How to choose an applicant tracking system

Thinking of investing in an ATS? As you’ve landed here, we can only assume that you are indeed in the market for hiring software. If you’re really serious about hiring software, your next step is to choose an ATS that’s right for your business.

Key points

• When choosing an applicant tracking system (ATS), start by identifying exactly why you’re considering an ATS; it may be that you need to increase staff retention or improve time to hire, for example
• Weigh up the specific ATS features offered by the platform, and make sure they align with your wider organisational goals; for instance, Talos ATS has automated features that can help to reduce time to fill, plus support for onboarding new starters to support your retention strategy
• Look for an applicant tracking system that will integrate with your existing HR and payroll systems for a seamless onboarding experience, so you can start transforming your hiring straight away. 
• Choose an ATS that gives you access to a dedicated account manager, and lets you try out the platform with a free demo before you commit

What is an ATS?

An ATS is recruitment software used by HR professionals and talent acquisition spoecialists to attract, review, manage, hire, and onboard new employees. For many HR teams, this recruitment software is a must-have. Without one, recruitment can be an unnecessarily difficult and complicated process for both recruiters and candidates. 

By choosing an ATS, organisations can publish their jobs, review applicants, and manage eligible candidates the right way throughout the recruitment process, ensuring a quality candidate journey and a quality hire. 

Who uses an ATS?

Applicant tracking systems are used by in-house recruitment teams, recruiters, hiring managers and HR teams to improve their entire recruitment process, reduce hiring costs and move recruitment in-house. 

Over 97% of Fortune 500 companies currently use an ATS to improve their hiring and manage hundreds of applicants per job role. 

What size company is an ATS for?

Applicant tracking systems help organisations make multiple hires a year and ease the burden of processing thousands of applicants, making them great tools for medium, large, and super large organisations.

That’s not to say small businesses can’t use an ATS. Small businesses can absolutely use an ATS to streamline their hiring, but they would choose an ATS that is purpose built for SMEs. 

When choosing an ATS, it is important to find a platform that is flexible and can meet your demands as you grow. A system like Talos ATS can be used by small to medium-sized organisations with the ambition to grow quickly. It is important to invest in a system that won’t hold you back. 

Why do you need an ATS?

It’s important when choosing an ATS that you know why you’re investing in recruitment software. Maybe you’re looking to save time on administrative tasks, or maybe you’re looking to improve your candidate experience to reduce dropouts, or maybe your need for an ATS is to comply with GDPR and essential employee background checks. 

No matter your recruitment challenges, it’s more than likely that choosing an ATS will help you improve your hiring process. 

It is important to identify your needs, not just so you can present a sound business case to senior decision-makers but also so you know what features to look out for and how the applicant tracking system you’re choosing can solve your current hiring challenges.

How to choose an ATS (applicant tracking system)

Before you begin choosing an ATS, you must be sure that you actually need one. Why go out and invest in an expensive piece of hiring software if you’re not going to see the benefits?

Are you struggling to find candidates who fit the bill? Are you over-relying on recruitment agencies to fill your open roles? Are you struggling to access the right hiring data? These are all signs that you need recruitment software and reasons why organisations have decided to invest in an applicant tracking system.

If you’re nodding away to the above, there’s no doubt that you’ll benefit from an ATS, and our guide on how to choose an applicant tracking system will be crucial for your search for a top ATS for your business. 

What features to look for when choosing an ATS in 2025

Applicant tracking systems are massive pieces of software. And we mean MASSIVE. So big that the best recruitment software out there has feature lists that go on and on and on. 

To help you find the essential features in an ATS that will provide your organisation with value, we’ve picked the top 7 features to look out for before choosing an applicant tracking system. 

1. Integrated multi-poster 

A good applicant tracking system can share your newly posted job across hundreds of job boards, giving you incredible visibility, and putting your job right where you want them – in front of potential applicants.

Manually posting job ads is the bane of many recruiters’ lives. It can eat hours of administrative time and energy that is much better spent elsewhere. So choosing an ATS with an integrated multi-poster is essential. 

An integrated job ad multi-poster will not only allow you to share your job adverts across various job boards, social media and career sites with a single click, but also save you valuable administrative time and resources that you can put to better use.

2. Generative AI capabilities 

AI in recruitment is certainly here, and it seems as though every HR team is on the lookout for the best productivity-boosting AI tools out there. When it comes to choosing an ATS, you have to keep an eye out for AI integrations, particularly generative AI tools. 

When picking an applicant tracking system, be wary, some organisations will claim they offer AI tools, when in reality, they’re automation features. Whilst automation is an important feature to look for when choosing your ATS, AI and automation are very different, each offering something different.

Recruitment software like Talos ATS provides generative AI writing tools to help you write job descriptions and job adverts so you can get your jobs out onto the job board and in front of candidates quickly. Not only is this a great way to speed up your recruitment process, but it allows in-house recruiters to spend less time writing job ads and more time screening candidates.

