HR Advice

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Best Applicant Tracking Software

Posted on by HR Advice

An Applicant tracking system, or ATS for short, can save you a significant amount of stress and time throughout the recruitment process. 

The Best 5 Applicant Tracking Software Options

  • SmartStart by SmartRecruiters – Best free ATS
  • Greenhouse – Best for building customizable pipelines 
  • VIVAHR – Best for startups
  • Comeet – Best for collaborative recruiting
  • Workable – Best all-in-one hiring solution

What is Applicant Tracking Software?

An applicant tracking system helps your HR team manage every part of the hiring process as efficiently and accurately as possible. This means your team is equipped with the tools to schedule interviews, automate the selection process, and gather resumes and applications through a streamlined database. While an ATS helps ease the hiring process for HR teams, it also ensures you’re hiring the best candidates for the job out of an ongoing applicant pool. 

Do I Need Applicant Tracking Software?

This largely depends on what your hiring goals and needs are, and how you’re planning on tackling them. 

Here are a few pointers to think through when deciding whether to onboard an applicant tracking system or hold off on it: 

If You Have A Large Pool of Applications To Sift Through

Part of why an applicant tracking system is so efficient is that it centralizes all applications in an organized database. You can search by keywords or other criteria to find the best candidates at any given time.

A reliable ATS also allows you to maintain, manage, and automate a growing talent pool that you can pull from once you’re ready to onboard new candidates. 

If jobs at your organization are in demand, consider onboarding an ATS system that streamlines your hiring process from beginning to end. 

If You Need To Ensure You’re Hiring Practices Are Legally Compliant

Bias and unintended human error are common components of any process. With an ATS, you can mitigate human bias and ensure your hiring practices are as impartial as possible by automating a more equitable application process. 

As your business hires new candidates, it’s crucial that it ensures it’s an equal opportunity employer as per the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) guidelines. An ATS system ensures best practices by keeping track of your hiring, firing, and interview process at scale. 

For instance, if you ever need to prove that due diligence was done through the entire hiring process, you have plenty of tracked data and applicant records to refer back to with an ATS. Moreover, an ATS ensures any collaboration between heads of departments is done seamlessly to ensure choosing the best candidate for the job. 

If You Need Data and Analytics To Improve Your Current Hiring Practices

Any basic hiring process can always be improved, especially as the workforce changes with unprecedented speed and improvements in technology make hiring a more accurate process. 

An applicant tracking system that offers in-depth data analysis can help you inform your job ads. In the long run, improving your hiring processes with proprietary insight gathered through your ATS can help set you up for better candidate retention and lower turnover rates. 

Below, I dive deep into some of the top applicant tracking software options. 

SmartStart by SmartRecruiters – Best Free ATS

Sourcing the best talent doesn’t have to cost a ton when you use a free ATS like SmartStart by SmartRecruiters. It’s ideal for organizations with up to 250 employees and comes with plenty of hiring tools that can help streamline your recruiting process.

SmartStart allows you to post a job to boards like LinkedIn, Google, and Indeed with a click of a button. You can also use its career widget to list job openings right on your company site, along with testimonials and videos from your current employees. You also don’t have to worry about compliance, as SmartStart ensures its system is compliant with data privacy regulations. 

SmartStart streamlines both the candidate and recruiter experience by streamlining the application submission process and adding it to an easily searchable database. You can have up to 10 active jobs through SmartStart. Once your recruiting numbers exceed that, you can always upgrade to a paid SmartRecruiter plan. 

If you need more to fill more than 10 positions at once, you can contact SmartStart for paid plans or get started for free.

Pros

  • Makes it easy to bulk-post job ads to major job boards
  • User-friendly interface that’s easy to navigate  
  • Helps you manage the entire hiring process with a candidate scoring system

Cons

  • Limited selection of tools in the free plan
  • Limited mobile app functionality
  • Can only post up to 10 jobs at a time

Greenhouse – Best For Building Customizable Pipelines

A customizable end-to-end hiring pipeline is possible with a powerful ATS like Greenhouse. While Greenhouse equips you with the tools to seamlessly manage every step of the hiring process it also allows you to customize your hiring pipeline for a truly personalized experience. 

With Greenhouse, you can easily integrate your favorite hiring applications including Docusign, Hacker Rank, or Namely. As your hiring process evolves and matures, an ATS like Greenhouse is malleable enough to mature and scale with you.  

Now, a tool like Greenhouse is best suited for enterprise-level HR teams that are handling a constant flow of candidate applications at scale. Greenhouse prices are based on your unique business needs. You’ll have to request a demo here to learn more, though you can count on the monthly fee starting in the four figures. 

