Applicant tracking systems (ATS) help you manage the hiring process by organizing all your candidate notes and info in one place, helping you align with other hiring managers, and keeping an eye on important metrics.
Think Workable, Greenhouse, Toggl Hire — those kinds of hiring software that helps you maintain control of what can quickly spiral out into a disorganized process.
But an ATS you can integrate with other hiring tools? Life changing. Suddenly, you’re able to automate and optimize the hiring process like never before. And with new features and integrations appearing on the market (what seems like) every week, the possibilities just keep growing.
Whether you want to automate various actions in your day-to-day work or are interested in learning more about the configuration of certain tools, we’re here to help you navigate some of the best ATS integrations we’ve found to help you get the most out of your recruiting tech stack.
TL;DR — Key Takeaways
An ATS integration involves connecting a company’s recruitment software with other tools and systems to streamline the hiring process, improve efficiency, and enhance candidate experience.
The right integrations can transform your recruitment tech stack into a lean, mean hiring machine by automating manual processes, coordinating stakeholders, and creating seamless communication with candidates.
Some of the benefits of applicant tracking system integrations include being able to hire new employees faster, reducing your time to hire, and developing more competent teams in less time.
Some common ATS integrations include eSignature platforms, payroll software, calendars, background check tools, and skills testing assessment software.
What is an ATS integration?
Simply put, an ATS integration is when you connect your ATS platform to other tools you use in the hiring and onboarding process. This can be your eSignature tool, sourcing tools, video assessment software, or even an onboarding tool. Integrating your ATS like this streamlines your workflow and speeds up the hiring process.
What are the benefits of ATS integrations?
The benefits of integrating your ATS will vary depending on which ATS platform you use, the features it has, and what kind of functionality you need. That’s why it’s so important to clarify your business and hiring needs before you invest in a specific tool.
However, most ATS software won’t offer everything you need under one roof (er, software). The right ATS integration can fill in the gaps in your hiring process, eliminate manual, repetitive tasks, and help you customize your hiring process.
Speed up the candidate application process
The average time-to-hire is currently 44 days. That’s simply too long, which is no wonder why 60% of candidates abandon application processes if they deem it too long or complex. You can’t afford to extend your process beyond what’s necessary—otherwise, you risk losing top talent.
By connecting the right ATS integrations, you can do things like automatically publish job postings, shortlist candidates based on skills test scores, automate feedback, and much more. Basically, when integrating tools with your ATS, you can automate various actions to increase efficiency.
Improve candidate experience
Faster responses mean happier candidates and some ATS integrations make things faster and easier on the candidate’s side, too. For example, LinkedIn integrations allow candidates to populate job application fields with information they already have in their profiles.
If you integrate with Toggl Hire, you can set up triggers to notify candidates when they move on (or don’t!) to the next stage. This keeps them well-informed and happy without putting strain on your hiring team.
Maximize hiring team productivity
Most ATS integrations allow for some level of automation. This is helpful for hiring teams, especially those hiring at scale or screening hundreds of thousands of resumes each month.
Not only do the right integrations remove tedious and repetitive manual tasks, but they also usually lead to reduced hiring bias and better hires.
Avoid costly mistakes
Manual errors can cost companies a lot of time and money. Instead of manually entering candidate data, ATS integrations ensure you’re inputting the right information the first time around.
Better, data-driven hiring decisions
More data leads to better analysis and better decisions. An integration with Toggl Hire, for example, will display skill-specific data on each candidate so you can compare their competencies objectively using scorecards and other features.
Regardless of which one you choose, ATS integrations provide everyone on the hiring team access to the same data, reducing internal friction and speeding up important decision-making.
Smoother onboarding experience
Finally, by tightening up your hiring process, the onboarding process will likely be smoother, too. You can use data automatically collected from your ATS, such as location, payment information, and skills, to build a more robust and personalized onboarding program through an integration with your HR platform.
The benefits of this kind of automation and optimization? A smoother start can reduce turnover rate and increase engagement while getting the candidate to full productivity faster.
Common ATS integration examples
From HRIS software to payroll and job posting integrations, there’s an integration for pretty much everything these days. How you combine them depends on your workflow and hiring needs. Below are some of the most common use cases for ATS integrations you might want to consider.
Candidate sourcing and tracking
You can use an ATS integration to extract information on a specific employee from several locations or apps and store it in one place. Doing so ensures you’re able to access information more efficiently while ensuring no employee falls through the cracks in a multi-step hiring system. Integrate with LinkedIn, portfolio sites, or other professional networks to streamline candidate sourcing and save tons of time.
Interview scheduling and communication
Request interviews in a few clicks by integrating your ATS with calendar and communication tools like Calendly, Google Calendar, and Zoom. Your hiring team can coordinate schedules, send out interview invites, and set up video interviews directly from within the ATS platform, saving everyone a logistical nightmare.
Background checks and screening
Automate the final steps of the hiring process by integrating your ATS with a background check software like Checkr. Just set a trigger that runs the workflow once a candidate reaches a certain stage in the ATS pipeline. This saves time and reduces manual errors while keeping your organization compliant with required legal standards.
Skills testing platforms
Integrating with a skills testing platform lets recruiters assess candidates’ hard and/or soft skills directly from the ATS, with very simple implementation. Adding this step helps you make fairer and more objective candidate evaluations, ultimately reducing bias and building more diverse and capable teams.
Top tip:
Toggl Hire actually has a built-in candidate pipeline function, so depending on your hiring needs, you might not even require a separate ATS software. While other software offers purely skills tests, Toggl Hire allows you to manage the entire hiring process from start to finish, including moving candidates through your pipeline and sending out automated emails.
eSignature platforms
DocuSign, HelloSign, and PandaDoc are all great examples of leading eSignature platforms that can connect with your applicant tracking system and allow contracts to be signed virtually. You’ll be able to automate the drafting and sending of documents while your ATS keeps all the important paperwork in one place. This gets new hires to onboarding, and eventually their roles, much quicker.
Experience seamless integration with Toggl Hire
If used correctly, ATS integrations provide very powerful solutions to common hiring problems.
They save you time at every stage of the hiring process, from candidate sourcing to interview scheduling, skills testing, contract signing, and more. They help reduce time to hire by leveraging automation, streamlining workflows, and removing repetitive manual tasks while keeping all information organized in one place.
However, depending on your chosen software, you might not need that many integrations after all. Toggl Hire, for example, is a recruiter’s Swiss army knife. Send out skills tests to automate candidate screening and keep track of candidates in our ATS-like pipeline function. Once test submissions start coming through, use our candidate scorecard feature to objectively compare candidates based on competence and not unconscious bias.
We also enable you to automate feedback and rejection emails so candidates know where they stand with you ASAP. Our newest feature out of development — candidate recommendations — is now in beta, meaning that depending on the role you’re hiring for, we can recommend relevant candidates!
And since it’s free to set up an account, you’ve got no reason not to test us out on your next opening. Go ahead and get started!
Julia is a freelance writer and fierce remote work advocate. While traveling full-time, she writes about the intersection of technology and productivity, the future of work, and more. Outside work, you can find her hiking, dancing, or reading in a coffee shop.
