keywords, ATS platforms save recruiters countless hours.
In essence, an ATS allows recruiters to focus on what they do best: connecting with top talent and making smart hiring decisions.
But the future of ATS technology is where things get even more exciting. With artificial intelligence integration on the rise, the next generation of ATS platforms will go beyond simple automation. AI has the potential to analyze not just hard skills, but also soft skills and cultural fit—two key elements that often make or break a great hire.
Imagine an ATS that learns from your past hiring successes, refining its recommendations over time, or one that can predict which candidates will thrive in your company culture. AI could also enhance personalization, offering more tailored candidate experiences by analyzing interaction patterns and providing more relevant feedback at every stage.
As ATS technology continues to evolve, we’re looking at a future where hiring isn’t just faster or more efficient, it’s smarter, more predictive, and deeply personalized.
What’s next?
After understanding about how ATS works, you can further read the following guides.
