An applicant tracking system (ATS) for a cleaning company: conceived and designed before the first line of code
Applications came in through a website form and ended up in spreadsheets and separate inboxes. We mapped the recruitment process together with HR, came up with an applicant tracking system (ATS), connected to their careers website, and designed it as a working prototype. Clickable, and tested by the people who use it every day.
The challenge: recruiting through spreadsheets and separate inboxes
A cleaning company recruits all year round. Lots of vacancies, lots of applicants. And an HR team that also handles everything for the people already on staff.
Applications came in through the form on the careers site and moved through a spreadsheet and personal inboxes. Staffing agencies supplied candidates in their own way. Who was where, and how long had someone been waiting? Nobody knew for sure.
Applications scattered across a spreadsheet, inboxes and staffing agencies. No overview per vacancy or per stage.
Good candidates drop out because nobody calls in time. And personal data sits in places it does not belong.
One place where every application arrives, where you see who is where, and that fits how HR actually works.
Our approach: draw the process before there is software
We did not start with software. We started at the table with HR, with a marker and a sheet of paper. Only when the process was right did we make the design.
Mapping the recruitment process
Together with HR we drew the whole route. Who posts a vacancy, what role do the staffing agencies play, who does the first screening? We also checked first whether an existing package would fit. None did: the link with staffing agencies and the company's own way of working called for custom software.
A flow that matches reality
New, contact, screening, introduction, optionally a second interview and a day of job shadowing. Then hired. One rule we deliberately built into the design: rejections always happen by phone. The system makes the work easier, the personal contact stays.
A working prototype instead of a document
We did not write a thick functional spec. We made a clickable prototype: an inbox for new applications, phone screening, stages with lead times, an activity log per candidate, a vacancy list, a blocklist and a dashboard with KPIs such as lead time per stage and the number of applications per vacancy. HR could start using it right away and give feedback on something that actually existed.
Sharp requirements, GDPR included
In a second round with HR we pinned down the details. The ATS is connected to the careers website: applications land straight in the dashboard, under the right vacancy and with no spreadsheet in between. Recruitment gets its own email address, separate from HR for current staff. Login with two-factor authentication and roles per user. And the first version deliberately stops at 'hired': no document uploads, so no more personal data enters the system than needed.
The result was a fully thought-out ATS: the process, the screens and the requirements, tested by HR before anything was built. A design a developer can start on without guesswork.
The client eventually arranged the build themselves. The flow, the screens and the privacy choices were conceived and designed by us.
The most expensive mistake in custom software is building before the process is right. Draw it together first, then a prototype people can actually click. Then you know what you are building.