How to customize your ATS to fit your startup’s hiring needs
Spencer Bratman
Head of Product Growth
October 1, 2024
•
3 mins
Startups operate in a fast-paced world where demand for new employees can hit as soon as you start to grow. During the early stages, you might have the time to carefully hire your small team, but the number of roles and volume of applicants can quickly get out of hand when you scale up. Having an ATS helps you adapt to these shifts. An ATS also allows you to keep the hiring process efficient without sacrificing quality, so you end up with the right person for the role.
Customizable ATS platforms are especially advantageous because you can tailor your ATS to your hiring needs. Whether you need to simplify hiring workflows, automate repetitive tasks or look at your hiring metrics, an ATS can be adjusted to keep your hiring processes as efficient and effective as possible. With that in mind, let's dive into some of the features you should look for in your applicant tracking system.
There are a lot of ATS options out there, with some made for startups and others made for bigger companies. You’ll likely find that the startup-focused ATS options are focused on intuitive design, easy setup and simplicity without all of the bells and whistles of those Applicant Trackings Systems build for large companies.
Meanwhile, the ATS options built for larger companies tend to prioritize a more in-depth, feature-heavy platform. This is because in-house recruiting teams for larger companies have huge hiring demands and they have time and headcount to focus on hiring, which isn’t typically the case with most startups. So, if you’re a startup, you should look for an ATS that offers features like:
Intuitive Candidate Tracking - This one is right in the name. Your Applicant Tracking System should make it much easier to keep an eye on candidates and track their journey through the hiring pipeline. Having a top-down view of each candidate and their stage in the hiring process ensures you don’t let your best candidates slip through the cracks.
Automation - Startups always need more time, so automating manual hiring tasks is essential for an ATS. Your ATS can automate communication with candidates, send follow-up emails, schedule interviews and provide updates throughout the process. This takes more tasks off your plate so that you can put your focus elsewhere.
Application Sorting - AI can be a powerful tool in the hiring process to help you sort resumes. Dover’s ATS leverages AI to sort and score candidates based on your parameters, so you can quickly see which candidates are the best of the best. This allows you to sift through large volumes of applicants quickly and spend more time talking to these candidates instead of letting their resumes sit untouched.
Analytics - Data-driven recruitment is essential for refining your hiring process over time. A customizable ATS should offer comprehensive tools that allow startups to track key metrics like time-to-hire, candidate drop-off rates and more. These insights help startups identify bottlenecks and optimize recruitment strategies.
Sourcing Tools - Sourcing and finding talent can be difficult. Your ATS should help make this process easier by generating job descriptions and giving you the tools to post them to top job boards. Some Applicant Tracking Systems even let you send cold outreach emails to candidates.
Budget - Most startups don’t have tons of money to spend on recruiting software. If you want an ATS that fits the budget and offers top-class features, then Dover is your answer. Dover is free, which fits even the tightest of startup budgets.
Once you choose your ideal ATS, the next step is tailoring its features to fit your hiring needs. Let’s take a look at what you can do to make your ATS work for you.
How Dover’s ATS for startups works
Dover’s ATS was designed specifically to meet the hiring needs of startups. Our platform is user-friendly and includes top-class features to help you streamline your recruitment process while maintaining the quality of hires.
One of Dover’s standout features is our AI-assisted applicant scoring. Our ATS makes it simple to find the best resumes by scoring each one according to parameters that you set. From there, you’ll be able to see which resumes to review first. Pro tip - start with the most qualified candidates first and schedule them for interviews quickly.
Our ATS also has the other key features you need out of an ATS. You can easily track candidates, generate job listings, post to job boards, automate repetitive tasks and more. With Dover, you get a seamless and intuitive ATS that helps you stay organized, efficient and effective when hiring for new roles. Dover also easily scales with your needs, so you can use it when you’re hiring for just a few roles or when you need to hire for dozens of roles. Best of all, it’s completely free.
Key takeaways
Choose an ATS that fits your startup’s hiring needs if you want to scale your business and attract the best talent. While some ATS solutions are better suited than others for certain hiring teams, startups need an ATS that can grow with them.
Whether you’re hiring for multiple roles simultaneously or looking for one specific role, your ATS should at least be able to automate tasks, streamline workflows and keep your hiring pipelines as organized as possible. More advanced features may be needed for large companies, but most startups can use a flexible and scalable ATS like Dover to bring their hiring to the next level.
Try Dover’s free ATS for founders
Ready to see how Dover can help your startup? Our free ATS is designed to help founders manage their hiring needs without the hassle of a rigid or overly complex platform. You’ll get all the tools you need to hit the ground running and improve your hiring processes in minutes. Try Dover’s free ATS today and take control of your startup’s recruitment.