3. Video interviewing functionality 

Video interviewing has grown in popularity, especially since COVID-19. And with more remote positions popping up, and candidates wanting the flexibility of an online interview, video interviewing has become a necessity for any ATS.

Choosing an ATS with video interviewing not only makes remote hiring easier but it’s the perfect tool to conduct first interviews and exploration calls with potential candidates. Video interviews give candidates the flexibility to interview from anywhere, but it gives recruiters flexibility too, so that’s less time spent scheduling in-person interviews and more time choosing the right candidates. 

4. Integrated career site builder

The perfect hub for candidates to find everything they need to know about your organisation, a career site is your brand’s virtual shop window. 

Displaying everything your company has to offer from its benefits, culture and of course your vacant roles, they give candidates a better idea of the company they are applying to, giving you better informed, genuinely interested candidates. 

In your search for the perfect ATS, you want to look out for a system that includes an integrated drag-and-drop career site builder. Drag and drop builders help you to develop a careers site that looks professional, attractive and engaging to candidates. 

5. Scorecards 

An essential feature for most applicant tracking systems, score cards help to provide an unbiased recruitment process ensuring each candidate is scored against the same criteria.

Why is this important? A reported 78% of recruiters agree that unconscious bias is present throughout the recruitment process, which can mean many qualified candidates are rejected before they are given a chance. Selecting an ATS with a candidate screening feature like scorecards ensures you are removing bias from your shortlisting process, so you are the best pool of qualified candidates to interview and eventually hire. 

6. Candidate assessments 

Manually screening applicants can take HR professionals up to 23 hours per job, and for each job, there is an 88% chance that the ideal candidate will go unnoticed. That’s a lot of wasted potential. Can you afford to miss out?

Pre-application candidate assessments help recruiters and in-house hiring managers determine if an applicant is qualified, eligible and suited to the advertised role. With candidate assessments from Talos ATS, you can choose from a number of skills, aptitude or personality tests, helping you whittle down which candidates are best suited to your roles. 

If saving time on manual tasks is one of your reasons for choosing an ATS, then this is certainly a feature to keep in mind.

What questions to ask when choosing an ATS

We get it, applicant tracking systems are great. But why would an ATS be great for your organisation?

Your recruitment needs aren’t the same as everyone else, and you need to know if the ATS you’re interested in will have the capacity to meet your needs. 

For that, you need to ask the right questions. Below are some of the key questions to ask when choosing an applicant tracking system…

• Will your ATS help manage hiring compliance?
• How well does your ATS handle onboarding 
• How does your ATS handle data? What is their approach to security?
• Will you provide training for this ATS?

Don’t worry – there’s more. The rest of our essential questions to ask when choosing an applicant tracking system are in our complete ATS buyers guide.

How to spot the best applicant tracking system

Reviews and testimonials are your best friends when choosing an ATS. Of course organisations are going to use their best testimonials when advertising their platform, but they give a clear indication of what their system provides and how it could help your organisation. 

Reviews on the other hand, ATS providers have limited control over. If an ATS supplier has a good stack of high ratings and reviews, you know you’re dealing with a provider you can trust.

Take the time to go through these reviews and see what other customers have been saying; you can learn a lot from them.

If a company has a rating over 4 stars, they’re likely to be a trustworthy supplier that you know you can trust. Talos ATS, for example, is a highly reputable ATS supplier with over 200 reviews on Reviews.io with an average of 4.8. 

How to guarantee a successful ATS implementation 

You’ve found the perfect ATS; you want to get it in place as soon as possible. But how? Below are our 5 key steps to guarantee a successful ATS implementation:

• Best practice advice and exceptional customer service
• Get everyone on board
• Reinforce clear and realistic guidelines 
• Ensure regular communication 
• Detailed training 

Introducing…

Talos ATS: Our award-winning hiring software

The best rated applicant tracking system for organisations looking at choosing an ATS to improve their candidate attraction, hiring, onboarding and beyond. 

Our award-winning applicant tracking system offers in-house recruiters the opportunity to deliver the ideal candidate journey, putting candidates first at every step. Talos ATS also provides a streamlined recruitment process, reducing time to hire and saving time on administrative tasks, all while saving on hiring costs.

Features of Talos ATS 

At Talos360, we are continuously looking for ways to innovate and improve our recruitment software. Here are just some of our latest and most popular features loved by our users.

• Job advert multi-poster
• Access to hundreds of FREE job boards 
• Engaging career sites
• ‘Easy Apply’ applicant forms 
• Fully branded emails and SMS communications 
• Video screening and interviewing 
• Candidate assessments 
• Essential background checks, including DBS checks and Right to work checks 
• Onboarding microsites
• Electronic signing of contracts 
• Reference checking 

Why choose Talos ATS 

Based in the UK we pride ourselves on excellent customer service. With an ease-of-use rating of 4.9 from software marketplace vendor Capterra, you know Talos ATS is a system you can rely on for all your hiring needs. 

Start your journey with Talos ATS today.