An applicant tracking system (ATS) is a

software application Application software is any computer program that is intended for end-user use not computer operator, operating, system administration, administering or computer programming, programming the computer. An application (app, application program, sof ...

that enables the electronic handling of recruitment and hiring processes. An ATS is very similar to a

customer relationship management Customer relationship management (CRM) is a strategic process that organizations use to manage, analyze, and improve their interactions with customers. By leveraging data-driven insights, CRM helps businesses optimize communication, enhance cus ...

(CRM) system, but is designed for recruitment tracking purposes. An applicant tracking system has several use cases, including sourcing qualified candidates, posting jobs, parsing resumes, searching and filtering candidate databases, ranking and rating candidates, managing and tracking applicants, scheduling applicant interviews, providing communication support as with automated emails and reminders to candidates and hiring managers, as well as reporting and analytics. The practice of application filtering has caused many candidates to adopt resume optimization techniques similar to those used in search engine optimization when creating and formatting their résumé.

Principle

A dedicated ATS is not uncommon for recruitment-specific needs. On the enterprise level it may be offered as a module or functional addition to a

human resources Human resources (HR) is the set of people who make up the workforce of an organization, business sector, industry, or economy. A narrower concept is human capital, the knowledge and skills which the individuals command. Similar terms include ' ...

suite or human resource information system (HRIS). Some ATS's may be available to

small and medium enterprises Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) or small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are businesses whose personnel and revenue numbers fall below certain limits. The abbreviation "SME" is used by many national agencies and international organizat ...

through open-source or

software as a service Software as a service (SaaS ) is a cloud computing service model where the provider offers use of application software to a client and manages all needed physical and software resources. SaaS is usually accessed via a web application. Unlike o ...

offerings (SaaS). The principal function of an ATS is to provide a central location and database for a company's recruitment efforts. ATS's are built to better assist the management of resumes and applicant information. Data is either collected from internal applications via the ATS front-end, typically located on the company website or extracted from applicants on job boards. Most job and resume boards ( Reed Online, LinkedIn.com, Monster.com, Hotjobs, CareerBuilder, Indeed.com, etc.) have partnerships with ATS software providers to provide parsing support and easy

data migration Data migration is the process of selecting, preparing, extracting, and transforming data and permanently transferring it from one computer storage system to another. Additionally, the validation of migrated data for completeness and the decommi ...

from one system to another. Newer applicant tracking systems (often the epithet is ''next-generation'') are platforms as a service, where the main piece of software has integration points that allow providers of other recruiting technology to plug in seamlessly. The ability of these next-generation ATS solutions allows jobs to be posted where the candidate is and not just on job boards. This ability is being referred to as omnichannel talent acquisition. Recent changes include the use of

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

(AI) tools and

natural language processing Natural language processing (NLP) is a subfield of computer science and especially artificial intelligence. It is primarily concerned with providing computers with the ability to process data encoded in natural language and is thus closely related ...

to facilitate guided semantic search capabilities offered through cloud-based platforms that allow companies to score and sort resumes with better alignment to the job requirements and descriptions. With the advent of ATS, resume optimization techniques and online tools are often used by applicants to increase their chances of landing an interview call.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Applicant Tracking System Business software Human resource management E-recruitment