What is an applicant tracking system – and do you need one?

An applicant tracking system (ATS) sits at the heart of modern hiring, helping organisations move beyond spreadsheets and inbox chaos to structured, scalable recruitment. 

Keep reading to learn:

• What an ATS actually is
• How an ATS works and its common features
• Four main types of ATS
• The benefits of an ATS for different users
• How to decide if you need an ATS (or ATS upgrade)

If your hiring process currently lives in spreadsheets, inboxes, WhatsApp messages, sticky notes, and the occasional panicked Slack thread… you’re not alone. But you are making your life a bazillion times harder.

Recruitment has become one of the most complex functions in any organisation. More applications. More compliance. More stakeholders. More scrutiny. Less time. Less budget. 

• Candidates expect slick, modern, fast, mobile journeys. 
• Hiring managers expect speed, clarity, and great people yesterday. 
• The C-suite expects results to go this way and costs to go that way.
• And recruiters are expected to somehow hold it all together.

That’s where an applicant tracking system (ATS) comes in.

At its simplest, an ATS is software that tracks applicants as they move through your recruitment process, from application to hire (or wherever they stop in between). 

But in reality, modern applicant tracking systems do far more than just store CVs. They power the entire end-to-end hiring process: job creation, approvals, advertising, screening, interviews, compliance checks, offers, onboarding, reporting, collaboration. The lot.

In other words, the right ATS is the operational backbone of modern recruitment.

In this guide, we’ll break down:

• What an applicant tracking system actually is
• How ATS software works in practice
• The different types of ATS on the market
• The real-world benefits (for recruiters, managers, candidates, and leaders)
• The signs you might need one — or need a better one

Because good recruitment is hard enough. Your tools shouldn’t make it harder.

What is an applicant tracking system? 

Applicant tracking software is technology that tracks applicants and candidates through the recruitment process, from application to (hopefully!) hire. It’s a way to keep track of job applicants as they move through your hiring processes. 

When you read/hear about recruiting software, hiring software, talent acquisition tech, and so on, these have applicant tracking functionality at their heart. 

(ATS can mean either applicant tracking software or applicant tracking system interchangeably. They’re both the same thing.)

Applicant tracking software can range from super simple – more like a system of record – to enormously complex. At this higher end, applicant tracking systems often move beyond applicant tracking functionality to include other snazzy stuff like candidate relationship management (CRM).

Originally designed to manage CV storage, modern ATS platforms now power end-to-end hiring from job creation to onboarding.

How does an ATS work?

At its most basic, an ATS ingests candidates’ CV and application data, storing that info in one place rather than across 17000 emails. But most modern applicant tracking software is much more advanced than that, empowering recruiters to transform the end-to-end hiring process.

Good applicant tracking software typically lets you do stuff like:

• Open jobs and get them signed off with automated approvals workflows
• Create inclusive, branded, SEO-ready rich job adverts fast 
• Distribute jobs fast to everywhere you advertise
• Design mobile, fast, modern, personalised application journeys for each role
• Capture applications, add CVs into a great database and flag/sort candidates
• Screen and filter candidates with knockout questions and assessments
• Schedule interviews in moments and let candidates self-book 
• Run compliance checks automatically within the flow of work
• Run reference checks and nudge referees automatically
• Manage offers; edit and send contracts fast
• Transition candidates into seamless onboarding flows
• Collaborate with managers in one place
• Communicate with candidates without toggling to email chains
• Store all recruitment activity by default in an effortless audit trail
• View candidate and job progress quickly and easily, without hunting for info
• Pull reports on everything you’re doing, fast

Essentially, an ATS is the interface between recruiters and candidates – replacing disparate systems, endless email threads, spreadsheets, or legacy software that does some of what you need but keeps breaking. 

Different types of applicant tracking software

Applicant tracking software is a pretty broad term, although they all share this core functionality of ingesting, storing, and tracking applications. Let’s look at some of the most common categories.

SME ATS

When SMEs first make the leap from recruitment spreadsheets and email to specialised recruitment tracking software, they typically look at an ATS designed for SMEs. 

Applicant tracking systems that work for smaller businesses have to consider the day-to-day reality of SME recruiters. 

The ATS doesn’t need to handle thousands of hires every year but it does need to be simple, work for lean teams, and budget-friendly for smaller organisations. Managers are time-poor, recruiters are often a team-of-one, and processes need to be intuitive and fast or they won’t work. 

