Applicant Tracking System (ATS)

    What is an ATS?

    An applicant tracking system helps record and manage all of your candidate and vacancy information. Candidates can be shortlisted for vacancies, scheduled for interviews, and tracked through the entire acquisition to placement process.

    How Does an Applicant Tracking System Work?

    Applicant tracking systems are built to help recruiters and recruitment agencies manage candidates throughout the entire recruitment process. Depending on the applicant tracking system, it can also assist hiring managers with job postings, headhunting, parsing resumes, evaluating candidates, interview scheduling, and making offers.

    Applicant tracking systems are a piece of software that stores candidate details, such as their resume/CV, cover letter, and interview feedback, in a database to help manage job seekers from application all the way through to an offer. Applicant tracking systems can be configured to the recruiter and the recruitment agency, so that their recruitment process is as streamlined as possible.

    The best way to manage an applicant tracking system is to create automations within the software so that no steps of the hiring process are missed and a candidate won’t be left behind.

    The process begins by inputting a CV into the applicant tracking system, so that a recruiter can use keywords within the CV to determine if the candidate is the right fit for the job description.

    Why Do You Need an Applicant Tracking System?

    An applicant tracking system is a useful tool for recruiters to help streamline the hiring process and ensure that the right candidate ends up in the role. There are a number of reasons to use an applicant tracking system:

    Maximise Efficiency

    Finding a qualified candidate for your job postings can often take a long time with inefficient processes. An ATS software, like Eclipse, helps to maximise efficiency and eliminate wastage within your organisation’s processes by taking away the burden of repetitive administrative tasks. Utilising workflow automations, you can do more with less. Not only can you create candidate compliance document requests, send mass emails and text (SMS) messages, but you can also create candidate shortlists based on pre-defined criteria and a whole slew of other automations that speed up workflow.

    Improve Candidate Relationship Management

    An ATS software can help improve the relationship between job seekers and recruiters throughout the entire hiring process. An ATS provides resume parsing, so they can know if they are a relevant candidate sooner and the automated communication makes sure they are in the loop through every step of their job search and throughout the hiring process, through scheduling interviews, to feedback, and more. In essence, an applicant tracking system makes it easier to keep track of an applicant throughout the hiring process and that, in turn, makes communication easier and improves the candidate experience.

    Remove irrelevant candidates

    The talent acquisition process is a tricky one, especially when you’re looking to fill job openings with qualified candidates. With both temporary and permanent recruitment, you can receive unnecessary and unwanted applications, with applicant tracking systems, the built in resume parsing helps to remove these candidates quickly and efficiently. Plus, you can utilise a boolean search to deliver the best candidates for job openings.

    Reduce time-to-hire

    The hiring process can be long, but it doesn’t have to be. With an applicant tracking system, you can streamline the hiring process. Understanding the analytics of your recruitment processes means that you can grab actionable insights and highlight patterns within your recruitment team.

    Remove discrimination and hiring bias

    By utilising applicant tracking systems, you can ensure that every candidate is going through the same hiring process. This homogenisation of process helps to protect prospective candidates from unconscious bias that hiring managers may have without realising it. By removing this unconscious bias, you allow for a better, more diverse talent pool that can only improve the quality of candidates you’re providing to your clients and a hiring manager.

    Compliance Management

    Applicant tracking systems make compliance an easy job by ensuring that throughout the hiring process, you are able to automate compliance requests and ensure that all documentation is up to scratch. With an ATS, you can optimise job postings for compliance regulations and more easily navigate the national and local regulations so that you and your client are covered.

    Job Boards & ATS Software

    One of the best reasons to get applicant tracking software is the ability to automate job postings to populate multiple job boards at once. It is a simple and improved solution to manual posting to job boards. You can reach infinitely more prospects and diversify your talent pool without the intense time commitment of adding openings to popular job boards across the internet, including social media platforms. It can vastly improve the efficacy of your hiring efforts without increasing time and energy.

