Recruitment, Selection & Employer Branding

A Report on
Applicant
Tracking Systems

Stuti Doshi Vaishnavi Sankhe

Pratik Patole Arpit Singhal
 Abstract

An applicant tracking system (ATS) is a software application that enables

the electronic handling of recruitment and hiring needs. It can be implemented
or accessed online at enterprise- or small-business levels, depending on the
needs of the organization; free and open-source ATS software is also
available.

An ATS is very similar to customer relationship management (CRM) systems,

but designed for recruitment tracking purposes. It is used to help hiring
companies organize and navigate large numbers of applicants as it processes
dozens or even hundreds of applications in a fraction of the time it would take
a recruiter or hiring manager to do the same manually. It uses algorithms to
automatically find applicants that are the best fit for a job posting.

In many cases ATSs filter applications automatically based on given criteria

such as keywords, skills, former employers, years of experience and schools
attended. This has caused many to adapt resume optimization techniques
similar to those used in search engine optimization when creating and
formatting their résumé.

2
 Index
[Link] Particulars Page No.
1. Introduction 4
1.1 Need for Study 4
1.2 Objective of Study 5
1.3 Literature Review 5
1.4 Methodology 6
2. Evolution of ATSs 7
3. Working of an ATS 9
3.1 Features of an ATS 10
3.2 Benefits and Competitive Advantages of an ATS 13
4. Adopting an ATS 15
4.1 Considerations to make before purchasing ATS 15
4.2 Process Guide for buying ATS 16
4.3 Questions to ask vendors during ATS evaluation 19
4.4 Business Sizes using ATS 20
4.5 Software related to ATS 21
4.6 Integrating ATS with existing HRMS 22
5. Analysis of different ATS 24
5.1 Major ATS players (worldwide & in India) 25
5.2 Greenhouse 26
5.3 Jobvite 36
5.4 Bullhorn 37
5.5 IBM Kenexa BrassRing 41
5.6 Comparison of ATSs 45
6. Beat the ATS! 46
7. Conclusion 47
8. References 48

3
 1. Introduction

Employee recruiting means finding and/or attracting applicants for employer’s

open positions. Recruiting is important, but recruiter effectiveness is more
important (Dessler, Varkkey (2018) Human Resource Management 5(2):134).
With the advent of technology, most employers in India recruit through their
websites or through online job portals. As a result of which, on average, each
corporate job offer attracts 250 resumes.

1.1 Need for Study

Here are some facts which show the urgency to understand the use of AI for
TA and recruitment from the employee and the employer perspectives:
• 79% of job seekers say they are likely to use social media in their job
search (Glassdoor 2013)
• 87% of recruiters use LinkedIn to check candidates.
(Jobvite Recruiter Nation Report 2016)
• Average cost per hire for companies is $4,129.
(SHRM Human Capital Benchmarking Report 2016)
• Top trends for the future of recruiting: Investment in Innovative
Interviewing Tools - 34%
(LinkedIn Global Recruiting Trends 2017)
• 56% of recruiters said they can't make good hires because of lengthy
hiring procedures.
(2016 Recruiter & Employer Sentiment Survey MRI Network)
• Recruiters take an average of six seconds to scan a resume.
(TheLadders)
• 50.5% of recruiters say social media has changed their recruiting results.
(2016 Recruiting Benchmark Survey NACE)
These stats indicate that hiring managers are adopting/willing to adopt a
faster, more efficient recruitment and talent management process. Thus, to

4
handle the above mentioned deluge of applicants, most employers now use an
ATS to screen applications. ATSs also provide other services including
requisitions management, applicant data collection, and reporting. 98.8% of
Fortune 500 companies use an ATS for these reasons and others. Hence, it is
imperative to understand and have in-depth knowledge about ATSs so as to
extract maximum benefit out of them.

1.2 Objective of Study:

From this study of applicant tracking systems, the following objectives are to
be met:
• Understanding how did the modern ATS become what it is
• Understanding the working of an ATS, its features
• Knowing the benefits of using an ATS over the traditional system of
recruiting
• Recognizing the edge that using an ATS could provide to a business
• Understanding the thought process and the actions behind the decision
to adopt an ATS
• Realizing the considerations need to be made for the same
• Recognizing the major ATSs used across the world
• Carrying out an in-depth analysis of a few of these ATSs
• Understanding the impact of these systems on the present and future of
recruitment

1.3 Literature Review:

For a better understanding of the project, various research papers and study
material related to the topic were explored. Excerpts from a couple of them
are mentioned below:
• Laumer, S., Maier, C. & Eckhardt, A. The impact of business process
management and applicant tracking systems on recruiting process
performance: an empirical study. J Bus Econ 85, 421–453 (2015)

5
“The results of a study of Germany’s largest 1,000 business enterprises reveal
that business process analysis, business process improvement and the usage
of applicant tracking systems reduce recruiting process costs. Specifically, the
cycle time of the recruiting process can be shortened…and by using an
applicant tracking system that supports the design and evaluation of key
performance indicators. Business process standardization combined with
applicant tracking systems….have a significant positive impact on stakeholder
satisfaction with the recruiting process.”

• Holderman, Joni, Career Planning and Adult Development Journal,

Summer 2014
“In 1995, fewer than 300 companies (all major corporations) used applicant
tracking software systems to store, organize, and search resumes, according
to Training & Development magazine. Today some industry experts estimate
that 80 per cent of all companies, large and small, rely on the computerized
ATS as the first reader for every resume received from any source.
This evolution in hiring methodology has major implications for clients, since
for many candidates, the ATS is also the last reader - 75 per cent of the
resumes in any company database are never seen by a human recruiter or
hiring manager, because they do not meet the employer's preestablished
criteria for a specific position. In some cases, highly qualified candidates are
included in this group of lost resumes (Levinson, 2012).”

1.4 Methodology:

To meet the objectives of the study, the method used was deductive and
conclusive research design – researching through various scholarly articles,
texts and blog posts to gain a better perspective and knowledge of the topic.

