What is an ATS? (definition)
An ATS system is thus the administrative backbone of the recruitment process. It registers who applies, for which vacancy, what stage that person is in, and what has been agreed upon internally. Recruiters, hiring managers, and HR collaborate in the same environment, without information being scattered across inboxes and spreadsheets.
Inzicht
An ATS is not about rejecting candidates, but about providing an overview. The system brings structure to what quickly becomes a tangle of loose emails and lists without software — especially once you have multiple vacancies open simultaneously.
What does ATS stand for?
The three words explain the function:
In Dutch, in addition to 'kandidaatvolgsysteem' (candidate tracking system), you also encounter the terms recruitmentsysteem (recruitment system), wervingssysteem (hiring system), or recruitmentsoftware (recruitment software). In practice, they refer to the same thing: software that supports the application process.
An ATS is essentially the structured memory of your recruitment process: every applicant, every resume, and every agreement in one reliable place.
How does an ATS work?
Posting vacancies and collecting candidates (multiposting)
The process begins with the vacancy. From the ATS, you often publish a vacancy on multiple channels simultaneously — your own career page, job boards, and sometimes social media channels. This is called multiposting, and it saves you from manually retyping the same text on ten different sites.
All responses then automatically arrive in the ATS, regardless of the channel. Whether someone applies via your website or a job board, the data ends up in the same database. This prevents applications from being scattered across separate mailboxes.
Cijfer
Company vacancies receive an average of about 250 applicants, according to figures cited by Jobscan based on The Times [1]. At that volume, it becomes virtually impossible to properly follow up with every candidate without a central system.
CV parsing and screening
Incoming resumes are read via CV parsing: the software automatically extracts data such as name, contact details, work experience, and education from the document and places it into structured fields. This means no one has to manually retype information, and you can more easily search and filter candidates.
Based on this data, the ATS assists with screening: you filter and sort candidates by relevant criteria, such as a required diploma, experience, or answers to pre-selection questions. Important to emphasize: this is sorting and ranking, not an automatic final decision. We will return to this later.
The candidate pipeline and application statuses
The heart of an ATS is the pipeline (also known as a funnel): a visual overview in which each candidate has a status. A typical pipeline looks like this:
Because you can see at a glance where each candidate stands, no application is overlooked, and everyone on the team knows the next step.
Communication, interview scheduling, and team collaboration
Around the pipeline, an ATS supports the practical side of recruiting. You send (partially automated) acknowledgments, invitations, and rejections, often using templates to ensure consistent communication. Interviews are scheduled from within the system, sometimes linked to the calendars of the interview participants.
Additionally, recruiters and hiring managers collaborate in the same environment: they leave evaluations, assign scores, and provide feedback on candidates. This ensures that decision-making remains documented and traceable, instead of being scattered across email and verbal discussions.
What functions and modules does an ATS have?
Overview of the most important ATS functions
| Function | What it does | Who uses it |
|---|---|---|
| CV parsing | Automatically reads resumes and puts data into structured fields | Recruiters, HR |
| Candidate pipeline | Visual overview of candidates and their application status | Recruiters, hiring managers |
| Job board and multiposting | Posts vacancies on multiple channels at once | Recruiters |
| Talent pool | Stores previous candidates for future vacancies | Recruiters, sourcing |
| Communication and planning | Templates, automatic messages, and interview scheduling | Recruiters, hiring managers |
| Reporting and analytics | Insight into lead times, sources, and conversion per phase | Recruitment manager, HR |
| Integrations | Links with HRIS, payroll, job boards, and calendar | HR, IT |
Tip
Distinguish between functions you need today and functions that 'would be nice to have'. An extensive talent pool or advanced analytics only provides value with sufficient recruitment volume — for a small team, simplicity often outweighs the number of modules.
What are the benefits of an ATS?
Time savings and less manual work
An ATS automates the repetitive, administrative part of recruitment: collecting applications, parsing resumes, tracking statuses, and sending standard messages. This frees up time for the work that truly matters — conducting interviews and choosing the right candidate. Because everything is centralized, you no longer have to search in separate inboxes and folders.
Better candidate experience and faster time-to-hire
Speed and clarity largely determine how applicants experience your organization. An ATS helps you respond faster, keep candidates informed, and schedule interviews more smoothly. This shortens the time-to-hire (the time between vacancy and hire) and prevents good candidates from dropping out because they don't hear anything for too long.
Data-driven recruiting and reporting
Because all steps are in the system, you can measure and adjust the recruitment process. You see how long vacancies are open, through which channel the best candidates come in, and where candidates drop out in the pipeline. This allows you to base decisions on figures instead of feelings.
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Recruiting is expensive: the average cost-per-hire is around $4,129 according to SHRM's benchmark [3]. By measuring your process and eliminating bottlenecks, an ATS helps keep these costs manageable.
Does an ATS automatically reject resumes? (the 75% myth)
The widely heard claim that an ATS 'automatically rejects 75% of resumes' is a myth without substantiation. This claim originated from a 2012 sales pitch by a company called Preptel, which ceased to exist in 2013 — and no research methodology verifying the figure has ever been published [4].
