What is ATS Configuration & Optimisation?
Talent Ascent configures your applicant tracking system around your hiring requirements & process.
We work with your team to define how recruitment should move through the system: who acts at each stage, what information they record, which tasks can be automated, and what your reports need to show.
Who is it suitable for?
“We have the software, but need someone to configure it for us so it is usable across hiring processes.”
This service can add value for you when:
- You have purchased your ATS and need it configured.
- Your ATS uses default settings and has no bespoke interview plans.
- Reporting requires manual reconstruction, or teams calculate the same hiring metrics differently.
- You are not maximising the capabilities of your ATS.
Why book ATS Configuration & Optimisation?
A properly configured ATS makes your hiring processes measurable and auditable. Standardising your workflows can help with hiring plan and forecasting for each subsequent hiring tranche. It allows you to monitor recruitment performance per function, as well as individual recruiter performance. It provides the basis for data-driven improvement decisions in your hiring strategy & execution.
Who should not buy this service?
A different starting point may be more useful if:
- You are still choosing which ATS to buy.
- Your main requirement is recruitment operating model design.
- You need support with org design.
- You only need a small change that your existing administrator can comfortably complete.
What do you receive?
We agree what your ATS needs to do, configure it, test it and hand it over to your team.
Your proposal identifies the items included:
| Area | Example deliverables |
|---|---|
| Hiring workflows | Interview plans per job family, including default panel settings. |
| Interview setup | Feedback forms and scorecards configured in the ATS |
| Scheduling and communication | Scheduling settings, candidate communication templates and reminders |
| Recruitment workflow automation | Automated actions for agreed recruitment tasks (e.g. Candidate experience surveys, feedback reminders) |
| Data structure | Consistent fields, source categories, rejection reasons and stage definitions |
| Permissions | Access configured around user and team remit |
| Recruitment reporting | Dashboards and hiring metrics, with clear definitions, filters and data limitations |
| Integrations | Configuration and testing of the supported connections included in your proposal |
You also receive:
- Handover documentation & a recorded voiceover video tutorial of the new configuration - which you can upload to your intranet for training future TA specialist hires or embedded TA providers.
- Testing with nominated users before the changes go live.
- A handover session covering the workflows and reports.
- One review within 30 days of launch to check adoption progress and identify any corrections needed to the agreed setup* (corrections limited to errors and workflow conflicts; not applicable where full re-scope is required by clients).
Features depend on your platform and subscription package with the ATS provider. Migration, substantial historical data reconstruction and custom integrations are agreed separately.
What information and access do we require?
- ATS access with permission to configure and test it.
- Your hiring plan, team structure and current recruitment workflows.
- Existing interview materials, templates and approval rules.
- Access to historic hiring records, where available.
- The KPIs you currently measure.
- Any relevant sample records and known data issues.
- Access to the owners of connected systems where integrations are agreed in the scope.
- Someone who can confirm decisions, plus users available for testing.
Your team supplies or approves the access rules, candidate communications and data-handling requirements.
What is the process for booking and delivery?
- Intro chat: Discuss your current situation, your objectives, and timelines.
- Proposal: Talent Ascent provides a quote - timelines, fee, milestones, required data, and SOPs.
- Initial System Review: Once the engagement terms have been agreed, Talent Ascent examines your current setup, and flags any anticipated deviations or constraints. Once alignment is confirmed, the configuration work commences.
- Configuration and testing: We build the agreed architecture and test it with your team.
- Delivery session: We deliver an overview & demo of the new configuration to target stakeholders.
- Launch and handover: We provide handover documentation (including any Q&As surfaced during the delivery session) for your team + a voice-over recording of the core workflows. You can upload these to your intranet and use for future employee training.
- 30-day post-launch review: We hold a 30-minute adoption review session - to understand how effectively your team has been using the new configuration. If any configuration errors are surfaced, we can support with remediation.
For an existing system, we also outline in handover documentation how changes will affect live candidate and historical candidate POV experience (i.e. what candidates will see). Additional support sessions are bookable after the project has concluded, at £300 per session, when you require ad-hoc configuration guidance or training of new ATS administrators.
How much does ATS Configuration & Optimisation cost?
A fixed project fee, agreed once we have confirmed the scope of the work required.
The quote will reflect the workflows, templates, permissions, reports and integrations required, the condition of the existing setup, and the testing and handover required, as well as the target timeframe you require.
Software subscriptions, paid add-ons and additional development costs are identified separately.
