14 recruiting software tools to automate and streamline your hiring process

The best recruiting software streamlines the recruiting process without making it impersonal. The space is full of tools that can provide an efficient, engaging candidate experience while also speeding up your time to hire. 

If you don’t know where to start building your recruiting tech stack, this guide will get you familiar with the options so you can find the best recruiting solutions for your team’s needs.

Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS)

Nearly all Fortune 500 companies use applicant tracking systems (ATS) to capture top talent, and midsize and small businesses aren’t far behind. It’s easy to see why. 

This recruiting software automates many manual parts of the hiring process. An ATS uses resume parsing to  extract details from thousands of resumes, so you can automatically match qualified candidates to open positions and follow up with interview requests. Many applicant tracking systems provide email templates to standardize communications with job seekers, as well as collaboration tools to align hiring teams and keep the process running smoothly.

Here are the top applicant tracking systems on the market today:

1. Greenhouse

Designed to support informed hiring, Greenhouse includes data-rich reports on processes like candidate sourcing, applicant feedback, and time to hire progress. The platform shares job postings across multiple job boards, and captures applicant details so you can create and manage candidate profiles. 

Greenhouse features communication tools that automate candidate sourcing and outreach, helping you draw new candidates into your hiring funnel. Advanced filtering lets recruiters quickly find the right candidates for follow-up on open positions. This recruiting software tracks candidate relationships over time, letting you connect the top talent you attract today with job postings you’ll have in the future.

Greenhouse also has great features for hiring team collaboration. Hiring managers can use Greenhouse’s templates to complete job posting details. Recruiters can easily create hiring panels and share candidate details quickly with team members using @ mentions. And if your organization partners with an outside staffing agency, multiple access levels allow you to delegate parts of the hiring process.

2. iCIMS Talent Cloud

Designed for midsize to enterprise companies, iCIMS Talent Cloud is a cloud-based applicant tracking system. The platform features artificial intelligence that helps recruiters screen thousands of resumes and find ideal matches for open positions. From there, recruiters can use iCIMS for all candidate communications, including text messaging to reach candidates anywhere, anytime. One interesting iCIMS feature is the ability to add a chat feature to your career site so you can answer questions from job seekers in real time.

Recruiters can manage Interview and assessment scheduling through iCIMS, as well as internal hiring team management functions. Hiring teams can collaborate within the ATS to compare notes and feedback, make hiring decisions, and develop job offers for successful candidates.

As the founder of boutique tech recruiting agency AlloHire, Hudson Brock has worked with a wide variety of recruitment software platforms for his clients. “iCIMS has been acquiring smaller solutions to build out more of a suite,” he shares. “They’re integrated with a lot of bigger companies, and I don’t see those companies moving off from iCIMS. But I see them putting more pressure on iCIMS to improve the UI and add more tools that integrate.”

iCIMS also has tools for expanding your talent funnel. Recruiting teams can build advertising campaigns for job boards and social media directly from the platform. Its communication tools encourage candidates to join your talent pipeline based on skills and experience. What’s more, iCIMS supports internal talent pools with AI-driven career pathing, analytics, and talent profiles, so you can promote from within more easily.

3. Lever

Lever is a talent acquisition suite combining features of applicant tracking systems and candidate relationship management systems (recruiting CRMs). The suite lets recruiting teams manage and automate tasks for both recruiting processes in one platform, so they can focus on building candidate relationships. 

The LeverTRM solution gives recruiters and hiring managers more visibility into their talent pipeline. The platform tracks every candidate interaction, so all stakeholders in the hiring process can stay up to date on everyone in the talent funnel and collaborate on hiring tasks. Hiring teams can complete feedback forms, share interview notes, and discuss next steps in one place regardless of location. 

A visually driven dashboard delivers insights about your recruiting and hiring processes in an easy-to-understand format. Lever drills down into the data, revealing details about candidate sourcing, interviewing, and talent nurturing. The solution provides a clearer picture of recruiting performance, so you can make workflow adjustments and improve hiring metrics. Lever’s analytics extend to DEI initiatives, providing details about the diversity of your candidate pools so you can update interview processes.

Lever also offers tools to help you maintain connections with ideal candidates for future roles. In addition to offering tools for mass candidate nurturing campaigns, the solution tracks all candidate touchpoints and communications. Any member of the recruiting team can continue conversations and maintain an engaging candidate experience.

4. Workday

Workday's talent acquisition software is part of its cloud-based Enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution for medium-sized and large enterprises. It allows companies to manage recruitment as well as talent development, performance, and compensation. 

Workday’s recruiting software centralizes the hiring process. Recruiting teams can create job postings in the system, and add additional internal privacy and security controls for sensitive requisitions. The platform is optimized for employee referrals, with a leaderboard that awards points for recommending candidates. Similarly, Workday lets employees provide endorsements that help recruiters refine talent pools. Workday’s collaboration tools easily connect recruiters, hiring managers, and other stakeholders, so you can build hiring teams and customize workflows that fill roles faster.

