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With the rise of data-driven recruitment, it is imperative for each recruitment tool, including candidate sourcing and screening tools, to integrate with Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) for enabling centralized data management for end users.
However, there are hundreds of ATS applications available in the market today. To integrate with each one of these applications with different ATS APIs is next to impossible.
That is why more and more recruitment tools are looking for a better (and faster) way to scale their ATS integrations. Unified ATS APIs are one such cost-effective solution that can cut down your integration building and maintenance time by 80%.
Before moving on to how companies can leverage unified ATS API to streamline candidate sourcing and screening, let’s look at the workflow and how ATS API helps.
Candidate sourcing and screening workflow
Here’s a quick snapshot of the candidate sourcing and screening workflow:
1) Job posting/ data entry from job boards
Posting job requirements/ details about open positions to create widespread outreach about the roles you are hiring for.
2) Candidate sourcing from different platforms/ referrals
Collecting and fetching candidate profiles/ resumes from different platforms—job sites, social media, referrals—to create a pool of potential candidates for the open positions.
3) Resume parsing
Taking out all relevant data—skills, relevant experience, expected salary, etc. —from a candidate’s resume and updating it based on the company’s requirement in a specific format.
4) Profile screening
Eliminating profiles which are not relevant for the role by mapping profiles to the job requirements.
5) Background checks
Conducting a preliminary check to ensure there are no immediate red flags.
6) Assessment, testing, interviews
Setting up and administering assessments, setting up interviews to ensure role suitability and collating evaluation for final decision making.
7) Selection
Sharing feedback and evaluation, communicating decisions to the candidates and continuing the process in case the position doesn’t close.
How ATS API helps streamline candidate sourcing and screening
Here are some of the top use cases of how ATS API can help streamline candidate sourcing and screening.
Centralized data management and communication
All candidate details from all job boards and portals can be automatically collected and stored at one centralized place for communication and processing and future leverage.
Automated profile import
ATS APIs ensure real time, automated candidate profile import, reducing manual data entry errors and risk of duplication.
Customize screening workflows
ATS APIs can help automate screening workflows by automating resume parsing and screening as well as ensuring that once a step like background checks is complete, assessments and then interview set up are triggered automatically.
Automated candidate updates within the ATS in real time
ATS APIs facilitate real time data sync and event-based triggers between different applications to ensure that all candidate information available with the company is always up to date and all application updates are captured ASAP.
Candidate engagement data, insights and patterns using ATS data
ATS APIs help analyze and draw insights from ATS engagement data — like application rate, response to job postings, interview scheduling — to finetune future screening.
Integrations with assessment, interview scheduling and onboarding applications
ATS API can further integrate with other assessment, interview scheduling and onboarding applications enabling faster movement of candidates across different recruitment stages.
Personalized outreach based on historical ATS data
ATS API integrations can help companies with automated, personalized and targeted outreach and candidate communication to improve candidate engagement, improve hiring efficiency and facilitate better employer branding.
Undoubtedly, using ATS API integration can effectively streamline the candidate sourcing and screening process by automating several parts of the way. However, there are several roadblocks to integrating ATS APIs at scale because of which companies refrain from leveraging the benefits that come along. Try our ROI calculator to see how much building integrations in-house can he.
In the next section we will discuss how to solve the common challenges for SaaS products trying to scale and accelerate their ATS integration strategy.
Addressing challenges of ATS API integration with Unified API
Let's discuss how the roadblocks can be removed with unified ATS API: just one API for all ATS integrations. Learn more about unified APIs here
Challenge 1: Loss of data during data transformation
When data is being exchanged between different ATS applications and your system, it needs to be normalized and transformed. Since the same details from different applications can have different fields and nuances, chances are if not normalized well, you will end up losing critical data which may not be mapped to specific fields between systems.
This will hamper centralized data storage, initiate duplication and require manual mapping not to mention screening workflow disruption. At the same time, normalizing each data field from each different API requires developers to understand the nuances of each API. This is a time and resource intensive process and can take months of developer time.
How unified ATS API solves this: One data model to prevent data loss
Unified APIs like Knit help companies normalize different ATS data by mapping different data schemas from different applications into a single, unified data model for all ATS APIs. Data normalization takes place in real time and is almost 10X faster, enabling companies to save tech bandwidth and skip the complex processes that might lead to data loss due to poor mapping.
Bonus: Knit also offers an custom data fields for data that is not included in the unified model, but you may need for your specific use case. It also allows you to to request data directly from the source app via its Passthrough Request feature. Learn more
Challenge 2: Delayed recruitment due to inability of real-time sync and bulk transfers
Second, some ATS API integration has a polling infrastructure which requires recruiters to manually request candidate data from time to time. This lack of automated data updation in real time can lead to delayed sourcing and screening of applicants, delaying the entire recruitment process. This can negatively impact the efficiency that is expected from ATS integration.
Furthermore, Most ATS platforms receive 1000s of applications in a matter of a few minutes. The data load for transfer can be exceptionally high at times, especially when a new role is posted or there is any update.
As your number of integrated platforms increases, managing such bulk data transfers efficiently as well as eliminating delays becomes a huge challenge for engineering teams with limited bandwidth
How unified ATS API solves this: Sync data in real-time irrespective of data load/ volume
Knit as a unified ATS API ensures that you don’t lose out on even one candidate application or be delayed in receiving them. To achieve this, Knit works on a webhooks based system with event-based triggers. As soon as an event happens, data syncs automatically via webhooks.