6
 2. Evolution of ATSs

Rapid changes have taken place in how people apply for jobs within the past
40 years. With the spur of the internet, applications moved quickly from
classifieds and paper submissions to email and eventually online portals. With
the facilitation of submitting job applications thanks to sites like
[Link], more people began submitting more applications for more
positions. To help hiring managers maintain the surge in applications, they
needed to develop a system- Applicant Tracking Systems. The following
infographic sheds some light on the evolution of the same:

7
8
 3. Working of an ATS

Each ATS is slightly different. One might focus on the best possible keyword
search capability, while another excels in resume parsing. Regardless of each
ATS’s strengths and weaknesses, they all follow the same basic process.

When one applies through an ATS, they will most likely be asked to answer
what are called “knockout questions”. Knockout questions can be in the style
of check boxes or short answer, and their purpose is to narrow the pool of
applicants immediately. If any of these questions are answered
unsatisfactorily, the resume will be flagged as rejected by the ATS. If the
answers are correct, the resume will make it through to the next stage.
Recruiters/hiring managers can then search the resumes stored in the ATS
by using keywords. These keywords are typically the exact same keywords
used in the job posting. They could be based on skills, experiences, location,
former employers or work experience. The ‘right-fit’ candidates would then
be asked to give an interview and others be rejected, via the ATS’s automatic
email feature.
The following image shows a keyword search of the Bullhorn ATS:

9
3.1 Features of an ATS

ATS software vendors can include a wide variety of features in their systems,
here are some of them:
Applicant tracking - Track the progress of all applicants for open roles, from
start to finish.

Fig: Overview of applicants in Recruiterbox

Candidate profiles - Upload resumes and manage candidate details and
interactions in a searchable database.

Fig: Candidate profile in Lever

10
Job posting - Post job openings to company careers pages, social media
accounts and job boards.

Fig: Job posting in Newton

Resume Parsing - Extract and organize the parts of each resume into
structured information.
Resume Storage - Once entered into the ATS, resumes remain in the system
as possible candidates for future positions.
Keyword Search - Recruiters/hiring managers can search by any keyword,
and often with the Boolean search method. Boolean search connects keywords
using AND, OR, NOT and NEAR.

Fig: LinkedIn Recruiter’s Boolean search capability

11
Filters - Filters can include the job seeker’s location, the source of your
application, the age of your profile, and whether or not you are a referral.
Automated Email Customization - Companies can customize rejection and
other emails to ensure that applicants get a response to their application.
Applicant scoring and ranking - Grade applicants based on preset criteria
and rank the remaining candidates in the running for a position.

Fig: Candidate scorecard summary in Greenhouse

12
3.2 Benefits & Competitive Advantages of an ATS:

From ATS software provides businesses with several benefits over other
methods, including:
• Customized recruitment processes - With an ATS, you can customize
the hiring workflow for every role in your organization to standardize
the steps in your recruiting process, including interview scheduling,
resume parsing, and the application process.
• Automated job posting - Many ATS platforms allow users to post job
openings to their company careers page, social media accounts and
popular job boards to be seen by interested job seekers, saving users’
valuable time via job posting templates and scheduled posts.
• Candidate data management - ATS software can automatically import
applications from various sources into a secure database for safekeeping.
Comprehensive candidate profiles can be created, searched through and
filtered by several criteria to easily find the right fit.
• Applicant scoring and ranking - ATS software provides a centralized
hub where recruiters, hiring managers and more can collaborate on
evaluating job applicants. Standardized rubrics ensure everyone uses the
same criteria for every candidate. Some systems can even rank
candidates automatically based on what you value most in an employee
at your organization for a given role according to the job posting.
• Recruiting analytics and reporting - Where are candidates falling out
in your recruiting process? Which online source sends your company the
best job candidates? Embedded recruiting analytics in an ATS can
answer these questions and highlight areas where your organization can
improve. ATSs can also generate standardized reports for compliance
purposes or to keep stakeholders up to date.

13
Coming to the competitive advantages of using ATS software, every
business needs an edge over competitors when it comes to finding, attracting,
evaluating and hiring the best workers. ATS software can give you that edge
by helping you:
• Hire people faster - A 2016 study by employment insight firm DHI
Group found the average job vacancy in the U.S. is 29.2 days. The
longer it takes for you to find and hire a qualified candidate, the longer it
will take for them to become a productive employee. ATS software can
help you diagnose bottlenecks in your hiring workflow to cut down the
time it takes to fill your vacancies.
• Lower cost per hire - Using historical information and data
visualization tools housed in an ATS platform, you can better streamline
hiring processes and identify new areas for optimization to lower
recruiting costs.
• Identify top talent - With ATS software, you and your team can more
consistently evaluate and rank applicants to find the best candidates.
After someone's hired, you can look at their performance metrics to
better understand what job applicant qualities are most likely to translate
well to specific roles within your organization.
• Scale your business. You can get by keeping track of applicants with
manual methods such as pen and paper or spreadsheets when you're
small or in the middle of a hiring drought, but that won't always be the
case. Investing early is wise because ATS software is a vital component
to growing and optimizing your business.

14
 4. Adopting an ATS

This section outlines the various factors that should be considered the
adoption of an ATS in a company.