Workday is an ideal recruitment management tool for companies that want their hiring to integrate seamlessly with HR software and human capital management systems, allowing them to track new hires through the entire employee lifecycle.

5. Jobvite

Using the Continuous Candidate Engagement (CCE) model, Jobvite creates meaningful interactions at all stages of the hiring process. Jobvite’s applicant tracking system offers social media recruiting, video screening, scheduling, and other recruiting functions. The platform’s data management capabilities give hiring teams a 360-degree view of all candidates through every interaction.

Jobvite’s ATS platform lets recruiting teams customize and manage different fields in job postings and application forms used in hiring workflows. Recruiting teams can pre-screen candidates through on-demand video submissions and questionnaires delivered during the application process. To further speed reviews, Jobvite’s artificial intelligence can identify candidates best suited for follow-up interviews based on candidate profile matches and screening scorecard results. 

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Recruiting software apps

Having an efficient applicant tracking system is only part of a modern recruiting solution. Your recruiting stack must include recruiting software that extends your reach into new talent pools. With nearly 70% of job seekers submitting applications through a mobile device, the options below offer mobile-optimized experiences to reach candidates wherever they are.

6. Indeed

Unsurprisingly, one of the best hiring apps comes from one of the biggest names in hiring. Indeed for employers pairs with Indeed Apply, allowing job postings on the Indeed platform to receive applications from mobile devices. 

Indeed integrates with several applicant tracking systems, so you can automate resume parsing, candidate profile creation, and candidate tracking — even when applicants are on the go. Additional features let you pre-screen applicants with questions unique to the position, and even make job offers right from the app.

To increase exposure for your job postings, Indeed offers a paid service to promote open positions in mobile search results.

“Indeed is a great tool for posting jobs and sourcing talent, and generally best for recruiting non-technical roles,” says Hudson Brock. “They’ve been investing lots of energy into becoming more of a data company and to have better insights.”

7. LinkedIn Recruiter

Another giant in the recruiting space, LinkedIn Recruiter lets employers access LinkedIn’s social media network of more than 740 million professional users. The app (available on iOS and Android) uses networking, search filters, and recommended matches to help you pick the perfect candidate — and highlight ideal candidates who might be more likely to respond to your outreach.

LinkedIn Recruiter streamlines the recruiting process with several tools. Messaging templates and bulk mailings let you contact multiple candidates at once, while candidate profiles can be shared quickly and easily around the hiring team. The platform tracks every stakeholder’s touchpoint with candidates, so no tasks are missed. Even more convenient is LinkedIn’s ability to show your sourced candidates and job applicants in one place.

Recruiters can contact candidates via LinkedIn Messenger, which expands your reach by letting you contact candidates when you don’t have their email address. With Calendly’s LinkedIn integration, recruiters can share scheduling links directly with candidates, letting them book time immediately for a screening interview.

8. ZipRecruiter

ZipRecruiter’s app is great for hiring teams that want to cast as wide a net as possible. For candidates, the app is a job aggregator, pulling ads from major boards like Indeed and Monster. For employers, jobs can be added to ZipRecruiter and cross-posted to over 100 job boards. 

Employers use ZipRecruiters’ customizable templates to create job postings and screening questions in minutes. The app connects hiring managers with candidates who are a perfect match for their job requisition. ZipRecruiter contacts potential candidates via email when there’s a match, encouraging them to apply. From there, the app’s dashboard lets you sort, review, and rate applications for further consideration. You can read resumes, cover letters, and screening question responses right on your phone. ZipRecruiter’s internal messaging lets you contact applicants you’re interested in interviewing.

Other essential integrations for your recruiting tech stack

Once you’ve brought candidates into your hiring funnel, you need to connect with them and create relationships to secure the best talent for your organization. These recruitment platform integrations accelerate the process.

9. Avature

Avature provides recruiting teams with a multichannel candidate relationship management platform to promote your employer brand and attract new talent. Its tools help you create campaigns that draw new candidates into your hiring pipeline. “Avature is a great recruiting CMS,” says Katee Vallad, a Senior Recruiter at Calendly who brings a decade of insights from agency based, RPO, and corporate recruiting roles. “It lets you source, attract, and engage talent all in one platform. This CMS can help you stand out by creating meaningful nurturing relationships with top talent in a tight labor market.”

Customizable landing pages and microsites deliver recruiting content tailored for specific business areas or markets. You can also nurture candidates using Avature’s email templates and communication tools, which feature A/B testing for open, click-through, and bounce rates. All performance metrics are tracked so you can optimize each campaign. 

Avature also features sourcing tools that let you conduct searches across multiple channels and import leads at scale. These searches can be run automatically so you can always add newly available talent. Avature also features artificial intelligence that recommends talent across your networks and within your own candidate database.

10. Yello

The goal of Yello’s recruiting CRM is to simplify the way your recruitment programs connect with talent and create a better candidate experience. The platform helps recruiters create branded campaigns for automated email and text messaging campaigns that engage candidates and bring them into your talent pool. Candidate profiles can be organized and tagged based on your workflows, so you can easily search candidates and match them to open positions. When you’re ready to make contact, Yello automates interview follow-ups and next steps.

