What Is An Applicant Tracking System (And Why Do You Need One)?

An applicant tracking system (otherwise known as an ATS or ATS recruitment software) has never been more critical. Especially when you consider all the moving parts involved with recruitment in today’s talent-driven and remote working/distributed team landscape.

Roles need to be defined. Job advertisements need to reach the right people. Applications need to be reviewed. Interviews need to be coordinated. Hiring decisions need to be documented. And successful candidates need to be seamlessly moved into employment.

But what exactly does an ATS do – and what are the key benefits of using an applicant tracking system to manage your hiring process in Australia (and beyond)?

What is an applicant tracking system?

An applicant tracking system (ATS) is recruitment software that helps organisations attract, assess, manage, and hire candidates.

At its core, an ATS creates a central workflow for managing:

• Job vacancies
• Candidate applications
• Recruitment pipelines
• Interviews
• Hiring decisions
• Employment offers

Rather than relying on disconnected spreadsheets, emails, and shared folders, businesses can manage recruitment activity through a structured platform.

An ATS typically allows recruitment teams to:

• Publish job vacancies
• Capture candidate applications
• Review resumes and profiles
• Track candidate progress
• Collaborate with hiring managers
• Automate recruitment communications
• Report on hiring activity

However, modern applicant tracking systems are increasingly moving beyond recruitment administration.

The strongest platforms recognise that hiring is not an isolated business activity. Candidates, after all, do not simply become an employee the moment they accept an offer. They move through a wider journey: Attract → Apply → Assess → Offer → Onboard → Employ → Pay

This is why the connection between recruitment and the broader employee lifecycle has become an increasingly important consideration when choosing ATS software.

ATS vs HRIS (what’s the difference?)

An applicant tracking system manages recruitment before someone becomes an employee.

A human resources information system (HRIS) manages employees once they're officially onboarded.

In simple terms...

An ATS typically manages:

• Job vacancies
• Candidate applications
• Interviews
• Hiring workflows
• Offers

While an HRIS typically manages:

• Employee records
• Contracts
• Payroll information
• Leave
• Workforce administration

Why do businesses use applicant tracking systems?

Recruitment creates a unique operational challenge because it involves multiple people, multiple decisions, and large amounts of information moving between stages.

A business may need to coordinate:

• Recruiters
• Hiring managers
• Department leaders
• Interview panels
• HR teams
• Candidates

Without a structured process, recruitment can become dependent on individual habits.

One recruiter may keep detailed notes. Another may rely on email. A hiring manager may store feedback elsewhere. A candidate’s information may need to be manually recreated once they become an employee.

An ATS addresses this by creating a consistent recruitment workflow.

Centralise candidate information

Without an ATS, candidate information can quickly become fragmented.

Resumes may sit in folders. Applications may remain within job board portals. Interview feedback may exist in separate documents.

An applicant tracking system creates a central candidate profile where recruitment teams can access relevant information throughout the hiring process.

This allows businesses to spend less time searching for information and more time evaluating candidates.

Create consistent hiring processes

Every organisation has a recruitment process. The question is whether that process is consistent.

An ATS allows businesses to establish defined recruitment stages, creating clearer expectations for everyone involved. For example:

Application received → Screening → Interview → Assessment → Approval → Offer → Onboarding

This makes it easier to understand:

• Where a candidate currently sits
• Who is responsible for the next action
• What information is still required
• What decisions have already been made

Improve recruitment visibility

Hiring decisions become easier when businesses can see what is happening across their recruitment pipeline.

An ATS can help answer questions such as:

• How many candidates are currently being considered?
• Which roles are difficult to fill?
• Where are candidates dropping out?
• Which recruitment channels produce suitable applicants?
• How long does hiring take?

Instead of relying on manual reporting and scattered updates, recruitment teams gain a clearer picture of hiring performance.

Improve the candidate experience

Recruitment is often a candidate’s first meaningful interaction with an organisation.

Slow communication, unclear next steps, and inconsistent follow-up can influence how candidates view an employer before they ever join.

An ATS helps businesses create a more organised candidate experience through:

• Timely communication
• Clear recruitment stages
• Better interview coordination
• Consistent updates

This is particularly important in competitive hiring markets where strong candidates may be considering multiple opportunities.

Reduce duplicate admin

One of the biggest inefficiencies in recruitment occurs after a candidate has been successfully hired.