    ATS vs CRM

    CRM stands for candidate relationship management. A CRM software is candidate relationship management at its best. While there are overlaps between the two, candidate relationship management systems and applicant tracking systems are indeed different. Read our in-depth guide to understand the intricacies that make a candidate relationship management system and an applicant tracking system different and how they can both impact the hiring process.

    Features in an Applicant Tracking System & CRM software

    The terms applicant tracking system and CRM software are often intermingled in recruitment, but they are indeed different. You might see that ATS software and CRM are combined into a new type of recruitment software called a recruitment management system (RMS). The features in an RMS are:

    • Record prospect and acquired client information

    • Record and track client interactions

    • Record and track client meetings, demonstrations and presentations

    • Client marketing activity

    • Record candidate information and interactions, CV and compliance documents

    • Candidate searching

    • Vacancy recording and searching

    • Job posting and recording of candidate applications

    • Batch posting to job boards

    • Candidate tracking through the customer interview to placement process

    • Website and third software integration

    • Reporting

    • Browser-based or on-premise applications

    Top Benefits of an Applicant Tracking System

    There are a number of benefits for using an applicant tracking system, but our favourite are:

    • Improved cost per hire

    • Improved efficiency

    • Improved candidate experience

    • Improved reach for job openings

    • Streamlined hiring process

    Why use Eclipse for your ATS Software needs?

    Eclipse recruitment software helps to streamline your hiring process. Eclipse recruitment software is designed to deliver a fully configurable integrated client and candidate CRM which provides a completely end-to-end, recruiting software solution. It is a fully featured CRM system that covers the entire recruiting process, including an applicant tracking system, candidate screening, vacancy and temp management right through to pay and bill. Plus, we offer integrations with other leading back-office and recruiting software solutions to provide total support to your broader IT ecosystem strategy.

    Which Eclipse recruitment software should I choose?

    Choose your perfect recruitment platform partner with our various software options: E4, CORE, CORE PRO and ENTERPRISE (Coming soon).

    Eclipse 4

    Eclipse 4 is a Candidate Relationship Management and Applicant Tracking System, packed with features to streamline your recruitment process, providing an end-to-end recruitment solution with customisation to make changes as your business grows. A few of its features include:

    • Batch CV parsing from email and comprehensive CV management

    • Candidate contact details, social media, education, employment, location, industry, disciplines, skills and pipeline progression

    • Compliance, right-to-work and onboarding document storage and tracking

    • Record potential and acquired clients by industry sectors and buying preferences

    • Record client contacts and their preferred candidate profiles

    • Multi-client record branching and financial reporting

    Eclipse CORE

    Eclipse Core Recruitment Management Software provides everything you could want to run a growing permanent recruitment agency, jam-packed into one seamless user experience. Going beyond the run-of-the-mill recruitment CRM software you’re used to, Eclipse Core will equip your perm recruitment team with the right tools to streamline your recruitment process. A few of its features include:

    • Automated candidate compliance document requests.

    • Automate candidate reference requests to referees.

    • Automated compliance document expiry warning.

    • Automated candidate to vacancy Eclipse Match and shortlisting

    • Add multiple client sites with specific financial, invoicing, approved candidate pools, rate templates and customised fields.

    • Customisable sector types and tags.

    • Unlimited custom fields of any data type.

    • Record Client source, size, turnover, procurement hub and CV checklist template allocation

    Eclipse CORE PRO

    The Eclipse CORE PRO is a next level solution for recruitment agencies. It is recruitment software designed to be your solution for temp and perm recruitment. Not only does it contain all of the features of both Eclipse 4 and Eclipse CORE, but it also configures and automates your recruitment process. A few of its features are:

    • Supplier management

    • Shift rostering

    • Candidate availability

    • Create a vacancy from a template and allocate a client, site and client contact

    • Add minimum and maximum salary range and currency type

    • CV keyword search integration with a search result summary panel

    • Edit main list search criteria any time without re-opening the search screen

    • Software-wide boolean quick search

    Learn more about the differences between our software and find a powerful solution for your recruitment agency.