Applicant Tracking System UK

If you’re looking to for UK-based recruitment software there are a number of providers you could consider including:

• Talent Gleam
• Eploy
• Jobtrain
• Oleeo

There are other applicant tracking system providers that aren’t headquartered in the UK but that have a UK operation including the likes of iCims who have a London office, and Bullhorn who have offices in London and Dublin.

Whilst we’d obviously love you to evaluate Talent Gleam, we understand you’re going to want to evaluate a few different systems.

Something as simple as where your software vendor’s based can really screw up your overall recruitment success.

Many UK-based companies fall into the trap of assuming US-based providers are bigger and better.

Yes, everything’s certainly bigger—the US marketplace is ginormous and happens to be home to the largest English-speaking software market in the world.

But this doesn’t mean applicant tracking software vendors based in the US are any better than their UK-based counterparts.

The way the US recruits is very different to the way the UK recruits. With customers in 49 countries (the vast majority of which are either here in the UK or over in North America), we’ve experienced the differences first-hand.

These differences are a big deal, far bigger than you may realise.

So why should UK companies buy their applicant tracking software from a UK-based vendor?

1: Regional understanding

The approach to recruitment in different countries is, well, different. The way candidates are treated is different, the whole methodology around sourcing is extremely different, and so too are candidates’ expectations.

Most ATS vendors that aren’t based in the UK/Europe (but who are selling into the UK market) aren’t investing the time and effort that’s needed to make their product suitable for the local market. The UK is typically a small market for them and it’s not just as simple as retrofitting their solution into the UK either – those distinct differences need to be nailed from the outset.

The reality: Your team get frustrated with their new ATS, and your candidates don’t get the experience they were expecting from you.

2: Support

Side-by-side, the UK is no comparison to the scale of the US.

Unfortunately, the upshot of this is that vendors that aren’t UK-based, but who sell into the UK market, aren’t able to invest as much into providing support in the UK as they would if the UK was their primary market.

This means that the support that’s provided, coupled with the time zone differences, means most UK companies wind up with far less than they’d hoped for.

The reality: At best, the support experience is slow and doesn’t reflect what you’re paying. At worst, when you do finally speak to somebody, they’re not in a position of authority and don’t understand the way your business works, the market you’re recruiting into, or the challenges you’re facing that are unique to the UK.

3: The third argument for using (certain) UK ATS providers

We’re hoping by now that you’re feeling a lot clearer about the whole US ATS vs. UK ATS argument, which leads us to our next ATS-related quandary. Which UK ATS provider do you choose?

You see, the problem with most UK ATS vendors is that they’ve been around for a very long time. Surely, that’s a good thing right, they’re stable and established?

But here’s the thing, most of them aren’t set up to evolve as quickly as the recruitment market is evolving. As a result, their user experience leaves a lot to be desired from a candidate, hiring manager and recruiter perspective. That’s one side of the spectrum.
Or there’s the other side, the side that’s pioneering the next generation of UK recruitment software and delivering exceptional user experiences.

Yes, they may be perceived as being the new kids on the block, but these ‘youngsters’ have strong international client bases, are profitable, are built on modern technology, respond to customer requests and industry changes quickly, and are redefining the future of UK recruitment software.

We’d be lying if we said we haven’t just described ourselves. We may be relatively new, but we aren’t going anywhere. And, just so you know, our current response time for support is less than two minutes.

Most of the features you’ll find in any applicant tracking system will be useful to UK recruitment teams. But there are a some applicant tracking system features that organisations in the UK will find particularly helpful:

• Recruitment marketing tools: Features like recruitment marketing automation that help attract more of the right candidates, direct. Organisations in the UK are most likely to want to reduce reliance on external recruiters and agencies.
• Diversity and inclusion tools: features like equality monitoring that are tailored to UK best practice around diversity and inclusion.
• Data protection tools: features to make compliance with local data protection regulations like the GDPR easier.
• Integrations: UK-based applicant tracking software is more likely to integrate well with other HR tools that are popular in the UK.

Because many applicant tracking systems have been designed and built in the US, with the US market in mind, the features they offer are automatically geared towards the US way of recruiting. That’s not always a bad thing but it’s something to consider when evaluating applicant tracking software for a UK organisation.

Talent Gleam and other applicant tracking software providers that are based in the UK sell globally, but because their first customers were in the UK their feature set is often skewed to help UK recruiters.

Prices for applicant tracking systems in the UK typically start at around £5,000 per year.

Most mid-size companies spend between £10,000 and £40,000 per year, but larger companies will spend upwards of £100,000 per year on their ATS.