But – and this is important – a good SME ATS does also need to do lots. 

Many SME ATS on the market have stripped back their functionality to the point that it’s not much better than spreadsheets, in honesty. SME recruiters might not be handling 10K jobs a year. But they’re still battling enormous challenges:

• Limited internal resource – lots to do; little to do it with
• Constant skills shortages and high competition
• Managers juggling recruitment alongside their day job
• Almost no budget, and fierce battles to justify any spend
• Over-reliance on agencies to find people
• Endless manual admin that’s demotivating and inefficient
• Spreadsheet and inbox chaos – slow, poor CX, and very unsafe
• Slow, chaotic, inconsistent candidate journeys that put people off
• No visibility or control: can’t pull reports, let alone act on them
• Inconsistent processes with high compliance risk
• Onboarding black holes that new hires disappear into

Any ATS has to offer more than a pretty interface to receive CVs. In some ways, buying an applicant tracking system is harder for SMEs, because it needs to:

• Do lots
• Be easy to use
• Not cost heaps

That’s not the easiest combination to get right. Plus, support and future longevity is worth considering.

Many small business ATS providers are tiny teams that provide fairly static tech and not much else. If you’re a 50-person SME without rapid expansion plans, that might be absolutely right for you. 

But a provider with a bigger commercial footprint, development team, and support infrastructure often makes more sense, especially if you’re planning to grow. The challenge can be finding that at a price point that still makes sense for SME teams. 

Enterprise ATS 

At the other end of the spectrum, you have applicant tracking software designed for enterprises. (It’s often called talent acquisition software but ATS functionality is at its heart.) Here, recruiters need tech that can handle astronomical volumes without breaking a sweat. 

Good enterprise recruitment software should be designed to ease the pains that come with size and scale, like:

• Endless platform hopping between an ever-growing people tech stack
• Collaboration complexities across teams, departments, offices, countries
• Siloes and lack of visibility between teams and tools
• Millions of applications – and candidates needing updates and support
• Endless “little” tweaks that need rolling across thousands of places
• Hundreds or thousands of managers, with limited time and tolerance for tech
• Tens of thousands of jobs across multiple locations 
• Huge C-Suite scrutiny to justify spend with many zeroes on the end

Enterprise teams typically have an ATS already but it’s not doing what they need, either because it doesn’t have the right functionality or, more common, it’s too complicated and clunky and unintuitive, so everyone hates it and does something different to avoid using it.  

We often say, the tech you have is only as good as the tech you use. That’s one of the biggies about enterprise applicant tracking software. All the bells and whistles aren’t useful, if all they do is snarl up workflows and make life complicated.

Industry-specific ATS

Sometimes organisations choose an applicant tracking system that’s designed around the industry they’re in. Like public sector recruitment, or retail and hospitality recruitment, healthcare recruitment, and so on.

That means prioritising an ATS that understands your on-the-ground realities. For example, healthcare organisations face a heap of specific operating conditions that come from their sector. The right ATS is designed to accommodate those conditions specifically, rather than finding workarounds for them. 

(A good example is generating CQC audit docs at a click. That sort of niche stuff that isn’t obvious, unless an ATS provider has lots of experience working in that sector.)

Other than specific sector requirements, you’re typically looking at much the same as any other ATS requirement. Lots to do; recruitment that’s getting harder and harder; budgets that are getting tighter and tighter; managers and recruiters who have vanishingly little time and patience. 

Whatever ATS an organisation chooses, that’s the lived reality it’s usually dealing with.

Built-in ATS modules

The applicant tracking systems we’ve been discussing so far all refer to standalone software. But there’s also the possibility of add-on applicant tracking functionality, within an overarching HR management system (HRMS). 

This has some benefits:

• Often cheaper to have one tool
• Consolidates vendor management
• Existing tool familiarity for HR users
• Fewer information siloes
• Behemoth providers – nobody got fired for hiring IBM, etc

But it’s increasingly unpopular, as jack-of-all-trades tools that don’t fit the realities of modern hiring. Built-in ATS modules typically:

• Treat recruitment as a subset of HR – disastrous
• Can’t handle complexity, nuance, or volume
• Disempower recruiters to act strategically
• Cause workarounds, negating the ‘all in one’ benefits
• Force you into rigid ways of working (or charge the big bucks for changes)

Read more: Pros and cons of standalone ATS tools versus add-on modules

Given the importance of recruitment, and the fact that it’s getting almost-continuously harder, purpose-built applicant tracking platforms are usually a better, more sustainable long-term choice.