4.1 Considerations to make before purchasing ATS:

The following is list of things that one must consider before choosing a good
ATS for their company:
1. Your Company’s Unique Business Requirements
Look for exactly what your company needs and find out if the vendor is
willing to work with you to clearly understand your requirements and provide
a system tailored to your specific needs.
2. Quality and Ease of Communication
A good ATS must be able to assist the interviewers by engaging in
conversations with candidates, providing them with all the background
information that is needed and embedding it in their events calendar. It also
must make it easy for all stakeholders to access the system easily.
3. Candidate Experience, Career Site and Employer Branding
When applicants are subjected to a poor career site experience or slow
performance, they are likely to abandon their application and would be
reluctant to return to your website.
4. Social Media Recruiting
The top talent that you are looking for to fill your open positions is mostly
hanging out on social platforms and thus, these are the places where you need
to be to get access to the best passive candidates that you are looking for.
5. Employee Referrals
Make sure that your free applicant tracking system trial includes integrated
employee referral capabilities. Pay close attention to how the referral
capability will allow you and your colleagues to easily share referral
information through the system with minimum friction.
6. Quick and Accurate Candidate Search
It must provide quick and simple search functionality with great results that
are displayed in a logical format and are easy to understand and comprehend.
15
It should also provide excellent resume parsing capabilities to make searching
easier and more accurate.
7. Ease of Integration
Depending on its size, the company might want to integrate the ATS with
some other systems. In general, most organizations have a need to integrate
their website with their ATS so they can source applicants directly from their
corporate website whereas larger organizations may want to integrate the ATS
with another HRIS or in-house system.
8. Increased Task and Workflow Automation
A good ATS can help in removing unnecessary delays and obstacles from the
recruiting workflow with the use of reminders and notifications to keep things
moving forward based on deadlines and company objectives.
9. Data Migration
A good ATS should allow the user to easily import data into the database.
Many organizations receive applicant information from multiple sources and
soon this information can pile up in emails and folders, making it difficult to
transfer these into the ATS database. Bulk import data into your ATS on a
regular basis. This will allow your company to consolidate all incoming
candidate information into one recruiting platform.
10. Better Quality of Hires
A SaaS based and comprehensive recruiting software platform provides
companies with the ability to drive multiple recruitment initiatives from one
platform – with centralized applicant and resume tracking.

4.2 Process Guide for buying ATS:

The following is the stepwise process guide to buying an ATS:

Step 1: Know the difference between ATSs for employers & Recruiting
Software for external agencies
ATSs for employers are designed for HR to manage and organize internal
hiring processes. These systems maintain the one to one relationships between
an employer’s candidates and the internal staff that interviews them.

16
Recruiting Software for agencies are used by recruiting agencies, executive
search firms, and staffing agencies to manage external recruiting projects.
These systems are designed to help recruiting firms manage candidates and
their contact information for many employers.
Step 2: Establish a timeline for your go-live date
When do you want to have your applicant tracking system fully activated?
Take that date and work backwards.
Step 3: Outline a selection process
1. Independent Research – Identify a core group of potential ATS’s for your
company
2. Discovery Calls – Refine your list down to a select few
3. Product Demos – Determine which ATS fulfills your core needs
Step 4: Read the fine print
Understand the terms set forth by contracts. Be wary of vendors that require
multi-year contracts. They may be looking to “lock you in” so that you don’t
have the freedom to switch systems.
Step 5: Understand the pricing structure
The most common pricing strategy is to charge by user and/or by feature.
Avoid systems that charge per job (posting) or per employee.
Step 6: Know the activation plan – Steps and Timeline
Stage 1. Data Collection
Stage 2. Kick-off Call
Stage 3. Account Configuration
Stage 4. System Education
Stage 5. Connect the System to Your Careers Page
Step 7: Post-activation and support
Ongoing support is essential for the successful roll-out and adoption of an
applicant tracking system at any company.
Step 8: Educational resources and career development
Beyond support, your ATS vendor should provide you with ongoing
educational resources that not only improve your knowledge of the
application but also help you grow in your career.

17
Fig: Process Guide to buy an ATS
18
4.3 Questions to ask vendors during ATS evaluation:

It can be easy for conversations with ATS software vendors to become one-
sided. After all, they're trying to sell you on their system over the competition.
It's important, though, to ask questions and understand everything before
signing on the dotted line. Some important questions to ask vendors are:

➢ How is your system priced?

ATS Vendors use a lot of different methods to price their software. Know this
information well ahead of time so as to budget accordingly.

➢ Does this system work with our recruiting strategy?

If you rely on employee referrals for quality job candidates but your ATS
focuses on sourcing from social media, that's a mismatch. Make sure you find
software that conforms with your recruiting strategy—not the other way
around.

➢ Do I really need this feature?

It's common for buyers to purchase a popular ATS system that's way too big
for their needs and pay a lot of money for functionality they don't use. Don't
get distracted by bells and whistles.

➢ Do you offer local, high-quality support?

No ATS product is perfect. Ask questions about support options so when you
encounter a problem, you can be certain that you'll be able reach someone
who can help you immediately.

➢ Should I Purchase Standalone ATS Software or an Integrated

Suite?
You can purchase ATS software by itself (e.g., Jobvite) or as part of an
integrated HR suite with other applications for things like personnel tracking,
payroll and time and attendance (e.g., BambooHR). According to internal
Software Advice data, 56% of ATS software buyers choose the former while

19
43% choose the latter. Which way you go will depend entirely on your needs.
If your focus is on advanced recruiting functionality, choose a stand-alone
product. If you have additional needs besides applicant tracking or value tight
integration between your various HR processes, choose a suite.

➢ Do ATS Software Vendors Update Their Products Often?

Because the ATS software market is highly competitive, and because the
labor market and what employers value in their workforce are constantly in
flux, ATS software vendors are constantly adding features to their flagship
products to gain an edge and attract attention.

4.4 Business Sizes using ATS:

ATS software buyers are generally categorized by how many employees they
have in their organization:
Small business buyer - These buyers have anywhere from 1-50 employees
and don't have a department dedicated to HR and recruiting initiatives.
Midsize business buyer - These buyers have anywhere from 51-500
employees and are experiencing rapid growth, prompting them to hire an
internal recruiter.
Enterprise business buyer - These buyers have more than 500 employees, a
hiring team and a dedicated IT department.
When you choose to purchase ATS software will depend entirely on your
hiring needs, though reports suggest that peak adoption is at 1,001 to 5,000
employees.
The most crucial ATS software features for different business sizes are:
Small business buyer - Applicant database: Tracking all applicants in a
secure, centralized hub
Midsize business buyer - Resume parsing: Automatically look for important
words and phrases in submitted resumes to create a shortlist of top prospects
Enterprise business buyer - Recruiting analytics: Allows to deep dive into
your recruiting processes to discover areas for improvement and optimization.