The information collected during recruitment often becomes necessary for:

• Employment contracts
• Employee records
• Compliance requirements
• Payroll setup
• Onboarding workflows

When recruitment and employment systems are disconnected, businesses often recreate information they already collected.

A connected ATS reduces this duplication by allowing relevant candidate information to continue into the next stage of the employee lifecycle.

How does an applicant tracking system work?

While ATS platforms vary in complexity and features, most follow a similar recruitment workflow.

1. Creating job vacancies

Recruiters create roles within the ATS, outlining:

• Position details
• Responsibilities
• Required skills
• Screening questions
• Hiring stages
• Approval workflows

Many ATS platforms can also distribute vacancies across job boards and careers pages.

2. Capturing applications

When candidates apply, their information is captured directly into the ATS.

Instead of managing applications across separate channels, recruiters can access:

• Candidate details
• Resume history
• Previous applications
• Communication records
• Recruitment status

This provides a clearer view of each candidate’s journey.

3. Screening candidates

An ATS helps recruiters assess applicants against role requirements.

Depending on the platform, this may include:

• Resume parsing
• Screening questions
• Candidate filtering
• Skills matching
• Assessment workflows

The purpose is not to remove human judgement from recruitment.

It is to help recruiters focus their attention where it matters most.

4. Managing interviews and hiring decisions

Recruitment often involves multiple stakeholders.

An ATS helps coordinate:

• Interview scheduling
• Hiring manager feedback
• Candidate evaluations
• Approval processes
• Recruitment notes

This creates a documented record of the recruitment process and improves collaboration between hiring teams.

5. Moving successful candidates into onboarding

The transition from candidate to employee is one of the most important workflow points in the employee lifecycle.

A connected ATS allows relevant candidate information to move into onboarding, reducing duplicate administration and creating a smoother transition into employment.

What features should I look for in ATS software?

Not all applicant tracking systems are engineered the same way.

Some ATS platforms are built primarily for internal recruitment teams managing ongoing hiring. Others are designed for recruitment agencies managing candidates, clients, placements, and complex workflows.

The right ATS will invariably depends on your organisation’s hiring model – though several capabilities should be considered when evaluating applicant tracking software.

Candidate management

A strong ATS should provide a central view of every applicant throughout the recruitment process.

Rather than storing resumes across folders, applications across job boards, and interview notes across separate documents, candidate information is maintained within a structured profile. This may include:

• Contact details
• Resume history
• Previous applications
• Communication records
• Interview notes
• Recruitment status
• Relevant documents

A central candidate database helps recruiters understand the complete context behind each applicant rather than reviewing isolated pieces of information.

Recruitment workflows

An ATS should help businesses create a repeatable recruitment process.

Without defined workflows, hiring can vary significantly between teams and managers. One person may track candidates in a spreadsheet, another may manage updates through email, and another may rely on memory.

An ATS creates structure by defining recruitment stages and responsibilities. This makes it clearer:

• What stage each candidate is currently in
• Who owns the next action
• Which information is outstanding
• What decisions have already been made

Job board integrations

Most organisations advertise roles across multiple channels.

This may include:

• Careers pages
• LinkedIn
• SEEK
• Indeed
• Industry-specific job boards

Without an ATS, recruiters may need to manually publish vacancies across different platforms and consolidate applications afterwards.

Many ATS platforms provide job board integrations that allow businesses to distribute vacancies more efficiently while bringing applications back into a central recruitment workflow.

The benefit is not simply reaching more candidates.

It is reducing the administrative work between attracting applicants and managing them.

Candidate screening & assessment

Receiving applications is only the first step.

The challenge is identifying suitable candidates efficiently.

ATS software can support screening through features such as:

• Resume parsing
• Screening questions
• Candidate filtering
• Skills matching
• Assessments
• Candidate tagging

These tools help recruitment teams apply more consistent criteria when evaluating applicants.

For high-volume recruitment environments, structured screening can significantly reduce manual review time.

Interview management & collaboration

Recruitment decisions rarely involve one person.

Hiring often requires input from:

• Recruiters
• Hiring managers
• Department leaders
• Interview panels
• Subject matter experts

An ATS helps keep this collaboration organised through features such as:

• Interview scheduling
• Feedback collection
• Interview scorecards
• Approval workflows
• Candidate evaluations

This ensures recruitment decisions are documented and accessible to the relevant stakeholders.