Benefits of an applicant tracking system

An ATS is the engine room of your hiring process. Good applicant tracking software makes recruitment fairer, faster and better – for everyone. Let’s unpack that.

The benefits of an ATS for recruiters: Less admin; more impact.

For recruiters, an ATS means hiring more and faffing around less. Think:

• No more manual admin
• Faster shortlisting and time-to-hire
• Lower recruitment costs and agency spend
• Less time-in-compliance; more confidence 
• Easier collaboration; less chasing
• Structured, consistent processes
• Time freed for strategic initiatives

A modern ATS centralises candidate data, automates repetitive tasks, and streamlines communication so you’re not drowning in inboxes or chasing managers for feedback. It’s faster to review key info at a glance, while drag-and-drop workflows and built-in email tracking reduce friction and help you move people through stages confidently. The result? Faster shortlisting, better collaboration, and more time spent actually hiring — not administrating.

The benefits of an ATS for managers: visibility without chaos

Hiring managers want speed and simplicity. The less they have to recruit, typically, the happier they’ll be. A good ATS gets the right people into the team as fast as possible, while making managers’ life super simple.

An ATS gives them real-time at-a-glance visibility of their pipeline, structured scorecards that make inclusive, consistent interviewing easy, and nudges when they need to do stuff, so they don’t have to remember all the details. 

For managers, a good applicant tracking system delivers:

• Less time spent recruiting
• New hires joining the team faster
• Better quality, better prepared starters
• An intuitive system that makes doing it right easy
• Less chasing from recruiters
• Clarity and visibility into the process

The benefits of an ATS for candidates: better recruitment experience

If you’ve been on the job market recently, you’ll know first-hand: most recruitment journeys want to make you gouge your eyes out. A good ATS does – not.

It does the stuff that should be basic but isn’t, right. Like:

• Mobile applications
• Short, save-as-you-go processes
• Clear communication
• Accessible UX
• Inclusive processes
• Faster recruitment journey

So candidates have a more convenient, more respectful experience, a faster journey and more information about what’s happening, when.

The benefits of an ATS for leadership: more data, less risk

For senior leaders, the value of an applicant tracking system is strategic. Robust reporting surfaces time-to-hire, source performance, and diversity metrics. Compliance tracking reduces risk. And improved process efficiency can reduce agency reliance and hiring costs.

Recruitment is still often thought of as a cost centre. The right tools mean that it’s not – it’s a value driver. As it should be, as the first and most important gatekeeper of the workforce; your engine for business growth.

• More cost-efficient talent acquisition function
• Less people risk (non-compliance; bad hires)
• Better data to drive better strategic decisions
• Decreased turnover and associated costs
• Increased productivity and profitability
• Better workforce agility and sustainability

When do you need an ATS (if you don’t have one)?

Let’s talk about the move to an ATS when you don’t already have one, first. Many SMEs use recruitment tracking spreadsheets and have no issues. But there’s a tipping point where spreadsheets hamper growth. 

Recruitment spreadsheets main weaknesses are:

• Hard to collaborate
• Hard to search
• Reactive
• No candidate comms
• No reporting

We spoke recently to Hung Lee about when SMEs should switch from spreadsheets to software. Alan Walker, Co-Founder of Udder, reckons most SMEs should invest into an ATS when they’re hiring 20 to 40 people annually. 

But every organisation is different. If you’re only getting a handful of applicants for each role, that’s a totally different story from if you need to sift through hundreds. If you’re small and plan to stay small, you might be fine with spreadsheets forever. Or if your organisation uses a central HR system, the add-on recruitment module might be fine. 

But ultimately, most scaling organisations will eventually need applicant tracking software to support their growth plans. 

