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Last updated: February 3, 2026
Originally published: October 11, 2023
On average, how long does it take for your team to fill a new role?
According to Employ’s 2026 Benchmarks Report, the average time to hire stands at 46.2 days. However, for small and mid-sized businesses, that number climbs to 56.4 days.
For many teams, that difference comes down to a series of manual, time-consuming tasks: chasing resumes, coordinating interviews, following up with candidates, and trying to track progress across inboxes and spreadsheets.
The solve? An applicant tracking system (ATS). While not all ATS software is built the same, solutions designed specifically for SMBs help growing teams simplify hiring without adding complexity. The result is a more organized process that supports better decisions and makes the time spent on hiring easier to manage.
In this blog, we’ll break down seven practical strategies for using ATS software to hire more effectively—showing how the right solution can help teams move faster, stay aligned, and make better hiring decisions at every stage of the process.
The Top 7 Strategies to Improve Your SMB Recruiting with ATS Software
According to Employ’s Recruiter Nation Report, 39% of respondents say updating or adopting new recruitment software is a top priority. Additionally, 67% plan to increase recruiting spend over the next 6-12 months, with more than half (52%) directing investment toward new recruiting technology and processes.
For small businesses, that shift raises an important question: how do you translate new technology into better hiring outcomes? The following seven strategies focus on practical, ATS-driven ways to streamline interviews, strengthen candidate sourcing and nurturing, and improve conversion—without adding complexity.
1. Leverage ATS Software to Eliminate Manual Recruiting Processes
It’s almost too easy for recruiting processes to stagnate—especially when they feel familiar or “good enough.” But for many small businesses, those workflows can quietly limit efficiency and make hiring harder to manage as needs grow.
But the reality is that manual workflows make it harder to scale hiring when demand increases.
Modern ATS software—specifically when designed and built for small and scaling businesses—is designed to remove that friction. By automating high-impact recruiting tasks, ATS software can help recruiters and HR teams spend less time on administrative work—and more time engaging the right candidates and making confident hiring decisions.
As one JazzHR user noted, “It (the ATS software) simplifies many processes, making it easy to learn and navigate through different options. I am particularly impressed with how it has helped with the standardization of processes, especially the templates on offer letters. These tools streamline my workflow, making my recruiting efforts more organized.”
2. Optimize, Test, and Retest Your Recruiting Strategy
While “applicant tracking” is in the name, an ATS delivers far more than basic candidate tracking.
A purpose-built ATS acts as a central system of record for your recruiting efforts, allowing HR/TA teams and hiring managers to refine and improve every stage of the hiring process.
With the right ATS software, teams can:
- Customize job applications and career pages to ask role-specific questions and use knockout criteria to automatically filter poor-fit candidates.
- Test different candidate engagement tactics, from email to LinkedIn outreach, to understand what drives responses and keeps candidates moving.
- Analyze hiring workflows and sourcing performance, using built-in reporting to track time to hire, candidate quality, and funnel efficiency.
When ATS software sits at the center of your HR tech stack, recruiting becomes measurable, repeatable, and continuously improvable—from job posting to “you’re hired.”
3. Extend Job Visibility and Candidate Reach
If your jobs aren’t reaching the right audiences, the chances of finding your best-fit candidates are…close to zero.
Even well-written roles can fall flat if they’re posted in the wrong places.
Effective hiring starts with visibility that’s both broad and targeted. The goal isn’t more eyeballs—it’s the right ones. When roles are distributed across the channels candidates actually use, recruiters can expand reach without flooding the funnel with unqualified applicants.
With the right ATS software, job distribution becomes intentional and measurable. Teams can track performance by source, understand where quality candidates are coming from, and continuously refine their approach. Instead of guessing where to post, recruiters can invest confidently in the channels that deliver results.
The payoff: stronger reach, better alignment, and pipelines built for quality—not noise.
4. Enhance Candidate Engagement with ATS Software
One of the easiest ways for a hiring process to lose momentum is when candidate communication stalls.
Missed follow-ups do more than delay next steps. They affect candidate experience and create uncertainty, ultimately shaping how your employer brand is perceived. And in a world filled with review sites and Reddit threads, a poor experience doesn’t stay between an organization and a candidate. Word travels fast.
The good news? This is easily preventable. A strong ATS software helps teams stay responsive by automating updates, reminders, and status changes, so candidates are always clear on what’s next.