Recruitment automation

Automation is one of the most common reasons businesses adopt ATS software.

However, the value is not replacing recruiters.

The value is reducing repetitive coordination.

Useful ATS automation may include:

• Candidate notifications
• Interview reminders
• Workflow progression
• Approval requests
• Status updates
• Recruitment reporting

This allows recruitment teams to spend less time managing administrative tasks and more time engaging candidates.

Recruitment analytics & reporting

An ATS should help businesses understand how their recruitment process is performing.

Useful recruitment analytics include:‍

• ‍Time to hire
  How long does it take to move from vacancy creation to accepted offer?‍
• Source of hire
  Which channels are producing suitable candidates?‍
• Recruitment pipeline
  How many candidates are progressing through each stage?‍
• Candidate conversion
  Where are applicants moving forward, and where are they dropping out?‍
• Hiring activity
  Which teams, locations, or roles are generating the most recruitment activity?

These insights allow businesses to identify bottlenecks and make more informed hiring decisions.

Talent pools & candidate relationships

Not every suitable candidate is ready for the role currently available.

An ATS can help organisations maintain relationships with potential future hires by creating talent pools.

This allows recruiters to:

• Store previous applicants
• Segment candidates by skills or experience
• Revisit suitable candidates for future roles
• Reduce reliance on starting every search from scratch

For businesses that recruit regularly, talent pools can become a valuable source of future candidates.

Compliance & recruitment record keeping

Recruitment creates important records.

Depending on the organisation and industry, businesses may need to maintain information relating to:

• Applications
• Candidate communication
• Hiring decisions
• Employment documentation
• Recruitment processes

An ATS can provide a more structured record of recruitment activity, helping businesses maintain consistency and visibility throughout hiring.

For organisations operating in regulated industries, the ability to demonstrate a clear recruitment process can become particularly important.

How To Choose The Right ATS For Your Business

The best applicant tracking system is not necessarily the one with the most features.

It is the one that fits your recruitment process and supports where your organisation is heading.

Before choosing ATS software, consider:

How frequently do you hire?

A business hiring occasionally will have different needs from an organisation recruiting hundreds of employees.

High-volume hiring typically requires stronger workflow, automation, and reporting capabilities.

Who participates in recruitment?

If hiring involves multiple managers or teams, collaboration and visibility become increasingly important.

Where do candidates come from?

Consider whether your organisation relies on:

• Job boards
• Referrals
• Recruitment agencies
• Talent pools
• Direct applications

What happens after acceptance?

A strong ATS should not create another handover point.

Consider whether candidate information can continue into:

• Onboarding
• Employee records
• Compliance processes
• Payroll

What systems need to connect?

Recruitment rarely operates alone.

Consider how your ATS interacts with:

• HR software
• Payroll systems
• Workforce management platforms
• Compliance tools
• Learning systems

The right ATS should reduce complexity, not create another disconnected system for your team to manage.

The Xemplo Hire experience

Xemplo Hire is engineered around the idea that recruitment should not be treated as an isolated activity.

Hiring someone is the first stage of managing their employment. That means the information captured and created during this stage should continue to be useful after a candidate accepts an offer.

With Xemplo, recruitment connects into the broader workforce lifecycle: Hire → Onboard → Employ → Pay

Create & manage roles effectively

A strong recruitment process starts before candidates apply.

Xemplo Hire helps organisations create structured job opportunities by using existing position information, responsibilities, and requirements to support consistent job advertisements.

This creates greater alignment between:

• The role being advertised
• The candidates being attracted
• The expectations established during hiring

For organisations managing multiple roles, locations, or hiring managers, this consistency becomes increasingly important.

Reach candidates across multiple channels

Finding the right candidates often requires reaching people where they are.

Xemplo Hire helps businesses distribute vacancies across recruitment channels while maintaining visibility over applications as they enter the hiring process.

Instead of managing separate platforms independently, recruitment teams can bring candidate activity into a central workflow.

This makes it easier to understand:

• Where applications are coming from
• Which channels are producing candidates
• Which applicants are progressing

Build talent poools instead of starting from scratch

Strong candidates who were not selected for one opportunity may still be valuable in the future.

Xemplo Hire allows businesses to maintain candidate profiles and talent pools, helping organisations build a stronger pipeline of potential employees.

This is particularly valuable for businesses that regularly recruit similar roles or operate in competitive labour markets.