20
 Fig: ATS Software adoption peak

4.5 Software related to ATS:

Here are some other types of software related to ATS platforms that can
improve your recruiting efforts or your workforce as a whole:
• Recruiting software: Extends beyond job applicant tracking needs to
help recruiters manage job descriptions and job searches, improve the
candidate experience, perform background checks, social recruiting, and
more. E.g. CareerBuilder, Ideal
• Staffing agency software: Specializes in helping external recruiting and
staffing agencies better manage clients, external career sites, and quickly
fill roles with high-quality talent with features like time-expense
tracking, back office management. E.g. JobDiva, PCRecruiter
• Onboarding software: Helps businesses automate processes to turn
new hires into full-fledged employees. Features include new hire task
assignment, digital signature capabilities and onboarding form
management. E.g. Trello, Eduflow
21
 • Talent management software: Allows HR personnel to manage the
entire employee lifecycle, from attraction and hiring to management and
development, with applications for applicant tracking, performance
management and more. E.g. TalentSoft, IBM Talent Management

4.6 Integrating ATS with existing HRMS:

Nearly every organization today is using some type of ATS which is

especially critical due to the intense level of competition that exists for talent.
Additionally, companies are using a best-in-class method for improving the
candidate experience by integrating with their human resource management
system (HRMS), rather than using all-in-one platforms [An HRMS is
software that handles internal HR functions, such as payroll, benefits
administration, on-boarding and training, and performance management].
Combining the ATS and HRMS can this strengthen recruitment and retention
rates for your organization because the faster and more accurately an
organization can process candidates and place them into open jobs, the better
recruitment costs can be managed. Explained further, the advantages of
integrating ATS with HRMS:

➢ Simplify hiring and employee management

It makes sense to streamline all your HR processes. This is far simpler than
having multiple software with redundant information that doesn’t serve the
business well as it can maximize your time and reduce administrative costs.
This is also less confusing for candidates and employees to conduct tasks such
as uploading documents, submitting payroll times, and communicating with
HR. This is a more flexible approach to managing human capital.
➢ Manage the organizational brand
Present a well-branded, customized experience and a candidate will most
likely create a positive image in his mind. Use outdated systems and ask the
candidate to jump through extra hoops as a result and you may as well forget
your brand. A Glassdoor survey indicated that 72 percent of job seekers voice
their negative experiences online, which influences more than half of job
seekers who refuse to apply for a company with a negative review.
22
 ➢ Create a seamless experience for employees
Connecting great platforms that integrate can streamline your workflows and
it’s a much more pleasant experience for new hires than a solution that claims
to have it all.
➢ Increase transparency in hiring
A seamless recruitment to employee management platform can provide
transparency and accountability to candidates. During the recruitment phase,
information such as the average salary range, how many candidates are being
considered, and how long the hiring process is can be given— so they know
what to expect. Post-hire transparency can include training and development
opportunities that are linked to pay-for-performance models and more.
➢ Establish clear organizational processes
Many companies do not have official processes for attracting talent and
bringing them aboard. By using an integrated applicant tracking system and
HRMS, all the elements of a successful hiring campaign can be designed for
all to carry out. This increases efficiency and ensures no one is overlooked.
➢ Measure the true success of hiring efforts
Recruiters often focus on short-term certain metrics like time-to-hire to
measure their performance. However, a realistic view of recruitment success
should also include factors such as the productivity of the new hire, quality of
hire, and retention rates. An ATS linked with an HRMS provides this bigger
picture data. If a new hire is actively engaged at work over the course of their
entire career, then recruiters have done their job well.

23
 5. Analysis of different ATS

Different ATSs are used for different business scales and even different
business goals or purposes.
If you need to be compliant with the OFCCP, EEOC and other regulatory
groups, you will likely be using compliance-oriented ATSs to allow you to
most easily pull the types of reports necessary for compliance. The top ATS
by far in this is Taleo, followed by Brassring, iCims and SAP/SuccessFactors.
Some larger companies use multiple compliance-type ATSs for their teams
such as Amazon (using Taleo for their hourly workers and iCims for their
corporate positions) and Best Buy (Taleo for hourly and Brassring for
corporate).
The reasons for using multiple ATS’s include the fact that it’s hard to roll out
an entire enterprise onto one ATS (so some businesses do it by brand or
business unit) and also some ATS’s help with compliance on hourly positions
(like Taleo) while others provide better social and candidate experience (like
iCims).
Many small businesses, and certain verticals like tech, don’t have to be as
concerned with compliance issues and the ATS for those companies are
usually more creative in allowing you new features such as engaging people
through social media (Jobvite), focusing more on interviewing (Greenhouse)
and getting the hiring manager involved (Lever).
While most of the above applicant tracking systems cost 5 or 6 figures per
year, there are free ATSs you can try at low volume — they include Jobscore,
SmartRecruiters, RecruiterBox and ZOHO Recruit. The free ATSs typically
start charging you once you reach a threshold of job descriptions or number of
users.
Some companies who are large enough, or have the technical know-how,
have developed their own ATS — they include Apple, UPS, Google,
Facebook and LinkedIn.

24
5.1 Major ATS players (worldwide & in India)

Fig.: The Top 100 Applicant Tracking Systems in 2018

While these are the major ATS players worldwide, in India, the following
ATS are slowly becoming popular:
• Naukri RMS

• Zoho Recruit

• Talent Recruit

• Hirecraft

• Oracle Taleo

• Greenhouse Software

• Jobvite

• Kenexa Brassring

• SAP Successfactors

• Lever

25
5.2 Greenhouse:

Overview
Greenhouse is an American technology company headquartered in New York
City that provides a recruiting software as a service. It was founded in 2012
by Daniel Chait and Jon Stross.

