What is an ATS?
An applicant tracking system keeps every candidate, job and conversation in one place — so nobody falls through the cracks.
ATS stands for applicant tracking system. It is software that helps you hire. Think of it as a shared, organised notebook for everything to do with hiring: the jobs you are filling, the people who might fill them, and where each person is in your process.
If you have ever kept candidates in a spreadsheet, a WhatsApp group, an email folder and your own memory all at once, you already know the problem an ATS solves.
The spreadsheet problem
Spreadsheets work when you hire one person a year. They start to break as soon as you have a few roles open:
- CVs live in email attachments, so nobody can find the latest one.
- Two colleagues call the same candidate on the same day.
- Someone forgets to reply to a good candidate, who takes another offer.
- You can't answer a simple question like “how many people did we interview for this role?” without counting by hand.
What an ATS does instead
| Task | Spreadsheet + email | ATS |
|---|---|---|
| Store CVs | Scattered across inboxes | One profile per candidate, CV attached |
| Post a job | Copy-paste to each site | Write once, share one link |
| Know who is where | Colour-coded cells, if updated | A pipeline that updates as you click |
| Work as a team | Whoever has the file open | Everyone sees the same, live |
| Search past candidates | Ctrl+F and hope | Search by skill, city, notice period… |
Who uses an ATS?
- Companies hiring for themselves — founders, HR teams and hiring managers.
- Recruitment agencies and consultants — who hire on behalf of client companies and need to keep each client's jobs separate.
Olibr supports both. You choose which one you are when you sign up.
An ATS is the single place where your jobs, your candidates and your hiring decisions live — so you hire faster and nobody gets forgotten.
Next, let's look at the path every candidate follows from “interested” to “hired”: the hiring pipeline.