Here are some common signs you’re ready for a purpose-built ATS:

1. Documents and data easily get lost
2. You’re drowning in admin
3. You can’t see your pipeline – let alone build it
4. Arranging interviews takes forever
5. Paper notes mean lots of human error 
6. Application journeys are long and outdated
7. Applications are the same for different roles
8. Candidate drop-off rates are high
9. Compiling basic KPIs takes hours
10. Managers are frustrated and disengaged
11. Your careers site is ugly (or non-existent)
12. Managers constantly bypass process
13. Compliance checks and references take forever
14. Candidates complain about delays 
15. Candidates get the wrong, or no, onboarding info
16. Strategic projects never get done
17. The C-suite keep asking for reports they don’t get
18. You hate your job ;)

If you’re reading that list and nodding along to lots, there’s a pretty good bet you need to move beyond the spreadsheets and get a purpose-built applicant tracking system.

Organisations tend to wait a little too long before taking the leap to invest into applicant tracking software, by which time you’re already slammed. You’ve barely got enough time for recruitment, let alone spare time for research.

Now let’s look at the signs you need a new ATS, if you’ve already got one.

When do you need a new ATS? (AKA: your legacy software is letting you down)

This one’s both harder and easier to answer. Easier, because you’ll almost always just know when you need a new ATS. It’s when your recruiting software hinders more than helps. When you get heaps of complaints and nobody has much nice to say. When you dread logging on, because it’s doing the bare minimum, badly.

In a nutshell, it’s when your ATS causes frustration and delay rather than ease and speed. 

But it’s also harder to answer, because that has different symptoms for everyone. For some teams, waiting weeks for changes isn’t a dealbreaker because actually you don’t make changes very often. While for others, it’s mission-critical.

That said, let’s look at some of the most common signs you might need a new ATS:

1. Your existing ATS is clunky and hard to use
2. You spend hours troubleshooting basic questions 
3. You have as many workarounds as managers
4. Laborious, many-click workflows waste everyone’s time
5. No back-end control means weeks of waiting for support for changes
6. Time-to-hire is escalating (and escalating and escalating)
7. You keep losing good candidates
8. You’re stuck with basic, inflexible application journeys you can’t customise 
9. Application processes are slow, frustrating, and look and feel dated
10. Your system isn’t mobile-optimised, despite 2/3 of applications being mobile
11. Rigid candidate comms and processes can’t be adapted for different roles
12. No support for branding throughout the ATS
13. Old-school plain-text job adverts are boring and don’t stand out
14. You can’t do employer branding, recruitment marketing or talent pooling
15. Onboarding is focussed only on compliance basics
16. Compliance basics take forever and Herculean effort anyway
17. Your recruitment reporting is super basic and takes ages
18. You can’t add best-in-class tools because integrations are awful
19. There’s little dedicated ED&I functionality or process flexibility
20. You’re forced into one-size-fits-none ways of working
21.  You also hate your job ;)

Ultimately, whatever your organisation size or wherever you’re coming from, not having modern, fit-for-purpose recruitment software makes your life a million times harder than it needs to be. 

Having the right applicant tracking system won’t make your life easy (sorry). But it’ll make it a whole heap easier, so you can get back to what you enjoy and where you have the biggest impact.

Conclusion: Good recruitment needs good tools

Recruitment is harder than it’s ever been. Even in small companies, what used to be manageable in spreadsheets, inboxes and manual workflows is now faster, higher-volume and more scrutinised than ever. 

Skills shortages, compliance obligations, querulous candidates, stretched managers, and C-suite expectations don’t leave much room for clunky processes or legacy tech that slows everything down.

An applicant tracking system sits at the heart of modern hiring. At its simplest, it tracks applications. At its best, it transforms recruitment into a structured, collaborative, data-driven function that’s fairer, faster, and better for everyone involved. 

Whether you’re an SME taking your first step beyond spreadsheets or an enterprise battling scale and complexity, the right ATS is the foundation your entire hiring strategy rests on.

It won’t fix every challenge, especially not overnight. But good tools remove friction; reduce risk; create visibility. They free recruiters to focus on impact rather than admin. And they help organisations hire the right people, at the right time, in a way that supports long-term growth. 

Tribepad is the trusted tech ally to smart(er) recruiters everywhere. Combining ATS, CRM, assessment, video screening, compliance, onboarding, analytics and a fully-integrated AI assistant, our B-Corp certified talent acquisition software is a springboard for fairer, faster, better recruitment for everyone.

Tribepad is trusted by enterprises like Hotel Chocolat, cardfactory, Greggs, Tesco, Subway, DFS, Met Office, and Home Bargains and SMEs like SIG, Superbike Factory, GamCare, Tate, Avanti Gas and Charlie Bighams.