As a recruiter, you must know that implementing an applicant tracking system (ATS) means a huge efficiency boost for your hiring processes. It automates much of your routine grunt work and gives your HR team time to focus on what matters: finding the right people. 

But are all ATS platforms created equal? 

Choosing a tool without a suitable set of features can defeat the entire purpose of having an ATS—a scenario that I am familiar with due to my prolonged exposure to the end-to-end recruitment lifecycle.

I’ve seen firsthand how not having the right features can jeopardize the investment in the tool, deliver subpar results and, most importantly, block all organizational efforts to build high-performing teams.

The good news is, it doesn't have to be this way. 

In this article, I will break down the top 11 features that you need to know before choosing the best ATS tool. 

Top applicant tracking system features  

In my experience, the following features are absolutely integral to managing the recruiting process and taking it to the next level. They're the difference between simply filling seats and strategically building a team that drives your business forward.

Candidate sourcing and talent CRM

When I'm evaluating an ATS, my first priority is finding advanced features that empower my team to find, engage, and nurture top candidates effortlessly. After all, the best hiring strategies are useless if you can't connect with the right people.

One essential capability is talent pool organization and management. An ATS can only serve as a repository for candidate data, or it can start simplifying your work from the very first stages. 

So, look for an ATS that allows you to categorize candidates based on skills, location, experience, and other relevant criteria. This, combined with powerful tagging and search capabilities, lets you perform complex searches that incorporate multiple tags, keywords, and other criteria.

For high-value recruitment, I've found that custom talent pools aligned with specific roles or hiring projects are indispensable. By curating these pools, you're not just reacting to open positions; you're proactively building a pipeline of talent.

When I want to find a candidate that I really like or one I have on file that is very suitable for a role that has just popped up, all I have to do in a system like this is enter a skill or a tag that is associated with their profile. 

An all-in-one ATS for modern recruiting teams, such as Kula ATS, will dynamically update candidate profiles as new information becomes available, ensuring you always have the most current view of the talent inventory.

A great ATS lets you rely on powerful resume database search functionality, like boolean search, keyword matching, and semantic search capabilities, to pinpoint candidates with the right skills and qualifications. So, I look for a system that makes it fast and easy to surface top talent from a consolidated database, saving me from hassles on a regular basis.

When you do locate these candidates, whether active or passive, engaging them actively is time-consuming. You’re bound to miss the mark with some of your communication, costing you a strong pipeline. 

In this case, I recommend an ATS with built-in candidate engagement tools, such as the ability to create and send branded email campaigns. This way, you can personalize messaging at scale, nurture relationships with passive candidates, and keep your employer brand top-of-mind.

Also, look for features that allow you to track this kind of outreach with robust analytics that include email open and click tracking metrics.

Easy data import is another important part of simplified candidate sourcing. For example, Kula ATS comes with LinkedIn Recruiter System Connect (RSC) integration, so you can quickly view LinkedIn profiles, send InMails, and track applicants directly from within the system.

Taking things to the next level, Kula ATS's analytics API gives you granular control over both ad hoc and scheduled reports, while direct access to endpoints and data extraction allows for deeper, custom analysis.

For those focused on seamless integration with existing systems, Kula's RESTful developer APIs offer flexibility. Additionally, the tool's audit API, accessible in real time, ensures transparency and accountability across user activities.

Recruitment marketing and job advertising

I have no doubt that writing and posting job posts take too long when the actual work is supposed to go into shortlisting and vetting your candidates. Since the underlying tenets of any job remain the same, it’s better if you aim for a tool that offers templates so you can jumpstart the process. 

Therefore, look for an ATS that makes it easy to post job openings across key social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Kula ATS can help you here as well: it enables automatic job posting to company social pages and encourages employees to share job openings with their networks, helping to expand their reach and tap into valuable referral sources.

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Yes, visibility is key, but maximum visibility is always a preferred option. That's why we built Kula ATS with a Google Jobs Search integration. This ensures your job postings get priority placement in search results so that you reach a wider audience of qualified candidates.

Not only that, you can also post to multiple boards with just a few clicks and offer included or discounted slots on popular sites like Indeed and ZipRecruiter.

The next step to a solid recruiting strategy is to make your application process as convenient as possible. You can do this by offering a mobile-optimized candidate experience. The majority of job seekers use their phones to search and apply for opportunities, so it's essential to have a responsive, mobile-friendly career site and application process. 