The company raised $2.7 million in a seed round in 2013, $7.5 million in its
Series A round in 2014, $13.6 million in its Series B round in 2015, $35
million in its Series C round in 2015, and $50 million in its Series D round in
2018. Research firm CB Insights, in a study commissioned by The New York
Times, listed Greenhouse among fifty startups predicted to become unicorns,
companies with at least a $1 billion valuation.

Greenhouse offers a complete recruitment solution that can help any mid-size
or growing company turn hiring into a competitive advantage. Thousands of
companies like AirBnB and Time Inc. use Greenhouse to automate all aspects
of hiring, allowing their teams to compete more effectively for top talent.

Greenhouse is far and away the fastest-growing ATS, having attracted clients
like Major League Baseball (from Taleo), Taco Bell (from Brassring), and
Roku (from Jobvite) in the past year. One reason for Greenhouse’s rise could
be the foothold it’s gaining in the tech industry, with high profile clients such
as Airbnb, Snapchat, Instacart, Pinterest, Fitbit, and many more.

In addition to the standard recruiting software features, Greenhouse offers

Onboarding and CRM products that improve communications on many fronts,
while reducing the burdens on HR and hiring staff. Greenhouse can also be
integrated with HRIS and payroll solutions to streamline the transition from
candidate to employee once a decision has been made.

Since every company is different, Greenhouse understands that a one size fits
all approach to recruiting will not work. The software allows you to craft
hiring plans for every position, and then further customize these to better fit
26
each member of your hiring team’s style. Greenhouse also helps other
companies create great cultures; the software has been chosen by more “Best
Place to Work” winners than any other Applicant Tracking System.

How Greenhouse Recruiting works

Greenhouse follows a policy of ‘Hire for what’s next’ and offers to help
their customers be great at hiring by giving them the right technology, know-
how and support to hire great talent.
Here’s how they implement that policy:

1. Find and track the right candidates

• Classify and nurture talent in the CRM Essential talent database so one
can filter and find exactly who they’re looking for.
• Seamlessly collaborate with hiring teams directly in the ATS with
@mentions, shared application reviews, job and offer approvals
• Empower stakeholders to play their part with fine-grained permissions
and stay ahead with alerts, tasks and notifications
• Track candidate relationships over time

2. Set up a fair and equitable hiring process

• Reduce unconscious bias at every step of the hiring process with in-the-
moment nudges, resume anonymization, measurement tools and more.
• Decide on a scorecard of key attributes for a candidate’s success at the
beginning to evaluate all candidates consistently
• Create an organized plan that helps interviewers assess the right skills,
traits and qualifications

3. Create an impressive candidate experience

• Connect with applicants through focused, meaningful interviews, career
pages and customizable email templates that bring your brand to life.
• Automate surveys to measure candidate experience
• Manage prospect data at in-person events with ease using the Events app

27
4. Constantly improve your process using reports
• Make data-driven decisions to easily measure the talent team’s work and
find out what’s working best.
• Analyze and share 30+ core reports for at-a-glance takeaways
• Connect reports to Google Sheets or your business intelligence platform
with Greenhouse’s BI Connector
• Leverage machine learning and predictive analytics with Greenhouse
Predicts to uncover the likelihood of hiring a candidate on time

5. Stay flexible with mobile apps

• Keep your team involved and inspired with user-friendly interfaces and
easy-to-use mobile tools no matter where they are.
• Access important Greenhouse Recruiting functionality on the go
including interview prep kits, scorecards, summary of open roles,
candidate profiles and more
• Make the most of the Events app during job fairs and recruiting events
to quickly manage candidate information while you focus on nurturing
relationships

6. Scale to the size of your business

• Greenhouse helps businesses of every size and hiring need, from fast-
growing startups to sophisticated global enterprises.
• Advanced data configuration and customizable permissions and
workflows help meet the demands of complex systems
• Build the exact hiring tech stack your organization needs with 300+
integrations and open Harvest API

28
Next, there are a few things job seekers should know when working on a
Greenhouse application:

How to spot Greenhouse ATS

Some companies mask the ATS they’re using, but sometimes you can see the
name of the ATS right in the URL.
For example, a corporate Taco Bell job will have a URL like
[Link]
Other companies, like Airbnb, customize their URL to something like
[Link]

That makes it a little harder to know which ATS they’re using.

Even if the URL and application are customized like Airbnb’s, you can
inspect it using your browser developer tools to see if Greenhouse or another
ATS is hidden in the code if you are a tech-savvy person.

If a company doesn’t stylize their application, Greenhouse applications look

like this by default. Among others, this is how Instacart, Fitbit, and Taco Bell
applications begin.

29
If it’s not in the URL, some clues that you’re using Greenhouse include:
• A minimalist, single-page application (usually)

• “Apply for this Job” heading

• Documents attached via some combination of direct upload, Dropbox,

Google Drive, or pasted in

• Customized text fields (including social profiles or knockout questions)

• Compliance surveys like U.S. Equal Opportunity and Voluntary Self-

Identification of Disability at the bottom

Also, Greenhouse ATS doesn’t parse your resume. Some ATS scrape your
uploaded resume and attempt to pull the correct info into a digital candidate
30
profile for the purposes of search, filters, rankings, and recruiter navigability.
Unfortunately, these ATSs aren’t able to account for every resume format,
resume template, or creative design choices, meaning sections of an
applicant’s resume might not be parsed correctly. As a result, highly qualified
candidates tend to slip through the cracks.
Greenhouse ATS doesn’t attempt to do this. Applicants within Greenhouse
don’t need to be quite as careful about creative formatting choices or
untraditional section labels. That said, the text still needs to be readable by
Greenhouse to enable keyword searches.

