An ATS (Applicant Tracking System) is the candidate-tracking system of a recruitment organisation: vacancies, candidates, matches and the progress per procedure in one system. In the Netherlands, well-known systems include Bullhorn, Carerix, OTYS and Recruitee.
An ATS in practice
An ATS is to an agency what a CRM is to a sales team: the central workplace. The biggest time savings, though, rarely come from the ATS itself, but from what surrounds it — CVs that are read automatically (CV parsing), vacancies that go out to multiple channels at once (multiposting) and placements that flow automatically through to hours and invoicing.
In What is an ATS? we explain the systems landscape in depth; anyone looking to select or switch will find the decision framework in Implementing or switching an ATS and can narrow the field with the free ATS selection tool.
Related terms
- CV parsing — CV parsing is software that reads a CV automatically and converts it into filled-in fields in an ATS: name, contact details, work experience, education and skills.
- Multiposting — Multiposting is entering a vacancy once and publishing it automatically to multiple job boards, social channels and your own website at the same time — including taking it down as soon as the vacancy is filled.
- Time-to-fill — Time-to-fill is the number of days between opening a vacancy and the moment it is filled — the candidate has signed.
- CRM — A CRM (Customer Relationship Management system) is the system in which an organisation records customers, contacts, leads and the associated interactions — from first contact to quote and aftercare.