Essential Guide to Choosing the Right Applicant Tracking System (ATS)

In today’s highly competitive market, traditional, rough-around-the-edges management styles are becoming obsolete. Instead, precision and lean operations are emerging as the future. Digitalization doesn’t just enhance process efficiency—it helps businesses transition from intuition-driven to data-driven decision-making.

Talent is the core driver of business growth. Recruiting the right people quickly gives companies a competitive edge. A reliable, user-friendly applicant tracking system (ATS) can significantly improve hiring efficiency, elevate employer branding, and reduce costs—by up to ¥139,000 annually, according to internal estimates. So, how do you choose the right ATS?

Based on insights from customers and years of deep HR experience, this guide combines SaaS-specific considerations with core recruitment system capabilities to help organizations make an informed decision.

Why Invest in a Digital Recruitment System?

Many companies implement ATS platforms for seemingly simple reasons: “I want the system to automatically filter resumes,” “I want to build a talent pool,” “I want to conduct interviews online.” While all are valid, it's essential to dig deeper to uncover the real motivations. We categorize these core drivers into four main objectives:

1. Improved Efficiency and Cost Reduction

Paper resumes are costly and duplicative. A good ATS eliminates redundancies and improves talent reuse through centralized databases. It also frees HR from repetitive admin tasks, allowing them to focus on strategic contributions.

2. Stronger Employer Branding

In a talent-scarce world, companies must attract candidates as much as hire them. Many organizations use ATS platforms to build branded career pages and provide real-time application updates—enhancing the candidate experience.

3. Centralized Group Management

For companies with multiple subsidiaries operating in silos, ATS platforms enable centralized control and inter-company resource sharing.

4. Data-Driven Decision-Making

In the digital era, data is as valuable as oil—if it’s structured and actionable. A recruitment system stores and visualizes hiring data, empowering HR teams to make evidence-based decisions.

What Makes a Recruitment System Truly “Smart”?

As businesses shift from information systems to full digital transformation, intelligent recruitment is the next frontier. A smart ATS features:

Streamlined Efficiency

A modern system breaks the “black box” of traditional hiring. It tracks processes, conversions, and performance across every hiring stage, allowing for actionable improvements and automation.

Data-Powered Intelligence

A smart ATS not only stores data but contextualizes it—using analytics to identify common traits among successful candidates, generate talent maps, and recommend best-fit candidates.

HR Empowerment

Through standardized and automated processes, HR professionals develop data-driven habits and gain forward-looking capabilities, strengthening their strategic value to the business.

Three Essential Criteria for Choosing the Right ATS

1. Simplicity and Ease of Use

HR tech shouldn't be self-serving. A good system must be intuitive for cross-functional teams, enabling smoother workflows and higher adoption rates. Poor usability renders any system useless.

2. Open and Collaborative Architecture

An ATS should seamlessly integrate with other systems (e.g., HCM, payroll, OA) to form a unified data ecosystem. Open collaboration ensures consistency in analytics and streamlines the hiring-to-onboarding pipeline.

3. Agile and Intelligent Iteration

Business environments evolve rapidly. A robust ATS must support scenario-specific customization and AI-powered improvements—such as talent pool reactivation and smart candidate matching.

What Features Should a Modern ATS Include? (Using MokaHR as an Example)

Automated Workflows with Flexible Configuration

Reduce manual effort with resume screening, tag generation, and automation for repetitive tasks—freeing HR to focus on higher-value work.

Flexible Interview Scheduling

Automate scheduling, reminders, and calendar invites for HR, interviewers, and candidates—boosting interview attendance and reducing communication loops.

Advanced Analytics for Smarter Insights

MokaHR’s analytics platform supports multi-dimensional reports, custom fields, and even Excel-level data relationship mapping—empowering HR with deep, flexible insights.

Cross-Department Collaboration

Facilitate smoother collaboration between HR, hiring managers, and candidates. Features include automated interview calendars, reminders, feedback collection, and interview playback.

Custom Career Sites for Stronger Branding

Build one-stop recruitment portals (for campus hiring, referrals, or social recruiting) to showcase your brand and allow candidates to track application progress in real time.

AI-Powered Interviews for Scale Hiring

In high-volume scenarios like manufacturing or campus hiring, MokaHR enables 24/7 AI interviews to screen hundreds of candidates quickly, accurately, and at scale.

Open Ecosystem Compatibility

Integrate with eHR, OA, identity verification, and more—creating a seamless hiring infrastructure tailored to your organizational needs.

Beyond Technology: The Human Touch of Product Experience

User experience isn’t just about interface—it’s about emotional resonance, post-sale support, and sustained value. Your ATS provider isn’t just a vendor; they’re a long-term partner in transforming how your organization hires and grows.

In choosing an ATS, you're not just selecting a system. You're choosing a co-creator of your HR future—a trusted ally on the road to smarter talent acquisition.