One unique feature is that keyword frequency matters in a Greenhouse

search. When a recruiter searches for a keyword, Greenhouse ATS searches
applicants’ entire resumes for the keyword and one of the top factors for how
the results are ranked is keyword frequency. For example, if a recruiter
searches for “administrative assistant,” an applicant with five mentions of that
title in their resume will appear higher in the results than someone with only
two mentions.

Creating an attractive resume when applying via Greenhouse is

important. When it comes to creating an ATS-proof resume, sometimes
visual design can take a backseat to keyword optimization and formatting.
However, design needs to be a real consideration when applying through the
Greenhouse ATS. In addition to the lack of parsing, Greenhouse also
prominently displays your resume in the recruiter interface.
In a recruiter’s Greenhouse dashboard, your resume appears below the text
fields you’ve filled out as part of the application. The display maintains your
resume’s design however you saved it. Thus, when applying through
Greenhouse, one needs to take a little more time with your resume’s design,
and make sure the most important information is located near the top.

31
Fig.: Example of the Greenhouse ATS application and resume view. This resume was uploaded
as a simple .txt file, which doesn’t look very attractive.

Other Services/ Support that Greenhouse offers

Besides offering Recruiting and Onboarding solutions for different segments,
Greenhouse also provides resources like a blog, a guidance cell, and
developer resources.
To connect with the community and serve it better, it conducts a Greenhouse
Open, where it brings together talent practitioners and business leaders for
workshops, panels and networking.
Additionally, it runs Talent Makers Workshops - interactive sessions which
show you and your team how to build a culture of hiring in your organization.
Besides that, it also offers solutions for structured hiring, candidate
experience, DE & I solutions, which are discussed below:

Structured Hiring
Greenhouse implements a structured hiring process in its solutions, the core of
which includes –

32
• Standardizing the hiring process using interview planning, prep kits,
candidate scorecards (with key attributes), automated tasks and
reminders
• Making data-based decisions by running your own analysis, leveraging
machine learning with Greenhouse Predicts to make sure roles are on
track
• Addressing unconscious bias in the moment
• Making onboarding smoother by integrating new hires into the team
more quickly, designing personal welcome experiences and building a
foundation for constant improvement

33
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion solutions
Greenhouse solutions are designed to address unconscious bias throughout
every stage of the hiring process -
It mitigates bias by nudging employees with timely reminders at key points
in the hiring process to remind them to engage in efforts to promote inclusion
and grading assessments objectively with anonymous take-home assignments.

Defines key decision criteria for a role up front to avoid inadvertent shifting
of criteria during the interview process and requires skills ratings
explanations in your scorecards for more critical candidate evaluations

34
It also measures your progress by identifying areas for improvement and
evaluating the impact of your inclusive hiring efforts to see where you can
refine your process.

All these additional features lend an all-rounder feel to Greenhouse, because

of which it is rightly considered as the fastest growing ATS today and has
pulled customers from major players in the market.
List of some companies using Greenhouse:
• Airbnb • Venmo
• FitBit • Squarespace
• Pinterest • Tumblr
• Snapchat • Shazam
• Instacart • Evernote
• TripAdvisor • Prosper
• Reddit • Gawker
• Warby Parker • Casper
• BuzzFeed • Major League Baseball
• J.D. Power • Taco Bell (corporate)
35
5.3 Jobvite:

Jobvite Inc. is a San Mateo, California and Indianapolis, Indiana software and
recruiting corporation. The comprehensive recruiting platform accelerates
recruiting with an easy-to-use ATS, social recruiting capabilities, mobile-
optimized branded career sites, a recruiting branding solution, on-demand
video screening, advanced analytics, on-boarding, and seamless integration
with other HR systems and Software as a Service (SaaS) social recruiting
platforms, enabling companies to advertise jobs and manage the recruitment
process and much more.

How Jobvite works

A Jobvite is a job invitation you can share with your contacts in social
networks. A recruiter or any employee at your company can send Jobvites to
help find the right talent for your jobs. With Jobvite’s easy to use, modular
recruiting platform, you can easily drive up referral hires and improve the
speed and quality of talent acquisition — all while reducing costs and using
fewer resources.
• Target the right talent by matching jobs to people in your network;
Broadcast to all your social networks at once - Jobvite is the only
application that enables users to match jobs to their contacts in
LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter simultaneously. With integration into
the leading social networks, Jobvite matching technology instantly
recommends connections that fit the job based on the profile information
of people in your network. Then you select contacts and send a Jobvite,
a job invitation, with a customized for each channel. Broadcast a Jobvite
to all three social networks at once by updating your status; and send a
Jobvite to your LinkedIn groups. Jobvite will automatically generate a
unique, trackable link for each post.
• Facebook Application ‘Work With Us’ - Any employee can install the
Work With Us, a Facebook application for recruiting that’s always up to
date with your company’s jobs. It’s an effortless way for people to share
information about job opportunities with their friends.

36
 • Automated Jobvite - Twitter channel Job listings are automatically sent
to Jobvite Twitter channels so jobseekers can easily find listings as soon
as they’re created. Jobvite provides this distribution seamlessly at no
additional cost. In addition to a comprehensive feed – @jobvites – there
are accounts for metro areas across the country such as San Francisco
(@jbvit_sf), New York (@jbvit_nyc), Boston (@jbvit_boston) and
Austin (@jbvit_austin).
• Automated publishing in social networks - Any user (recruiter, hiring
manager or employee) can schedule status updates in LinkedIn, Twitter
and Facebook specifying the publication time, social network channel
and job content. With these programming tools, the user can effortlessly
provide the most relevant, fresh job content to their networks.
• Track results in real-time - Because Jobvite automatically generates
and tracks short URLs for every Jobvite sent, you can see results for
each source in real-time. Jobvite Share provides the metrics needed to
see what works – and what does not – in job marketing and distribution,
including views, clicks, forwards and clicks to apply; all metrics are
tracked by individual channel (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, email) and
can follow referrals as they spread across the web.

