Applicant tracking system (ATS)

What it is

An applicant tracking system, or ATS, is software that helps companies manage hiring from job post to signed offer. It collects applications in one place, moves candidates through stages like screening and interviews, and keeps notes and feedback from everyone involved.

Most ATS tools also post jobs to career sites and job boards, schedule interviews and send emails to candidates. Once someone accepts an offer, the ATS usually hands their details to the next system, such as an HRIS or an onboarding tool.

Why it matters

Without an ATS, hiring often lives in inboxes and spreadsheets. CVs get lost, candidates wait weeks for a reply, and hiring managers cannot see where things stand. An ATS gives the whole team one shared view, which helps you move faster and treat every candidate the same way.

It also gives you data. You can see where good candidates come from, where they drop out and how long each role takes to fill. That feeds hiring metrics like time to hire and cost per hire.

How it works

An ATS follows each candidate through a hiring pipeline that you set up for each role:

• A job is created, approved and posted to your careers page and job boards.
• Applications land in the ATS, often with screening questions to filter early.
• Recruiters and hiring managers review profiles, leave scores and move people between stages.
• Interviews are scheduled, and interviewers add their feedback in the same place.
• An offer is sent and accepted, often with an e-signature.
• The new hire's data passes to HR systems so preboarding can start.

Example: a 120-person software company is hiring three support agents. All applications go into the ATS, where a recruiter screens them and moves 12 people to a phone call. The team lead scores each interview in the same system. When the chosen candidates accept, the ATS sends their names, roles and start dates to the onboarding tool, which starts their welcome journey the same day.

Best practices

• Keep pipeline stages simple and the same across similar roles.
• Use structured scorecards so feedback is fair and easy to compare.
• Reply to every candidate, even with a short no. Email templates make this easy.
• Connect the ATS to your HR and onboarding tools so data is entered only once. Check which integrations a tool offers before you buy.
• Delete old candidate data on a set schedule, in line with your privacy policy.

Common mistakes

• Setting up so many stages and fields that recruiters stop using the system.
• Letting hiring managers send feedback by email instead of adding it to the ATS.
• Relying fully on keyword filters, which can screen out good people with unusual CVs.
• Treating the signed offer as the finish line, with no handoff to onboarding.

FAQ

What is the difference between an ATS and an HRIS?

An ATS manages candidates before they are hired. An HRIS manages employees after they join. Most companies use both and connect them, so a hired candidate becomes an employee record without retyping anything.

Do small companies need an applicant tracking system?

If you hire only a few people a year, a spreadsheet can work. Once you run several roles at once, or more than one person is involved in hiring, an ATS usually saves time and stops candidates from being forgotten.

What happens after a candidate is marked as hired in the ATS?

Their details should move to your HR and onboarding tools. From there, preboarding software can send a welcome message, collect documents and set up tasks before day one.