Choosing the Right ATS: A Buyer's Guide for HR and Talent Leaders

You’re responsible for sourcing and hiring top talent in your organization. Every time you put out a notice, you receive tons of resumes, many unqualified, while a few fit into the job description. Manually sorting through piles and piles of applicants can be overwhelming. Without a centralized system, it’s easy to lose track of candidates, delay responses, or make biased decisions. 

To handle recruitment more efficiently, many companies turn to an applicant tracking system (ATS). It helps businesses manage every stage of the recruitment process by tracking candidates from application to final offer. The right ATS brings structure, saves you time, and ensures no candidate slips through the cracks. In this guide, we’ll walk you through choosing the best ATS systems for your company, what features to prioritize, and the key questions to ask before making a final decision.

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What is ATS, and why do growing companies need it?

More than 98% of Fortune 500 companies implement ATS systems. An applicant tracking system is recruiting software that automates and streamlines the hiring process from start to finish. 

It serves as the central hub for all job postings and applicant information, allowing recruiters to create job descriptions, post to multiple platforms, scan resumes, collect and organize applications, schedule interviews, gather team feedback, conduct background checks, and communicate with candidates.

An ATS stores every candidate’s resume, cover letter, and interview feedback in a centralized database, making it easy to track their progress throughout the recruitment process. 

Key recruitment challenges solved by applicant tracking systems

1. Resume overload

It can be overwhelming if you are dealing with more than 1,000 applications for a particular job opening. An effective ATS filters up to 70% of non-qualifying resumes automatically and ranks resumes based on qualifications, so you can focus on the candidates that fit most of your needs.

2. Disorganized workflow

If you’re posting on multiple platforms, it can be hard to track applications across all systems. An applicant tracking system, like Omni, organizes the workflow by hosting all applicant data in one system, ensuring information is constantly updated in real-time and easily accessible.

3. Poor candidate experience

As many as 92% of candidates quit halfway due to complex submission forms. A user-friendly applicant tracking system and automated updates can help reduce this drop-off by promoting one-click or seamless submissions. 

4. Hiring bias

ATS systems help standardize screening criteria to ensure fairness and reduce bias so every candidate gets a fair evaluation.

5. Limited reporting and analytics

Some ATS systems generate reports on hiring metrics like time-to-fill, source of hire, candidate drop-off, and diversity data, allowing HR professionals to pinpoint and fix issues in the hiring process before they escalate.

6. Siloed work

When it comes to hiring executives, the stakes are higher as it usually involves various stakeholders from multiple departments, each bringing different priorities to the table. Executive search software centralizes collaboration, enabling key decision-makers to share feedback, align on candidate evaluations, and move forward with confidence.

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ATS systems impact on user experience and candidate engagement

Aside from benefiting your enterprise by streamlining recruitment, ATS systems also significantly enhance candidate experience, a critical component in employer branding and offer acceptance.

Studies have highlighted that as high as 81% of candidates prefer continuous communication throughout the hiring process. However, the reality is nearly 60% of applicants report being ‘ghosted’ by employers during or after the interview stage.

An ATS addresses this gap by enabling automated updates, interview reminders, and timely check-ins, reducing the risk of candidate drop-offs and strengthening your reputation as a top employer of choice.

With that said, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to picking the right ATS system. Let’s get into some of the key features to look for when finding the perfect fit.

Key Features to Look For When Evaluating ATS Systems

According to Research and Markets, the ATS systems market is expected to reach $5.48 billion by 2030. This rapid growth means more companies are adopting these tools for smoother hiring. But while ATS Singapore systems have become increasingly common in the hiring landscape, it’s crucial to evaluate your options before choosing one.

Here are the key capabilities a strong applicant tracking system should offer:

Centralized job posting

A robust applicant tracking system should empower HR teams to create and manage job postings across multiple job boards and social media platforms from a single dashboard. This centralized approach ensures consistent messaging, simplifies tracking applications, and eliminates the need to manually post or update job postings on each platform. Additionally, it makes it easy to update or close job posts across all channels, saving time and reducing errors.

Omni’s multi-channel posting allows you to post job listings across multiple platforms to reach relevant candidates on top job boards such as Glassdoor and LinkedIn. 

For more targeted HR roles, Omni’s job board is a great place to start. Submit your job listing today.

Customizable hiring pipelines

Every company and every role has its own hiring nuances. Flexible ATS Singapore systems let you customize each stage of the hiring process, from application screening to interviews and final offers, to match your company’s workflow. This creates consistency across departments and gives recruiters the agility to refine processes as hiring needs change. 

Resume parsing and candidate data management

With intelligent resume parsing, top-tier ATS systems extract key candidate information, such as experience, education, and certifications, from uploaded resumes and organize it into a structured, searchable database.

Omni’s smart candidate tracking allows recruiters to manage applications and filter candidate profiles based on ideal criteria, track status, and avoid costly mistakes, saving hours of administrative work. 

Interview scheduling and automated candidate communication

Coordinating interviews manually can be frustrating for candidates and delay hiring. A modern applicant tracking system automates the entire interview scheduling process by sending out invitations, confirmations, and reminders, so you never miss a step. 