Pros

  • Strong focus on a system that encourages hiring diversity, equity, and inclusion
  • Easy to navigate and intuitive dashboard
  • Easily share jobs on social media and job boards

Cons

  • Reporting features can be difficult to navigate
  • Can be time-consuming to integrate and configure to your needs
  • Costly if you’re a new or growing business

VIVAHR – Best For Startups

Startups can create a reliable hiring process from scratch with VIVAHR’s easy-to-use hiring tools.

Let’s say you’re needing to post a set of new openings. Once you log on to VIVAHR, you can type your job description, along with all the qualifications you’re looking for, right into the dashboard.

Once you’re done, it’s easy to post your job opening to over 50 job boards with one click. Once candidates start turning in their applications and resumes, you can use custom tags to classify them accordingly. 

In short, VIVAHR is a simple and straightforward applicant tracking system that can prove useful for startups that are ramping up their recruiting efforts.  

To get started with VIVAHR you can try its Starter plan at $65 a month billed annually or you can go for the most advanced Pro tier at $199 a month billed annually. For any advanced enterprise-grade deals you’ll have to contact them to request a personalized demo. 

Pros

  • Easily post detailed job descriptions with pre-made templates
  • Post to multiple job boards with one click
  • Customize who on your HR team gets to be part of the hiring process for specific jobs

Cons

  • Not as robust as options designed for larger or more established companies
  • You’ll have to pay an extra fee to post jobs to premium job boards
  • Does not include complimentary HR tools that go beyond the hiring process

Comeet – Best For Collaborative Recruiting

Recruiting shouldn’t be done in a vacuum. Comeet offers an ATS that encourages collaboration throughout the talent hiring and retention process. 

A centralized dashboard where feedback is easily exchanged along with task automation through a highly visual workflow makes for an ATS that comprehensively approaches the hiring of any one candidate. 

For instance, once a candidate turns in an application, Comeet makes it easy for anyone to input their opinion on the candidate. That feedback then gets recorded on an activity log for future reference. Any notifications or scheduled activities are recorded and distributed through a thread that keeps all stakeholders in the know. This collaborative hiring process fosters a “results ownership” culture. 

You can sign up for Comeet’s Lite, Ultimate, or Enterprise plans but you’ll have to request a quote for your desired plan first. All you have to do is enter a few company details and you’ll be on your way. 

Pros

  • Emphasizes collaboration throughout the whole hiring process
  • Automations keep the collaborative process organized
  • Fast filtering tools to immediately find the best candidates for any given job opening

Cons

  • Can be a costly investment for small companies
  • Limited integrations
  • Preset reports aren’t too customizable 

Workable – Best All-In-One Hiring Solution

Sometimes you simply need a tool that can do it all. Enter Workable as an all-in-one hiring solution for businesses of all sizes. It lets you set up beautiful branded career pages that showcase the best of your company culture. It also includes an extensive library of templates for creating job ads and more.

Workable also comes equipped with built-in assessment and background check tools that store all critical information in one central location. Once your prospects have passed their screenings, your hiring team can easily collaborate with their own input on who they think makes the best candidate. 

Scheduling interviews and sending candidate emails are all accessible through its mobile app for hiring managers to actively give feedback on-the-go.

Workable offers a Core, Growth, or Premier tier at different price points with a different mix of tools based on your hiring needs. However, it also offers the Paygo tier, which offers a convenient pay-as-you-go model for businesses with occasional hiring needs at $99 per job per month. 

Pros

  • A comprehensive suite of tools that cover every step of the hiring process from end to end including AI-powered sourcing capabilities
  • Includes tools to conduct video interviews
  • Offers diversity, equity, and inclusion tools

Cons

  • Limited approval processes
  • Not the most intuitive dashboard to use
  • Limited reporting and parsing features

Summary

What’s the best applicant tracking software for your hiring needs? If you need a comprehensive all-in-one solution Workable offers a robust set of tools to ensure you’re maximizing every step of your hiring process. For a more collaborative recruiting process that involves all relevant stakeholders an ATS like Comeet helps you do that efficiently. Looking for a free applicant tracking system? SmartStart by SmartRecruiters offers a free plan with plenty of useful hiring tools to fill up to 10 roles at a time. 

Here’s a quick recap of each ATS: 

  • SmartStart by SmartRecruiters – Best free ATS
  • Greenhouse – Best for building a hiring tech stack 
  • VIVAHR – Best for startups
  • Comeet – Best for collaborative recruiting
  • Workable – Best all-in-one hiring solution

An applicant tracking system helps you ensure your hiring practices are compliant, helps you parse through hundreds of resumes amazingly quickly, and brings a new level of organization to any hiring process. Due to an ever-evolving workforce, a reliable applicant tracking system is indispensable to any HR team today.