Companies which use Jobvite

There are total 277 companies who use Jobvite systems. Some of them are:
1. LinkedIn
2. MedSpeed
3. Schneider Electric
4. GoDaddy
5. Amway

5.4 Bullhorn ATS:

Bullhorn is a cloud computing company headquartered in Boston,

Massachusetts. The company provides customer relationship management
(CRM), ATS and operations software for the staffing industry.

37
The company has historically focused on providing software-as-a-service to
third-party staffing and recruiting firms, allowing them to manage business
operations on a single web-based platform. It became one of the largest
providers of technology to the staffing and recruiting market.
History
Bullhorn was founded in 1999 by Roger Colvin, Barry Hinckley, and Art
Papas. Papas continues to serve as CEO.
It raised its first round of venture capital funding in 1999 with a $4 million
investment from GE Asset Management and [Link]; then raised $26
million from General Catalyst Partners and Highland Capital Partners in 2008.
In June 2012, Vista Equity Partners acquired Bullhorn for a reported price of
several hundred million dollars.
In July 2015, the industry research firm Gartner included Bullhorn for the first
time in its Magic Quadrant report on salesforce automation alongside other
companies that it deems to be leaders in providing tools to support the
automation of sales and account management activities and processes.
In January, 2016, the company reported in a momentum press release that it
would exceed nine figures in annual revenue for the first time in its history.
In April 2016, Bullhorn moved its Boston headquarters from the Ft. Point
district to Downtown Crossing. In June 2017 at its Engage conference,
Bullhorn announced its new suite of software for healthcare staffing firms.
In September 2017, Bullhorn International acquired Connexys, a leading
provider of recruitment solutions for mainland Europe, to supercharge its
expansion into mainland Europe.
In October 2017, Insight Venture Partners acquired Bullhorn from Vista. The
company also announced its cloud-based middle office strategy to provide
enterprise recruiting companies with a front-to-back solution.
In November 2017, Bullhorn acquired Peoplenet, a leading provider of cloud-
based workforce management solutions. The company also announced the
official closing of Insight Venture Partners’ acquisition of Bullhorn, which
included an investment from Genstar Capital.
In March 2018, Bullhorn acquired Talent Rover and Jobscience, two of the
leading providers of recruitment software built on the Salesforce platform.

38
Products
• Recruiting and Sales
o Applicant Tracking & CRM

o Onboarding

o Salesforce Solutions

o Executive Search

• Pay and Bill

o Time and Expense

o Invoicing

• Reporting and Analysis

o Advanced Reporting

• VMS Integration
o VMS Jobs and Candidates

o VMS Time

Fig: Images of Bullhorn Dashboards

39
Fig: Resource Manager Dashboard

40
Around 154 companies are using Bullhorn Application Tracking System
Worldwide. Use of Bullhorn Industry Wise:-
Industries Number of Companies
Computer Software 47
Human Resources 15
Information Technology and
14
Services
Hospital and Health Care 9
Telecommunications 3
Financial Services 3
Banking 2
Computer Hardware 2
Manufacturing 2
Marketing and Advertising 2

Market Share of Bullhorn is 1.75% and 2020 websites are operating under
Bullhorn.
Some of the companies using Bullhorn are:-
Addison Group APEX Systems
Allen Recruiting and Consulting Deutsche Bank
Aditi Consulting Foot Bridge
Anixer Maxim Health Care Services
CPS Recruitment NTT Data
All Medical Health and Staffing Queen Consulting Group

5.5 IBM Kenexa Brassring:

History
In 1987, Kenexa began by providing recruitment services. Within its first
decade, the firm created its first automated recruiting management system,
and provided employee research and employee performance management .
By 1998, the company had purchased fifteen organizations, and offered on-
demand human capital management services. During the next three years,

41
they acquired four additional companies and were able to offer employee
screening, behavioural assessment and skills testing products.
In 2005, the company realized its initial public offering followed by the
acquisition of BrassRing LLC, Gantz Wiley Research, Knowledge Workers
Inc., Psychometric Services and Webhire, which preceded the purchase of
HRC Human Resources Consulting GmbH and StraightSource in 2007, which
expanded their business in Europe.
From 2008-2009, the company expanded to 30 offices in Asia, Europe, the
Middle East and North America. It took control of Quorum International
Search Limited, and, in 2010, the Centre for High Performance Development
and Salary.
On August 27, 2012, it was announced that Kenexa had been acquired by
IBM for $1.3 billion. The acquisition was closed on December 4, 2012 and
Kenexa became known as "Kenexa, an IBM Company" with approximately
2,800 Kenexa employees in 21 countries joining IBM.

Features
• IBM Kenexa Talent Suite has three integrated functions:
o IBM Kenexa Talent Acquisition Suite – to hire and on-board

employees
o IBM Kenexa Talent Optimization Suite – for compensation

planning, performance management, and succession management

o IBM Kenexa Talent Insights – for HR and managers to perform

analytics
• Employee engagement survey products like Survey Enterprise 360 On
Cloud and Survey Enterprise are offered. A survey mobile app is also
available.
• A Newsfeed component similar to LinkedIn and Facebook is available
that allows users to post status updates and comments, and send
messages.
• A Communities component is present wherein users can communicate
with each other within the network.

42
 • “Must have” feature - The software quickly identifies best-fit
candidates using assessments driven by IBM Watson.

Pros
• The Brassring tool is highly configurable, which is essential since it has
a wide range of candidate workflows and has to meet compliance
regulations in the 40+ countries in which we recruit talent.
• The Workbench tool helps to quickly make configuration changes,
allowing for a quicker response to changing business needs
• It also offers a high level of automation, which has saved significant
administrative labour.
• The Onboard module allows candidates to submit post-accept data and
complete pre-employment documentation electronically, and on any
device. This has made this process significantly faster, both for the
internal HR Operations teams and the candidate; additionally, it has
helped us ensure candidates are always completing the appropriate, most
up-to-date documents for their position/location/business area.
• The relatively new 'data mapping tool' for Brassring has given users the
ability to configure basic integrations themselves and adopt new systems
for background checks, assessments, drug testing, housing, etc.
• Previously, a minor change to integration would be at least a project,
and required 6 months and project labour - now we can make changes,
complete testing, and have it live in production within a week
Cons
• The Kenexa team is almost constantly updating the product and
implementing new features - which is certainly a positive - but the down
side seems to be the instability that is a by product of this cycle.
• It is unfortunately all too common that after each monthly release, items
that previously worked suddenly are broken.
• Larger changes are often rolled out in multiple releases over time, which
force us to determine our tolerance for adopting something that is
promising but largely untested and/or incomplete.