Omni keeps candidates engaged and informed at every stage with personalized, automated messages—reducing no-shows and creating a smooth, consistent candidate experience. From scheduling links to status updates and next steps, all communication is handled automatically, eliminating the back-and-forth. With calendar integrations like Google, Omni's ATS Singapore syncs availability across stakeholders and streamlines even the most complex, multi-stage interview setups.

Hiring team collaboration

Hiring the perfect candidate is more often than not a team sport, and your ATS should be able to support this. 

By centralizing candidate data, feedback, and communication all in one place, your team can: 

• Mention colleagues for input
• Share interview notes and ratings
• Collaborate on scorecards in real-time
• Track progress and next steps with clarity

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This alignment can improve hiring quality and speed up decision-making, especially for critical or time-sensitive roles. 

Reporting dashboards

To further optimize your hiring funnel, you need visibility—and this is where dashboards and reporting come in. Modern ATS systems like Omni offer visual dashboards and customizable reports to track key recruitment metrics such as: 

• Time-to-fill
• Source of hire
• Applicant drop-off
• Diversity metrics
• Cost per hire 

Omni helps you leverage candidate data to make informed hiring choices and gain valuable insights into your hiring process to forecast hiring needs, improve workflows, and make data-driven workforce decisions.

Integration with HRIS, payroll and onboarding tools

The best ATS Singapore systems seamlessly integrate with your existing HRIS, including payroll, calendar, and communication tools, for a unified workflow. 

This consolidation eliminates data silos and reduces manual errors like duplicate data entry, allowing HR teams to collaborate effectively across recruitment, onboarding, and payroll functions. 

For example, when a candidate is hired, Omni automatically consolidates and transfers their data, from resumes and contact details to job title and salary, within our employee database, creating a new employee record. This seamless handoff between recruitment and onboarding eliminates the need for manual entry, reduces errors, and ensures every new hire starts with accurate information from day one. 

With Omni's ATS Singapore, you can also set up onboarding workflows, assign tasks, and grant system access, all on the same platform.

Role-based permissions and compliance tracking

Drata reports that 75% of organizations say continuous compliance supports business goals, and 91% plan to invest in it further. If compliance is part of your hiring strategy, your ATS must support key employment regulations and data protection laws. 

With regulations like GDPR in Europe or PDPA in Singapore, your chosen ATS should support: 

• Candidate consent collection
• Data anonymization and retention rules
• Access logs and audit trails
• Role-based permissions for secure data handling

Omni goes further by offering customizable access controls, allowing you to define exactly who can view, edit, or delete specific datasets. On top of that, Omni is built with enterprise-grade security, including AES-256 (the same as what banks use!) to secure data both at rest and in transit. We’re also ISO-27001 certified, highlighting our commitment to rigorous data security standards. With Omni, you can rest assured that your employee data is managed compliantly without compromising on security. 

Questions to Ask When Choosing ATS Systems

With so many ATS systems available, it’s important to find one that truly fits your organization’s needs. Otherwise, you risk wasting time and resources on the wrong tool. 

To make a well-informed decision, consider these questions when assessing ATS systems:

• What core features does the ATS offer?
• Does it automate resume screening and filtering?
• Does it support posting to multiple job boards directly from the platform?
• Does it have built-in tools for interview scheduling and feedback collection?
• Does the ATS integrate with existing HR tools like calendars, email, and Slack?
• Is the platform user-friendly for both recruiters and hiring managers?
• Can we track hiring metrics, such as time-to-hire, source of hire, or time-to-fill?
• Does it support the GDPR, Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA), Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), and other international compliance standards?
• What is the pricing model, and are there hidden fees for setups, additional features or integrations?
• Does it offer training and onboarding support for HR teams?

ATS Systems Buyer’s Checklist: Choose the Right System for Your Team

Use this checklist to evaluate applicant tracking systems based on the features that truly impact your hiring speed, quality, compliance, and scalability. 

Why Modern Teams Choose Omni’s ATS for End-to-End Hiring

The right ATS system doesn’t just streamline your hiring process; it becomes the supporting pillar of your recruitment operations. 

Omni’s customizable ATS is designed to support growing enterprises across APAC and beyond, integrating seamlessly with the full employee lifecycle, from candidate sourcing to onboarding.

With Omni, you get: 

• Multi-channel job posting in a few clicks to platforms like LinkedIn and Glassdoor.
• Customizable hiring pipelines tailored by role, department, or seniority.
• Smart resume parsing and candidate filtering.
• Automated interview scheduling with calendar integration and real-time candidate communication.
• Live dashboards and downloadable reports for data-driven hiring decisions.
• Seamless integration with your HRIS, payroll, and onboarding tools.
• Automatic new hire data transfer to create employee records instantly.

"[With Omni], we've been able to reduce our onboarding time from one week to three days." 
— Arissa Wong, People Operations at Endowus

See how: Endowus Uses Omni to Optimize Global Workforce Management

Book a personalized demo today to see how Omni’s APAC-ready ATS can help you attract top talent, promote collaboration, and accelerate your time-to-hire, all while staying compliant and connected across the entire employee lifecycle.