Rather than restarting every recruitment campaign from zero, businesses can continue building relationships with potential future hires.

Manage candidates through every recruitment stage

Recruitment involves more than collecting applications.

Candidates need to be reviewed, assessed, interviewed, approved, and progressed.

Xemplo Hire helps recruitment teams manage each stage through structured workflows.

Teams can:

• Track candidate progress
• Record interview notes
• Manage approvals
• Coordinate hiring activity
• Maintain candidate communication

This creates greater clarity around what needs to happen next and who is responsible.

Keep hiring teams in the loop

Recruitment decisions often involve multiple people.

Hiring managers, HR teams, and operational leaders all need visibility into candidate progress.

Xemplo Hire supports collaboration by allowing relevant stakeholders to participate in the recruitment process while maintaining appropriate permissions and workflows.

This reduces reliance on disconnected email chains and makes hiring decisions easier to manage.

Move candidates straight into onboarding

This is where recruitment technology often creates the biggest opportunity.

A candidate accepting an offer should represent a transition point – not a restart.

With Xemplo Hire, candidate information can flow directly into onboarding workflows, helping businesses reduce duplicate data entry and create a smoother transition into employment.

From there, organisations can manage:

• Employment documentation
• Worker information
• Compliance requirements
• Workforce records

The result is a more connected journey from candidate to employee.

Cost-efficiency

The average cost per hire sits at just over $4,000 while the average time to fill a vacant position is 42 days (depending obviously on the type of role).

Bringing an ATS into your operations can help reduce this average cost per hire by equipping you with all the tools to manage the end-to-end recruitment journey as efficiently and easily as possible.

Organisations implementing ATS recruitment software for small and mid-sized businesses often report improvements in hiring speed, communication, and administrative efficiency.

Why a connected ATS matters

Recruitment doesn't end when a candidate accepts an offer.

That moment should represent a transition into employment (not a restart of the administrative process).

In many organisations, candidate information is captured during recruitment and then manually recreated once someone joins. Details are exported, documents are transferred, and employee records are rebuilt across separate systems.

This creates unnecessary administration and increases the risk of inconsistent information.

A connected ATS removes this gap by allowing recruitment data to continue into onboarding, employment, compliance, and payroll workflows. The result is a more seamless employee lifecycle.

The value of an ATS is therefore not only how effectively it helps businesses identify candidates. It is also how effectively it supports what happens after the hiring decision has been made.

For organisations managing growing teams, high-volume recruitment, or complex workforce requirements, that connection can make the difference between simply tracking applicants and building a more reliable workforce process.

The Best ATS Software in Australia

There is no single applicant tracking system that is right for every organisation. The best ATS for you will ultimately depend on:

• Hiring volume
• Recruitment model
• Industry requirements
• Existing technology environment
• Whether recruitment needs to connect with broader workforce processes

The following ATS platforms represent some of the leading options available to Australian businesses (each suited to different recruitment requirements and business needs).

Xemplo Hire

‍Best for businesses wanting recruitment connected to onboarding, workforce management, and wider employee lifecycle.

Xemplo Hire combines applicant tracking functionality with the broader Xemplo workforce platform, allowing recruitment information to flow into onboarding, employment management, compliance, and payroll workflows.

Key strengths:

• Recruitment-to-onboarding continuity
• Connected workforce lifecycle
• Candidate management
• Recruitment workflows
• Reduced duplicate data entry
• Workforce compliance connection

Considerations:

Businesses looking purely for a standalone ATS may prefer a specialised recruitment-only platform. Xemplo is best suited for organisations that want recruitment connected to broader workforce operations.

Head to the link here to find out more.

Workable

Best for small and medium businesses wanting a straightforward ATS.

Workable is a widely used ATS platform designed to help businesses manage job advertising, applications, candidate pipelines, and hiring workflows.

Key strengths:

• User-friendly interface
• Job posting tools
• Candidate sourcing features
• Recruitment automation
• Suitable for growing businesses

Considerations:

Businesses requiring deeper workforce lifecycle management may need additional HR systems alongside Workable.

Greenhouse

Best for scaling businesses with structured hiring processes.

Greenhouse is one of the most recognised applicant tracking systems globally, particularly among technology companies and organisations with mature recruitment functions.

The platform focuses heavily on creating consistent hiring processes, improving collaboration between hiring teams, and providing deeper visibility into recruitment performance.