Kula ATS offers a fully mobile-optimized experience, allowing candidates to easily search and apply for jobs from any device. It also ensures that job ads are displayed consistently across all channels, reinforcing our employer brand and providing a cohesive candidate experience from the initial job ad to the application process.

Employee referral management

As I’ve just said, employee referrals are often the easiest source of high-quality candidates. However, managing referral programs can be administratively burdensome. That's why I prioritize applicant tracking systems with robust referral management capabilities.

Kula ATS features a dedicated portal where employees can easily submit referrals for specific jobs and monitor the status of their referred candidates. You can access this portal directly within the ATS. 

Shareable referral links are another key feature that makes referring jobs simple for employees. Kula's platform automatically generates unique referral links for each job and employee, allowing them to share openings with just a single click via email, social media, or messaging apps. 

But why would your employees keep referring candidates out of the goodness of their hearts without an enticing reward system in place? I know that when I refer someone, it takes a chunk out of my time and effort, so referring candidates regularly is not routine for me unless I am personally vested. 

Therefore, accurate referral source attribution is crucial to give referring employees proper credit. Kula’s ATS automatically tags referred candidates and captures the referring employee's information, even if multiple employees refer the same candidate. This allows you to track referral sources and reward them easily. 

Kula ATS platform provides detailed metrics on referral volume, hire rates, time to hire, and referral payouts. You can use these insights to identify top-performing employees and departments, optimize your referral bonus structure, and understand whether the program actually benefits your business. 

Of course, not every general good practice will work for you, but this is a tried-and-tested way to examine this. 

Applicant tracking and workflow

Now, I know I've been walking you through the recruiting process step-by-step, but if I were to prioritize, this would be at the top of my list. When it comes down to the brass tacks of applicant tracking, there are four fundamental activities your platform absolutely must simplify for you:

1. Access a bird-eye view of your hiring pipeline view at a glance
2. Move candidates across stages and track updates without manual intervention
3. Access updated candidate profiles, complete with all records of progress attached, without having to switch tabs 
4. Take action on candidates, like accepting or rejecting them, with one click 

I’ll once again use Kula ATS as an example to walk you through how a tool can help you perform these four main activities. The first two are simple: Kula gives you a consolidated view of everything in your dashboard, so you can see where various applicants are in the funnel, and what their next steps should be. As candidates progress through the stages, the system automatically tracks their progress, keeping manual intervention at a minimum. 

Next, Kula offers comprehensive candidate profiles that serve as a single source of truth, consolidating all relevant information and interactions in one place. Resumes, cover letters, email communications, interview notes, and feedback—everything you need to make data-driven decisions is right there at your fingertips. 

With the customizable job-specific workflows in Kula, you can:

• Define tailored application steps for each position
• Include specific screening questions, assessments, or interview stages
• Evaluate candidates against the most relevant criteria for each role

Kula's comprehensive candidate profiles ensure that you have access to the most up-to-date information without the hassle of switching between tabs. For candidates sourced through LinkedIn, Kula's integration becomes a lifesaver, as recruiters can:

• Import full LinkedIn profiles with just one click
• View LinkedIn InMail conversations directly within the candidate record
• Get a more complete picture of our interactions

Managing large applicant pools can be overwhelming, but Kula's bulk applicant management actions simplify the process. With just a few clicks, you can easily message, reject, or tag groups of candidates. 

Moreover, whether you need to send bulk emails or SMS messages, move candidates between stages, or reject multiple applicants at once, Kula makes it all more efficient.

Interview scheduling and management

Scheduling interviews? If I had a dollar for every time I heard someone call that a nightmare, I could probably retire early. And frankly, I agree. Sending an interview schedule link in the middle of the hiring process is not a solution if you want to keep the process moving forward, nor is playing email tag. 

Besides this, another challenging aspect of interview scheduling is coordinating panel interviews with multiple participants. Kula's panel interview scheduling feature simplifies this process by allowing recruiters to:

• View interviewer availability across different calendars and time zones in a single view
• Send interview invitations that include calendar attachments
• Ensure all participants have the necessary details and can confirm their attendance with just a few clicks

Gone are the days of endless back-and-forth emails trying to nail down a time that works for everyone. With the right tool, you don't have to ask candidates or hiring managers about their availability—it's all right there in the system.

But we can take it even further. Why not empower candidates to self-schedule their interviews? Give them the freedom to choose a time that works best for them directly within the system. This way, they can:

• View real-time interviewer availability
• Book their own interview slots directly through the system
• Receive automated confirmations and reminders

This not only empowers candidates to choose a time that works best for their schedule but also reduces the administrative burden on your hiring team.