How should you assess the investment?
Compare the project fee with the recurring work your current setup requires: manual coordination, duplicate entry, ad-hoc handling of requisitions and candidates. An ATS is akin to the ERP of your recruitment engine. Without data integrity and data standardisation, you have limited ability to audit and forecast.
How does this compare with other Talent Ascent services?
| Service | Choose it when… |
|---|---|
| ATS Configuration & Optimisation | You need hiring workflows, automation and reporting implemented in your ATS. |
| Hiring Effectiveness Audit | You need to assess the performance of your recruitment model, identify where hiring loses time or money, and prioritise improvements. |
| Interview Process Design | You need department-specific competency design, interview plans, question banks, scorecards and decision rules. |
| Fractional Hiring Leadership | You need ongoing leadership to support with steering your hiring strategy and recruitment operating model design & enhancement as you scale. |
What are the alternatives?
| Route | When it may fit |
|---|---|
| Internal ATS administrator | If your talent team is developed enough that you are ready to hire a full-time Talent Operations Manager to own and continuously calibrate your ATS. |
| ATS provider resources and support | Your provider offers the product guidance or implementation assistance you need. This could work best if you have an internal TA Leader with bandwidth to handle a portion of the configuration directly. |
| Talent Ascent | You want your ATS configured and ready to use, tested and handed over to your team. |
FAQ
Can Talent Ascent help define the workflow as well as configure it?
Yes. We will recommend some default workflows, target SLAs & KPIs, based on function best practice. But we will work with your team to calibrate the workflow configuration to your specific needs. We understand that certain operating realities, such as when your business operates within a regulated industry, will require a tailor-made workflow approach. We aim to construct context-appropriate workflows. We map stages, responsibilities, information requirements and system actions with your team. Developing a full candidate assessment framework (e.g. Interview Question Banks, specialist Assessment Task templates, or coding exercise provider recommendations) is covered through Interview Process Design.
Can Talent Ascent make historical reporting reliable?
That will vary based on the legacy architecture your business used to manage recruitment. For example, if you used Google Workspace, Emails, or Notion, to handle applications - you would need to first decide the extent of access you would like to provide Talent Ascent with. We will be able to discuss this with you in more detail if you enquire directly and share more about your circumstances.
What happens after handover?
Your administrator receives the configuration record, recorded tutorial and configuration documentation. The project includes the adoption review described above; additional workflows, reports or ongoing administration are agreed separately. Ad-hoc support sessions are bookable at £300 per hour, when you require support and guidance, or training to onboard a new administrator.
What is the benefit of configuring our ATS?
Configuring your ATS provides your finance, operations, and people teams, as well as your function leaders, with the capacity to achieve things like:
- Reliably anticipate how long hiring for a particular vacancy would require.
Example: if you have hired for a Senior Product Manager several times in the past, and it consistently has taken 3-4 months, your team can anticipate that the new headcount approved in Q1 is likely to fall into Q2. - Data-driven recruitment capacity planning & performance targets.
Example: If you know a Staff PM hire has taken 5 months on average in the past year, and a Customer Support Specialist has taken 1 month on average - then you can set appropriate KPIs for the relevant TA teams. I.e. a TA Specialist hiring Staff PMs for 3 months on average is a high performer whose approach should be replicated by others. A TA Specialist hiring for customer support who closes 5x roles is not performing higher than a TA Specialist who has closed 1x Staff PM role. - Identify when something with the process is going wrong.
Example: You have successfully hired for a Sr Account Manager five times in the past year, and it took 2 months on average. Yet, a current vacancy has been live for 4 months, with no one close to offer. This is a deviation which requires deeper investigation - to identify if the issue is situational (e.g. recruiter performance, new PR employer brand issues) or structural (e.g. hiring a new market presenting novel talent supply challenges). - Retroactively identify the root causes of mis-hires.
Example: Detailed interview notes (especially when your ATS is integrated with notetaking AI solutions which provide full interview transcripts) allow you to perform post-mortem analysis of interview processes which lead to hiring people who failed probation. You can then use this data to introduce additional key items the interview panel should test when hiring for a replacement. - Redeploy “silver medallist candidates”.
Example: When an additional headcount opens two months after you closed a similar role, you can skip running a full recruitment process and reengage candidates who reached final stage previously. Having detailed notes and standardised scorecards - allows your team to decide based on 1-2 calibration interviews, instead of running a full 5-stage process. This can potentially reduce time-to-offer from months to one or two weeks.