43
 • The interface is cumbersome and difficult to use, especially where users
have to repeatedly log off and log on to the system. Also, the response
time from the tech team is large.

List of some companies using Kenexa Brassring:

Company Country Revenue Company size
Spearhead Staffing LLC USA 1M-10M 50-200
Performance Development Group
USA 10M-50M 50-200
LLC
FN America LLC USA 100M-200M 500-1000
Infoquest Consulting Group Inc USA 1M-10M 10-50
Arconic Inc USA >1000M >10000

Companies that use Kenexa Brassring, by industry:

Industry No of companies
Computer software 218
Hospital and health care 77
Retail 58
Higher Education 57
Financial services 53
IT and services 47
Pharmaceuticals 36
Human resources 33
Construction 30
Restaurant 29

Companies that use Kenexa Brassring, by country:

Country No of companies
USA 1081
United Kingdom 85
Canada 32
India 24

44
 France 11

5.6 Comparison of ATSs:

Comparing these 4 ATSs on a few parameters, taking inputs from reviews of

more than 500 actual customers of these 4 software, the following comparison
table can be made:

Greenhouse Jobvite Bullhorn Kenexa

Ease-of-use 4.5/5 4.0/5 4.0/5 4.0/5
Value for Money 4.5/5 4.0/5 4.0/5 3.5/5
Customer
4.5/5 4.0/5 4.0/5 4.0/5
Support
Functionality 4.5/5 4.0/5 4.0/5 4.0/5
Pricing Range $$$ $$ $ $$$$
Ideal Customer Medium, Small, Medium,
Large Large
Size Large Large
• Provides with
much more than Support is
Very user
required; Very great; Ease of
friendly and
intuitive and easy use once set Starts up fast;
simple to use;
to use interface; up correctly; Can pull reports
Pros Customizations Lots of
Flexible and quickly; Ease of
and setup for new functionality;
adaptable to access
jobs and virtually Great customer
business
anything else support
recruiting related needs

Many existing
Customer service Reporting gaps in features;
is good but slow; functionality Less robust quality of the
Price is mid to very difficult internal search products
Cons high for small to use; search capabilities; suffering due to
companies; capability in less user many updates;
Set up is a bit database is friendly Frequent bugs
tricky poor with high
resolution time

45
 6. Beat the ATS!
ATS are not perfect. There are many good candidates whose resumes the
recruiter/hiring manager might never see because they don’t include the
correct keywords. As a job seeker, you should get to know everything about
ATS, and construct your resume based on the job posting for which you are
applying. How you format your resume is also important factor for applicant
tracking systems as they can be outdated or incorrect when parsing certain
resume formats. Tailoring a well formatted resume to applicant tracking
systems and to the job you hope to get will raise your chances of getting an
interview. Following are some pointers for the same:

• Carefully tailor your resume to the job description every single time you
apply.
• Optimize for ATS search and ranking algorithms by matching resume
keywords to the JD
• Use both the long-form and acronym version of keywords (e.g. “Master
of Business Administration (MBA)” or “Search Engine Optimization
(SEO)”) for maximum searchability
• Use a chronological or hybrid resume format (avoid the functional
resume format)
• Don’t use tables or columns as they often cause major parsing errors
• Use a traditional resume font like Helvetica, Garamond, or Georgia
• Don’t use headers or footers as the information might get lost or cause a
parsing error
• Use standard resume section headings like “Work Experience” rather
than being cute or clever (“Where I’ve Been”)
• Save your file as a .docx if possible

46
 7. Conclusion
Recruiting is one of the toughest issues businesses face today. Finding the
right talent is critical for business success, but it’s challenging to say the
least, and hiring the wrong person is expensive. Recent estimates put the cost
to find and hire a new employee at a quarter of a million dollars – a cost that
can quickly become astronomical if that person turns out to be wrong for the
role. Hence, using an ATS to make recruitment error-free and more efficient
makes complete sense.
During the 2008 Recession, employers were flooded with applications and
wanted features that discouraged and filtered out unqualified candidates. This
resulted in many of the bloated application processes and indiscriminate
filters found in ATS today. While outdated systems are still in use at some
large companies, we are seeing new ATS being developed for this age.
As employers fight for the best talent, candidate experience is becoming
more of a priority. Automation and ranking systems aren’t going away;
they’re just becoming more technical as recruiting software begins
leveraging AI.
While it might seem ironic, artificial intelligence and machine learning are
well on the way to lending a helping hand when it comes to solving the
problems of human capital management – and today, an ATS-optimized
resume is the first step to getting past the bots and face to face with an actual
person.

47
 8. References

• [Link]
tracking-system/
• [Link]
• [Link]
applicant-tracking-systems/
• [Link]
• [Link]
selecting-an-applicant-tracking-system/
• [Link]
applicant-tracking-system/
• [Link]
• [Link]
integrated-ats-and-hrms-approach/
• [Link]
• [Link]
applicant-tracking-systems-on-job-search
• [Link]
tracking-systems-how-to-navigate-the-ats
• [Link]
• [Link]
comparison/#buyers-guide
• [Link]
• [Link]
changing-the-game-for-recruiting/#412d6d571aa2
• Featured Customers website
• Taleo, Kenexa, Jobvite, Bullhorn official websites
• Dessler-Varkkey (2018) Human Resources Management 15th e.d.,
Pearson Education

48