Critically, however, automation doesn’t mean robotic or impersonal. With the right tools, recruiters can personalize communication at key moments—maintaining a human experience while reducing manual effort.
“The importance of clear, timely communication with candidates can’t be overstated. Building a scalable and repeatable hiring program that helps attract, engage, interview, and advance the right internal and external talent efficiently, gives candidates a smooth experience and reliable follow-ups. With text capabilities and a single-source ATS and CRM, you will enhance efficiency, optimize the user experience, and increase visibility into how you move the needle when it comes to metrics like time to fill and cost per hire.”- Neil Lenane, Business Leader of Talent Acquisition, Progressive Insurance
When candidates are kept informed, they stay engaged—even if the outcome isn’t a hire.
5. Make Your Employer Brand and Company Culture Impossible to Ignore
A job title or compensation may spark interest—but it’s rarely where a candidate’s research ends. Today’s job seekers look deeper, turning to reviews, social platforms, and peer conversations to understand what it’s really like to work at a company. In that environment, every interaction matters. A single negative experience can shape perception and make it harder to attract—and convert—qualified candidates (see above).
When your employer brand is your currency, consistency counts.
The first step to building an employer brand and culture worth talking about? Understanding where you stand today.
Do a bit of research to see how your employer brand is regarded internally (i.e., by sending in-house employee Net Promoter Score (NPS) surveys to current employees) and by the general public (i.e., learning what customers and previously engaged candidates say about you online). Together, these insights create a clear baseline for improvement.
From there, the path forward becomes clear:
- If NPS results are strong, you likely have engaged employees who can act as brand advocates—sharing authentic experiences, referring talent, and helping amplify open roles.
- If NPS results reveal gaps, it’s a signal to focus inward first. Improvements to engagement, growth opportunities, and internal mobility need to come before asking employees to represent the brand externally.
Employer brand starts with culture—and culture isn’t owned by HR alone. People managers and executives play a critical role in shaping day-to-day experiences that ultimately define how your organization is perceived. When that foundation is strong, your recruiting efforts—and your ATS—can do their best work.
6. Use ATS Software to Power Employee Referral Programs
“Sourcing and screening candidates isn’t about volume—it’s about clarity and alignment. The idea that ‘more is better’ has been baked into hiring for too long, and it’s why many recruiters still feel like there are never enough qualified candidates…What Employ’s research reinforces is that recruiters want to find qualified, interested candidates who align with the opportunity. It’s not just about filling funnels—it’s about finding the right match, faster.” – Laura Mazzullo, Owner, East Side Staffing Momentum Meets Obstacles
As Laura Mazzullo notes, effective sourcing isn’t about volume—it’s about clarity and alignment. When teams prioritize “more” over fit, recruiters get overwhelmed and qualified candidates slip through the cracks. The challenge isn’t talent scarcity—it’s focus.
One of the most effective ways to shift from volume-driven sourcing to quality-first hiring is to tap into the people who already know your business best—your employees.
By leveraging a robust ATS software with a built-in referral workflow, recruiters and hiring managers can easily invite employees to share candidates they trust, track referrals automatically, and reduce manual sourcing effort.
The result is a more aligned pipeline, less recruiter burnout, and faster access to candidates who are already a strong fit.
7. Improve Hiring Decisions with ATS Software Data
This tip is simple but impactful: use the data in your ATS to understand what “good” actually looks like in your hiring process.
An ATS software with built-in analytics makes it easier to track quality-of-hire signals and see which sourcing channels move candidates furthest through your funnel. For example, JazzHR customers can drill into sourcing data to compare where successful candidates come from—those who reach final stages or are hired—versus where candidates tend to drop off early.
Patterns across skills, qualifications, and sourcing channels quickly emerge. Those insights help recruiters focus their time and budget on the sources that consistently deliver strong fits—and step away from the ones that don’t.
When recruiting decisions are guided by real performance data, hiring becomes more efficient, more consistent, and easier to scale.
Finding the Right Fit ATS
Hiring effectively as a small or growing business isn’t about doing more—it’s about having the right structure in place. When teams are supported by an ATS software built for SMB needs, hiring becomes easier to manage, more consistent, and better aligned across everyone involved in the process.
The strategies in this guide are designed to help you spend less time on manual work and more time making confident hiring decisions—whether you’re filling your next role or planning for growth ahead.
Ready to see how your peers are leveraging JazzHR to streamline their workflows and fill their open reqs faster? Schedule a demo today—or check out our product guide for more information.