When you schedule or update an interview in the Kula ATS, the change is automatically reflected in the interviewer's calendar and vice versa. This real-time synchronization ensures that everyone stays on the same page and reduces the risk of scheduling conflicts or miscommunications.

The system checks availability and prevents double-bookings, so you can say goodbye to those last-minute scrambles to reschedule due to conflicts. It's a small detail, but trust me, it's a lifesaver when things get hectic. 

So far, so good. Now, let's talk about the elephant in the room: getting timely feedback from your interviewers. We all know they're busy, and after a day packed with back-to-back interviews, it's easy for those notes to slip through the cracks. But here's the thing: gathering that feedback doesn't have to be an afterthought. In fact, for me, it starts during the interview itself.

Let me give you a few pointers, and keep in mind that the right ATS can actually automate some of this for you. Look for features like:

• Include reusable interview scorecards that enable you to define job-specific criteria and rating scales. These scorecards ensure that all interviewers assess candidates based on the same key factors, making it easier to compare feedback and make informed hiring decisions.
• Use Kula’s AI note taker, which transcripts all conversations during the interview and makes observations based on conversational AI. This way you’ll focus on the interview, not writing stuff down. 

Let’s move on to the less operational but vital aspect of a great candidate experience: keeping them engaged. 

Prompt communication is what drives an excellent candidate experience. Kula ATS goes above and beyond with its automated interview communication features. I’m not just talking about generic reminders here. These are highly personalized invitations, reminders, and even rescheduling notifications that are tailored to each candidate.

Create customizable email templates for every step of the interview process and set up triggers based on scheduling activity or timing. This means that candidates always receive timely and relevant updates, which not only improves their experience but also reflects positively on our brand. 

And let's be honest, anything that saves us time and eliminates those manual follow-ups is a win in my book.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Prioritizing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is legally necessary, but that's not why you need to focus on it. It's also a crucial driver of business success. 

As a recruiter, I know that an applicant tracking system can make or break our DEI initiatives by either reducing bias or letting it run rampant throughout the hiring process. Kula's ATS is packed with features designed to help organizations build diverse and inclusive teams.

First things first, we need to capture and analyze candidate demographic data. Kula's platform lets candidates voluntarily self-identify their race, gender, disability, and veteran status. This data is collected and stored in a way that's compliant with EEOC and OFCCP regulations, so access is controlled, and the information is used appropriately. 

By gathering this data, you can track the diversity of our candidate pool and figure out where we need to focus our outreach efforts.

Despite our best intentions, bias can subtly creep into the resume review process, potentially sidelining qualified candidates from diverse backgrounds. It's a harsh reality, but it's one we need to address head-on.

That's where Kula's anonymous resume review feature comes in. It allows us to strip away the information that can trigger unconscious bias—names, addresses, schools, graduation dates—and focus solely on the skills and qualifications that truly matter for the role. 

By leveling the playing field in this way, we ensure that every candidate gets a fair shot, and we're ultimately building a stronger, more diverse team.

Attracting diverse candidates starts with targeted sourcing and outreach. Kula's ATS integrates with diversity-focused resume databases and job boards, making it easier for me to find and engage underrepresented talent. You can develop targeted campaigns to attract diverse candidates, using Kula's CRM capabilities to nurture relationships and build a pipeline of qualified, diverse talent.

To truly build a diverse and inclusive workplace, we need to understand the candidate experience from their perspective. That's why Kula's candidate experience surveys are so valuable. These automated surveys collect feedback at every stage of the hiring journey, giving us both quantitative and qualitative insights into how candidates perceive our process. 

As a result, you can pinpoint any potential barriers or biases and proactively address them, creating a more welcoming and equitable experience for everyone.

However, my experience suggests that understanding the problem is only half the battle. We also need to track our progress and hold ourselves accountable. Kula's DEI analytics dashboards are a powerful tool for this. They give us a clear picture of diversity metrics throughout the hiring funnel, allowing us to track representation, identify drop-off points, and compare our progress against both industry benchmarks and our own internal DEI goals. 

Offer management and onboarding

Extending offers and onboarding new hires are critical stages in the hiring process—but just like job posts, the basic tenets of this kind of communication remain the same. 

Here are five features you need to keep in mind when looking for a tool to help with:

1. A system with templates that makes it easy for you to get your paperwork in order
2. A system that makes it easy to run checks and verify references 
3. A way to track acceptances 
4. E-signing to make it convenient to accept your offers 
5. Onboarding facilities to make the transition smoother 

Kula ATS also has a comprehensive offer letter template library and e-signature capabilities. I can create standardized offer letter templates for different job levels, ensuring consistency and compliance across the organization. 