Read: How webhooks work and how to register one?
Knit manages all the heavy lifting of polling data from ATS apps, dealing with different API calls, rate limits, formats etc. It automatically retrieves new applications from all connected ATS platforms, eliminating the need to make API calls or manual data syncs for candidate sourcing and screening.
At the same time, Knit comes with retry and resiliency guarantees to ensure that no application is missed irrespective of the data load. Thus, handling data at scale.
This ensures that recruiters get access to all candidate data in real time to fill positions faster with automated alerts as and when new applications are retrieved for screening.
Challenge 3: Compliance and candidate privacy concerns
Since the ATS and other connected platforms have access to sensitive data, protecting candidate data from attacks, ensuring constant monitoring and right permission/ access is crucial yet challenging to put in practice.
How unified ATS API solves this: Secure candidate data effectively
Knit unified ATS API enables companies to effectively secure the sensitive candidate data they have access to in multiple ways.
- First, all data is doubly encrypted, both at rest and in transit. At the same time, all PII and user credentials are encrypted with an additional layer of application security.
- Second, having an events-driven webhooks architecture, Knit is the only unified ATS API which does not store any copy of the customer data in its server. Thus, reducing changes of data misuse further.
- Third, Knit is GDPR, SOC II and ISO27001 compliant to make sure all industry security standards are met. So, there’s one less thing for you to worry about.
Challenge 4: Long deployment duration and resource intensive maintenance
Finally, ATS API integration can be a long drawn process. It can take 2 weeks to 3 months and thousands of dollars to build integration with just a single ATS provider.
With different end points, data models, nuances, documentation etc. ATS API integration can be a long deployment project, diverting away engineering resources from core functions.
It’s not uncommon for companies to lose valuable deals due to this delay in setting up customer requested ATS integrations.
Furthermore, the maintenance, documentation, monitoring as well as error handling further drains engineering bandwidth and resources. This can be a major deterrent for smaller companies that need to scale their integration stack to remain competitive.
How unified ATS API solves this: Instant scalability
A unified ATS API like Knit allows you to connect with 30+ ATS platforms in one go helping you expand your integration stack overnight.
All you have to do is embed Knit’s UI component into your frontend once. All heavy lifting of auth, endpoints, credential management, verification, token generations, etc. is then taken care of by Knit.
Other benefits of using a Unified ATS API
Fortunately, companies can easily address the challenges mentioned above and streamline their candidate sourcing and screening process with a unified ATS API. Here are some of the top benefits you get with a unified ATS API:
Effective monitoring and logging for all APIs
Once you have scaled your integrations, it can be difficult to monitor the health of each integration and stay on top of user data and security threats. Unified API like Knit provides a detailed Logs and Issues dashboard i.e. a one page overview of all your integrations, webhooks and API calls. With smart filtering options for Logs and Issues, Knit helps you get a quick glimpse of the API's status, extract historical data and take necessary action as needed.
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Extensive range of Read and Write APIs
Along with Read APIs, Knit also provides a range of Write APIs for ATS integrations so that you can not only fetch data from the apps, you can also update the changes — updating candidate’s stage, rejecting an application etc. — directly into the ATS application's system. See docs
Save countless developer hours and cost
For an average SaaS company, each new integration takes about 6 weeks to 3 months to build and deploy. For maintenance, it takes minimum of 10 developer hours per week. Thus, building each new integration in-house can cost a SaaS business ~USD 15,000. Imagine doing that for 30+ integrations or 200!
On the other hand, by building and maintaining integrations for you, Knit can bring down your annual cost of integrations by as much as 20X. Calculate ROI yourself
In short, an API aggregator is non negotiable if you want to scale your ATS integration stack without compromising valuable in-house engineering bandwidth.
How to improve your screening workflow with Knit unified ATS API
Get Job details from different job boards
Fetch job IDs from your users Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) using Knit’s job data models along with other necessary job information such as departments, offices, hiring managers etc.
Get applicant details
Use the job ID to fetch all and individual applicant details associated with the job posting. This would give you information about the candidate such as contact details, experience, links, location, experience, current stage etc. These data fields will help you screen the candidates in one easy step.
Complete screening activities
Next is where you take care of screening activities on your end after getting required candidate and job details. Based on your use case, you parse CVs, conduct background checks and/or administer assessment procedures.
Push back results into the ATS
Once you have your results, you can progmmatically push data back directly within the ATS system of your users using Knit’s write APIs to ensure a centralized, seamless user experience. For example, based on screening results, you can —
- Update candidate stage using <update stage> API See docs
- Match scores for CV parsing or add a quick tag to your applicant See docs
- Reject an application See docs and much more
Thus, Knit ensures that your entire screening process is smooth and requires minimum intervention.
Get started with Unified ATS API
If you are looking to quickly connect with 30+ ATS applications — including Greenhouse, Lever, Jobvite and more — get your Knit API keys today.
You may talk to our one of our experts to help you build a customized solution for your ATS API use case.
The best part? You can also make a specific ATS integration request. We would be happy to prioritize your request.
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