One way Yello simplifies the candidate relationship management process is by combining outreach and operations tasks in one platform. The platform lets you see each candidate’s actions, touchpoints, and feedback throughout your process. Its dashboard monitors engagement metrics so you can measure your program’s effectiveness. Yello also features integrations with multiple job boards and candidate sourcing partners, so you can expand your reach into more talent pools from within the platform.

11. Gem

Gem’s candidate relationship management system integrates data across multiple recruiting software platforms, candidate sourcing sites, and other channels. By creating a single source of truth for candidate information, Gem saves recruiting teams the time of sorting through different platforms. Recruiters can track a candidate's entire relationship history with the organization. You can see details including LinkedIn InMails, direct emails, previous applications, and interview feedback. The Gem Extension makes the information accessible in LinkedIn, your application tracking system, or email.

While working in your ATS, Gem’s automation can add new talent profiles to your system. The platform lets you program logic rules that place candidates into customizable talent pools. Gem also alerts you to new developments with warm candidates as they reach new career milestones and become a fit for new positions.

12. Calendly

Known for scheduling automation, Calendly helps recruiting teams build interview processes while automating key steps in your interview loop. The solution helps recruiters coordinate any type of interview format in just a few clicks, from phone screens to complex, multi-day hiring panel interviews. Calendly lets you determine the number of interviewers and types of interviews they want to conduct, and then customize the interview sequence.

Calendly extends the functionality of many recruiting tools with flexible scheduling automation. Some are included in this list, such as Greenhouse, Zoom, Lever, and Gem. Calendly also integrates with a wide variety of recruiting tools and hiring platforms, including JazzHR, Zoho Recruit, RoboRecruiter and more. The app integrates with videoconferencing platforms including Webex, Microsoft Teams, GoToMeeting, and others, so you can use your favorite video interviewing tools.

Key Calendly features include:

• Integration with up to six calendars, including Google, iCloud, and Microsoft

• Support for group meetings and interview panels

• Automated confirmations, reminders, and follow-ups for candidates and interviewers with Calendly Workflows

• Time buffers between interviews so you don’t overschedule your team

• Interview engagement reporting and analytics

• LinkedIn Messaging integration for sharing scheduling immediately links during initial sourcing conversations

Recruiting team members can set up meetings and customizable event settings for their individual workflows. Admins can also manage and share interview events centrally to standardize your interview process. Calendly’s artificial intelligence eliminates many manual interview scheduling tasks, saving recruiting teams valuable time. The solution can determine an ideal interview schedule based on hiring team schedules and the candidate’s submitted availability. It also balances workloads for recruiters and interviewers to avoid burnout.

Calendly lets all team members see their schedules, quickly view the times available for interviews, and then share a scheduling link with candidates to book an interview. Alternatively, you can set up a team scheduling page so candidates can choose from different team members or meeting options. Either way, the automated appointment scheduling books the interview on the team’s and candidate’s calendars, preventing double-bookings.

13. Zoom

In today’s online world, Zoom is a boon to recruiters with its video call functionality. If you’re hiring from a distance but can’t pay for candidates to travel to you for an in-person meeting, videoconferencing is a huge help. 

Other Zoom features include file sharing and group chat functions. You can show a candidate a file or web page, and they can send you their portfolio and other work samples. Screen sharing is also available, even on the free version. If you’re conducting a panel interview via Zoom, you can privately message the rest of the hiring team with prompts or comments outside the group chat.

Zoom lets you customize different parts of the video interview experience to be more engaging for candidates. “I love that Zoom lets you create a ‘waiting room’ and craft a friendly message so candidates feel welcomed while they wait for the interviewer to admit them into the call,” offers Leah Knobler, Director of Talent Acquisition at Help Scout and an expert and speaker on recruiting issues and trends. “I also appreciate that Zoom lets you include your pronouns in your name, so we can be more inclusive when meeting candidates for the first time.” 

Users don’t need any additional software to use Zoom for video calls, either. All that’s needed is a browser or mobile device and an internet connection, and everyone is ready to get started. 

14. HireVue

HireVue provides live and on-demand video interviewing software that integrates into many applicant tracking systems. The on-demand interview feature is particularly useful for streamlining the hiring process, as candidates can respond to questions at their convenience outside of regular business hours. For hiring teams, the platform provides real-time evaluation tools and candidate routing functionality.

Hirevue’s ATS integration distributes interview information to all hiring team members whenever and wherever they need it during recruiting. The platform also features integrations with many HRIS platforms, eliminating duplicate admin data entry tasks as candidates move through the hiring process. 

More than just a video interview tool, HireVue helps hiring teams become more effective interviewers. The platform provides access to interview guides tailored for many specific roles. In seconds, users can create a series of interview questions that standardize your process and reduce potential bias in the interview process. 

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Choose the best recruiting software

The best recruiting software for your teams depends on your organization’s needs and what recruiting process you’re trying to improve. Experiment, mix, and match and see which of these recruiting apps is the right one for you. The sooner you start innovating, the sooner you’ll connect with the talent you need.