The electronic signature and counter-offer workflows allow for quick collaboration and approvals, reducing the time from offer extension to acceptance. This self-service approach lets candidates complete tasks on their own time and provides real-time visibility into the status of their offer. This way, you can also easily track and offer progress and identify any bottlenecks or delays.

Once a candidate accepts an offer, the next step is to conduct background and reference checks to verify their qualifications and experience. Kula ATS simplifies background and reference checks with pre-integrated providers, deployable in one click right from your workflow.

You can also track the progress of reference checks and view results within the candidate's profile, ensuring that all necessary screening steps are completed before the new hire starts.

Let's face it: onboarding new hires can feel like drowning in a sea of paperwork and to-do lists. It's a headache for everyone involved—new employees feel overwhelmed, and teams often get tied into administrative tasks.

Kula ATS’s onboarding features simplify this process by: 

• Allowing candidates to complete necessary paperwork, such as tax forms and direct deposit information, directly within the candidate portal. 
• Managers can also request access, equipment, and other resources for new hires within the portal without having to follow up with you an umpteenth number of times. 
• Helping you avoid duplicate data entry when transitioning a candidate to an employee

Here’s an example of how I use this. With Kula's HRIS new hire record sync, I automatically create a new hire record in our HR system, pulling all relevant information from the ATS. This allows me to execute a smooth handoff to the HR team for onboarding and payroll processing.

Internal mobility and employee experience 

This might seem like a “secondary” feature, but it’s not if you look at the numbers:

• External hires cost 18% more than internal hires
• They’re also 21% more likely to leave in the first year than internal hires

One of the key challenges in promoting internal mobility is making open roles discoverable to employees. Kula ATS addresses this with a dedicated internal job portal where employees can view and apply for open positions. This just makes the whole process more transparent and ensures open roles are on the radar of your existing employees. 

The tool also takes this a step further by recommending jobs to employees based on their skills and aspirations, helping them discover relevant opportunities they may not have otherwise considered.

We all know that happy employees are more likely to stick around, and one of the best ways to keep them engaged is by encouraging internal mobility. That's why we love Kula's internal applicant flagging feature. It automatically flags current employees who apply for open roles so we can make sure they get a fair shot and aren't lost in the shuffle. 

This shows your team that we value their growth and want to help them advance within the company. Plus, it's a smart move—promoting from within often means less onboarding time and a better cultural fit, especially when filling those big-impact roles.

Succession planning is a critical aspect of talent management, as you have to fill key roles to maintain business continuity. Kula's succession planning features allow you to identify high-potential internal talent and track their performance, potential, and readiness for promotion. 

You can't improve what you don't measure. That's why Kula ATS's internal mobility tracking is so valuable. We can track everything from internal hire rates to the percentage of open positions filled by our own people. 

This data doesn't just look good on a report; it helps us understand the real impact of our internal mobility efforts. We can quantify the cost savings, the time saved in onboarding, and even the productivity gains associated with promoting from within. It's hard proof that investing in our employees pays off – for them and for our bottom line.

Reporting and analytics

I'm all about data-driven decision-making. Gut feelings are great when choosing a restaurant, but when it comes to building a high-performing team, I want cold, hard facts. 

That's why I consider robust reporting and analytics to be non-negotiable. They give us the insights we need to fine-tune our hiring process, identify bottlenecks, and ultimately make smarter, more strategic decisions.

To this end, one of the most valuable features is Kula ATS’s library of on-demand and ad hoc reports. 

• These pre-built reports cover a wide range of key recruiting metrics and KPIs, providing instant access to real-time data. 
• From time-to-fill and source effectiveness to candidate pipeline health and diversity metrics, these reports offer a quick and easy way to monitor performance. 
• With the one-click export functionality, you can easily download and share reports with stakeholders in CSV format

For more specialized reporting needs, Kula ATS has a custom report builder. 

• Pick the specific fields, filters, and visualizations to include
• Make sure the report gives me the insights I'm looking for
• Save custom reports for reuse and sharing

This way, you can set up standardized reporting across our team, which keeps things consistent and efficient.

Let's be real, no one wants to spend their time manually pulling reports. Thankfully, Kula ATS takes that headache off our plate with scheduled reports and alerts. We can automate the delivery of key metrics on a cadence that makes sense for us, whether it's daily, weekly, or monthly. This ensures that everyone who needs this data has it at their fingertips, without any extra effort on our part.

