An applicant tracking system can fix your hiring

In a tight labour market, small and medium businesses across New Zealand are battling more than just a skills shortage. They’re facing a hiring process that no longer matches the pace or expectations of today’s jobseekers.

While larger companies use advanced systems to streamline and scale recruitment, many SMEs are still relying on inboxes, spreadsheets and manual follow-ups. That’s where an applicant tracking system (ATS) can make all the difference.

This free downloadable factsheet shows how an ATS can help you fix the most common hiring bottlenecks, attract stronger candidates, and win the war for talent in a competitive environment.

Download yours today.

What is an applicant tracking system?

An applicant tracking system is recruitment software that lets you manage your entire hiring process in one place.

From job advertising and application screening to interviews, offers and onboarding, an ATS helps you work smarter. No more email trails, missed CVs or awkward delays. Instead, you gain a single view of your talent pipeline, with built-in tools to support your team and deliver a better experience to every candidate.

For businesses hiring more than once or twice a year, especially in competitive or seasonal industries, an ATS quickly becomes one of the most important tools in your recruitment strategy.

Why use an ATS?

An ATS isn’t just about storing applications. It’s about simplifying your processes, reducing administrative burden and helping you hire faster.

With Employment Hero’s ATS, you can:

• Post job ads to multiple boards in a single step
• Create custom pipelines and workflows for each role
• Automatically screen and categorise applications
• Share candidate notes and ratings across your hiring team
• Trigger contracts and onboarding the moment you make an offer
  

In short, it helps you go from job opening to offer acceptance faster, more efficiently, and with full visibility across every stage.

What’s in the factsheet?

The factsheet explores how an ATS can help your business respond to today’s hiring challenges with confidence. Inside, you’ll find:

• A breakdown of common recruitment issues faced by NZ SMEs
• An overview of what an ATS does and why it matters
• Insights into how to improve your job ad strategy
• Ideas for improving team collaboration and candidate experience
• A closer look at how Employment Hero’s ATS fits into your wider HR processes

It’s designed to help you take the first step toward smarter hiring, whether you’re recruiting occasionally or at scale.

How can an ATS improve diversity in hiring?

Diversity and inclusion are business-critical priorities, but without structured recruitment processes, it’s easy for bias to creep in.

An ATS promotes fairness by:

• Standardising interview workflows and questions
• Allowing blind screening of resumes
• Ensuring all candidates move through the same stages
• Reducing reliance on “gut feel”
• Keeping a record of decisions and notes

With built-in consistency and transparency, you’re less likely to overlook great candidates based on unconscious bias or subjective judgement. That means more equitable hiring and stronger teams in the long run.

Does an ATS work for high-volume or seasonal hiring?

Absolutely. High-volume recruitment is where an ATS delivers the most time and resource savings.

If you regularly recruit for frontline, casual or seasonal roles, especially across multiple locations, an ATS can help you:

• Handle large volumes of applicants with less admin
• Auto-filter based on role-specific criteria
• Set up templates for recurring roles
• Communicate quickly and consistently
• Track who’s in the pipeline and who’s fallen off

Whether you’re onboarding 5 or 500 new starters, an ATS gives you the tools to scale up efficiently without sacrificing quality or compliance.

What common hiring mistakes does an ATS help avoid?

Without a system, hiring mistakes are easy to make and hard to catch until it’s too late.

An ATS helps prevent:

• Forgetting to follow up with strong candidates
• Losing track of who’s been interviewed or shortlisted
• Hiring delays due to manual coordination
• Publishing job ads that don’t reflect your brand or process
• Communication breakdowns between hiring managers

By centralising your workflow, everyone stays on the same page. Candidates get a clear, professional experience and your business avoids missed opportunities or costly missteps.

Is it hard to set up or customise an ATS?

Many small businesses worry that recruitment systems are built for enterprises. But modern applicant tracking systems are designed to be fast, flexible and easy to use without needing IT support.

With Employment Hero’s ATS, setup is simple:

• Use pre-built templates or create your own workflows
• Add your branding and careers page
• Set up automated emails and interview scheduling
• Choose which job boards to post to
• Integrate directly with contracts, onboarding and payroll

And if you need help, our support team is here to guide you through every step.

Who is this resource for?

This factsheet is designed for New Zealand business owners, HR leaders and people managers who:

• Are still managing hiring manually through spreadsheets or email
• Want a more consistent and professional hiring process
• Need to improve candidate communication and time to hire
• Are scaling and need tools to support faster recruitment
• Want to reduce compliance risks when hiring at volume

Whether you’re building a team from the ground up or simply improving your existing process, the insights in this guide can help you modernise without complexity.

Why choose Employment Hero’s ATS?

Employment Hero’s applicant tracking system is built specifically for small and medium-sized businesses, not global corporations with big budgets or internal tech teams.

It’s part of the broader Employment Operating System, which connects recruitment with everything that comes next including onboarding, contracts, payroll, performance and more.

With our ATS, you get:

• One-click posting to multiple job boards
• A customisable candidate pipeline with automatic status updates
• Collaborative tools for hiring teams and managers
• Branded careers pages and job ad templates
• Instant contract generation and onboarding once a candidate is hired

It’s fast to set up, easy to use and designed to help New Zealand businesses hire better with less effort.

Download your free factsheet

The competition for top talent isn’t going away. But with the right tools in place, your business can stay ahead.

This free factsheet gives you the insights and confidence to simplify recruitment, strengthen your pipeline and move from reactive to strategic hiring.

Download How to Win the Talent War with an ATS.