Key strengths:

• Structured hiring workflows
• Interview planning and scorecards
• Hiring team collaboration
• Recruitment reporting
• Strong integrations
• Enterprise-level configurability

Greenhouse is particularly well suited to organisations that have established recruitment teams and want greater consistency across hiring decisions.

Considerations:

The depth of configuration can be an advantage for larger organisations but may introduce additional complexity for smaller businesses that need a simpler recruitment solution.

Lever

Best for businesses focused on candidate relationships and talent pipelines.

Lever combines applicant tracking functionality with candidate relationship management (CRM) capabilities.

Rather than focusing solely on active vacancies, Lever places emphasis on maintaining long-term relationships with potential candidates.

Key strengths:

• Candidate relationship management
• Talent pools
• Recruitment pipelines
• Sourcing workflows
• Hiring analytics
• Collaboration features

Lever can be particularly valuable for businesses that recruit for specialised roles where maintaining relationships with potential candidates is important.

Considerations:

Organisations with straightforward hiring needs may not require the additional CRM capabilities.

JobAdder

Best for recruitment agencies and staffing businesses.

JobAdder is an Australian-founded recruitment platform designed primarily for recruitment agencies and staffing organisations.

The platform provides tools for managing candidates, clients, vacancies, and recruitment workflows.

Key strengths:

• Agency recruitment workflows
• Candidate database management
• Job board integrations
• Client management
• Recruitment automation
• Placement-focused functionality

JobAdder is particularly relevant for agencies managing multiple clients and candidate pipelines.

Read more about Xemplo's integration with JobAdder here.

Considerations:

Businesses looking for a broader employee lifecycle platform may require additional systems for onboarding, workforce management, and payroll.

Bullhorn

Best for recruitment agencies and staffing firms managing complex operations.

Bullhorn is a recruitment software platform widely used by staffing and recruitment organisations.

Unlike many internal recruitment ATS platforms, Bullhorn combines applicant tracking with customer relationship management functionality.

Key strengths:

• Agency-focused workflows
• Candidate relationship management
• Client management
• Placement tracking
• Recruitment automation
• Staffing industry functionality

Bullhorn is often considered by larger recruitment agencies and staffing providers requiring deeper operational management.

Read more about Xemplo's integration with Bullhorn here.

Considerations:

Its agency focus means organisations hiring directly for their own workforce may find dedicated internal recruitment ATS platforms more suitable.

SmartRecruiters

Best for enterprise organisations managing high-volume recruitment.

SmartRecruiters is an enterprise applicant tracking platform designed for organisations managing large-scale hiring operations.

The platform supports recruitment marketing, candidate management, hiring workflows, and recruitment analytics.

Key strengths:

• Enterprise recruitment workflows
• Global hiring support
• Recruitment marketing
• Candidate experience tools
• Reporting and analytics
• Integration ecosystem

SmartRecruiters is suited to organisations that need to manage significant recruitment activity across multiple teams or locations.

Considerations:

Enterprise functionality can mean greater implementation requirements compared with simpler ATS solutions.

Zoho Recruit

Best for small businesses and recruitment agencies looking for flexible ATS functionality.

Zoho Recruit is part of the wider Zoho business software ecosystem and provides applicant tracking functionality for both internal recruitment teams and agencies.

Key strengths:

• Customisable workflows
• Candidate management
• Automation tools
• Recruitment reporting
• Integration with Zoho products
• Competitive pricing

Zoho Recruit can be a practical option for businesses looking for a flexible ATS without enterprise-level complexity.

Considerations:

Businesses requiring highly specialised recruitment workflows or deeper workforce management functionality may need additional platforms.

Choosing the right ATS for your business

Before selecting ATS software, consider...

How often do you hire?
High-volume recruitment requires stronger workflow, automation, and reporting capabilities.

Who is involved in hiring?
If multiple managers and teams participate, collaboration tools become increasingly important.

Where do candidates come from?
Consider job boards, referrals, recruitment agencies, and talent pools.

What happens after someone accepts?
A strong ATS should support the transition from candidate to employee, not create another administrative handoff.

What systems need to connect?
Consider how recruitment interacts with HR, payroll, compliance, and workforce management platforms.

The best applicant tracking system isn't necessarily the one with the most features. It's the one that creates a recruitment process your organisation can actually manage – and scale.