But what I really love is the ability to set custom alerts. We can define thresholds for specific metrics, and the system will proactively notify us if things are going off track. This allows us to address potential issues before they snowball, saving us time, resources, and a whole lot of unnecessary stress.

Two critical metrics for any recruiting team are time-to-fill and time-to-start. Kula's dedicated reports for these metrics provide deep insights into our hiring efficiency. I can:

• Filter the reports by recruiter, hiring manager, department, or other relevant dimensions
• Identify bottlenecks and areas for improvement
• Significantly reduce our time to fill and enhance the overall candidate experience

To effectively manage our candidate pipeline and optimize our hiring funnel, Kula's pipeline and funnel visualizations provide a clear overview of the number of candidates at each stage of the hiring process, from initial application to final offer. By analyzing drop-off and conversion rates between stages, you can:

• Identify potential roadblocks
• Implement strategies to improve candidate progression
• Ultimately increase our hiring success rate

You can't just throw money at every sourcing channel and hope for the best. You need a surgical approach. Kula's source effectiveness comparisons help evaluate the ROI of different sourcing channels, such as job boards, referrals, social media, and more. This granular data can help you cut the fat and double down on what truly moves the needle, ensuring every recruiting dollar is spent wisely.

Finally, Kula's hiring plan tracking features enable me to monitor our progress toward our headcount goals in real time. Compare our actual hires to our targets by job, department, location, or other relevant dimensions. This visibility allows you to:

• Proactively adjust our recruiting strategies and tactics
• Ensure we meet our hiring plan
• Stay aligned with our organizational goals
• Regularly communicate progress to stakeholders
• Demonstrate the strategic value of our recruiting efforts

AI and automation

Kula's applicant tracking system has native intelligence, that is, the platform’s architecture has AI and ML components built-in.  It can help you further simplify recruiting processes and get optimum results.

For example, The tool’s intelligent candidate matching and ranking is like having an AI-powered assistant. It leverages cutting-edge algorithms to analyze job requirements and candidate data, taking into account everything from skills and experience to education and preferences. This gives you a prioritized list of candidates who are the best fit for the role, saving us countless hours of manual screening. 

And the best part? The more we use the system and provide feedback, the smarter it gets, continuously refining its recommendations to align with our specific needs.

To provide instant support and improve candidate engagement, Kula comes with intelligent chatbot functionality to handle common questions. These AI-powered chatbots are available 24/7 to:

• Answer common questions about job openings, application status, benefits, and more
• Provide quick responses to candidate queries, improving the candidate experience
• Reduce the workload on our recruiting team, allowing me to focus on more important tasks

For high-volume hiring scenarios, Kula's robotic process automation (RPA) capabilities are incredibly useful. With this, you can automate repetitive and time-consuming tasks, such as resume screening, assessments, and candidate rejections. 

By setting specific criteria and thresholds, I recommend you go ahead and configure the system to automatically move forward or reject candidates based on their qualifications and assessment scores. This saves countless hours of manual work and ensures a consistent and unbiased screening process.

Evaluating candidate soft skills and communication abilities is important for many roles, but traditional interviews can fall short on this aspect while being resource-heavy. Kula addresses this challenge with conversational AI for interviews. These engaging chatbot-based simulations:

• Assess candidates' communication skills, problem-solving abilities, and situational judgment
• Provide a scalable and standardized approach to evaluating soft skills
• Help me make more informed hiring decisions while reducing the time and effort required for initial screenings

Finally, Kula's predictive analytics capabilities allow me to use historical data to forecast future hiring needs and performance. By analyzing past hiring trends, time to fill, candidate quality, and other relevant metrics, the system can:

• Predict future hiring demand
• Estimate the likelihood of offer acceptance
• Provide insights into expected retention rates

Get results with the right ATS features 

As we conclude the discussion, I reiterate that a feature-rich, user-friendly ATS is the engine that drives your hiring machine.

With data-driven insights, you'll consistently land top talent, making every hire a home run. A positive candidate experience means attracting the best and brightest, even in a competitive market. AI and automation handle the tedious tasks, freeing your team to focus on what matters most: building a world-class workforce.

With its granular and predictive insights, along with a complete overview and automation of the process, Kula ATS can shape and fine-tune your existing recruiting strategies, optimize resources, and bring much-needed agility, scale and precision to hiring for organizations of all sizes.

Want to see how these features can revamp your hiring operations?

‍Book a demo now!