What an ATS does do is sort, filter, and rank candidates so that recruiters have a quicker overview. Whether a candidate proceeds to an interview remains, in practice, a human decision. The system supports that choice but does not make it for you automatically.
Let op
Be careful with absolute percentages about 'automatic rejection' you encounter online. Many of these can be traced back to that same unfounded 75% claim. Evaluate an ATS on what it demonstrably does — sorting and providing an overview — not on alarming figures.
ATS vs CRM vs HRIS — what's the difference?
| Aspect | ATS | Recruitment CRM | HRIS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Main goal | Track and select applicants | Build relationships with talent | Manage personnel administration |
| Focuses on | Active candidates for specific vacancies | (Future) talent, even without a vacancy | Employees in service |
| Core activity | Post vacancies, screen, pipeline | Sourcing, talent pools, nurturing | Files, leave, contracts |
| Moment in the cycle | During recruitment | Before and around recruitment | After onboarding |
ATS versus recruitment CRM
An ATS focuses on the administrative processing and tracking of active applicants for specific vacancies. A recruitment CRM is about building and maintaining relationships with (future) talent, even if there is no vacancy yet — think of talent pools and proactive sourcing. Many modern systems combine both functions in one platform.
ATS versus HRIS
An ATS roughly stops where the HRIS begins: at the hiring stage. As soon as a candidate says 'yes', the data ideally transfers to the system that manages personnel administration. If you want to know how this transfer works and where the boundary lies exactly, read what an HRIS is and how it relates to an ATS. A good link between the two prevents you from entering new employee data twice.
Who is an ATS for?
Inzicht
For most growing organizations, the question is not *if*, but *when* an ATS pays off. The tipping point is usually when you can no longer keep track of which candidate is in which phase — and you risk losing good applicants due to slow follow-up.
What does an ATS cost?
The most common pricing models are:
The market behind this software is growing steadily. The global market for ATS software was valued at $3.03 billion in 2024 and is expected to grow to $5.65 billion by 2031, at an annual growth (CAGR) of 6.28% [2]. More supply means more choice — but also more noise to navigate through.
Tip
Explicitly ask each vendor what is and is not included in the price. Implementation, support, extra integrations, and the number of users can significantly push the actual costs above the introductory rate.
What to look for when choosing an ATS?
GDPR and retention periods for application data
In the Dutch context, privacy deserves special attention. An ATS processes personal data of applicants, and the rules of the GDPR apply. Practically, this means, among other things, that you do not store application data longer than necessary.
The Dutch Data Protection Authority recommends that you generally store data of rejected applicants for up to four weeks after the procedure is completed, or up to a maximum of one year if the applicant gives permission. A good ATS supports this with configurable retention periods and the ability to delete data timely and demonstrably. Check with each vendor how this is arranged.
Let op
Retention periods are not a 'nice-to-have'. Storing application data for too long is a GDPR violation. Choose an ATS that allows you to automatically enforce retention periods, rather than relying on someone to manually clean up.
Frequently asked questions about an ATS
What is an ATS?
An ATS (Applicant Tracking System) is software that streamlines and automates the entire application process. It collects all candidate data in one place, tracks every step in the recruitment process, and helps recruiters post jobs, screen resumes, guide candidates through the pipeline, and schedule interviews. In Dutch, it is also called a candidate tracking system or recruitment system.
What does the abbreviation ATS stand for?
ATS stands for Applicant Tracking System, or candidate tracking system. The term precisely describes what it does: 'tracking' applicants throughout the entire recruitment process, from initial application to hiring or rejection.
How does an ATS work?
An ATS operates from a central candidate database. You post a vacancy (often on multiple job boards at once via multiposting), after which incoming applications are automatically collected and parsed via CV parsing. Candidates then go through a visual pipeline with statuses (new, screening, interview, offer), while the system supports communication, planning, and collaboration within the recruitment team.
What is the difference between an ATS and a recruitment CRM?
An ATS focuses on the administrative processing and tracking of active applicants for specific vacancies. A recruitment CRM is about building and maintaining relationships with (future) talent, even if there is no vacancy yet — think of talent pools and proactive sourcing. Many modern systems combine both functions.
Does an ATS automatically reject resumes?
Usually not. The widespread idea that an ATS automatically rejects 75% of resumes is a persistent myth: that claim originated from a sales pitch by a vendor who ceased operations in 2013 and has never been substantiated by research [4]. An ATS sorts, filters, and ranks candidates and makes the work clearer for recruiters, but the final selection remains, in practice, human work.
Who is an ATS suitable for?
An ATS is particularly valuable for organizations that recruit regularly or in volume, fast-growing companies, and recruitment agencies. For SMEs, an ATS can also pay off as soon as separate mailboxes and spreadsheets become unmanageable. Almost all large organizations now use an ATS — Jobscan detected one for 97.8% of the Fortune 500 in 2025 [1] — while adoption in SMEs is lower.
