Best Applicant Tracking Systems For Small Businesses

The best applicant tracking systems for small businesses are often dismissed on volume. If you hire four people a year, an inbox seems adequate.

The argument for one is not speed. It is what exists afterwards.

Hiring creates records. Who applied, what they were asked, who assessed them, on what basis, and why one person was chosen. If a decision is ever challenged as discriminatory, that trail is your answer, and an inbox does not produce it.

There is a privacy dimension too. Unsuccessful applicants’ personal information sits somewhere afterwards, and a system that manages retention and deletion is easier to defend than a folder nobody revisits.

At low volume, buy it for the record rather than the workflow.

The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner publishes guidance on handling personal information. This is general information rather than legal advice, and obligations vary by state and territory.

See Sentrient’s recruitment management system and candidate management.