Can an Applicant Tracking System Be Easy to Use?
Let’s get this out of the way early: the answer is yes. Of course an applicant tracking system can be easy to use. But in the current staffing landscape, it can be difficult to find a provider that devotes as much time to the user experience as it does to its system’s core functionality. Even worse, we’re only now leaving a period of time (from 1990 to 2010) that Bullhorn’s SVP of Global Services, Danielle du Toit, described at Engage 2015 as “The Age of Information.” Many of today’s applicant tracking system providers are relics of this age. They continue to push loads of indigestible information down the throats of their users despite the world’s obvious shift into “The Age of the Customer.”
What does it mean that we’re in “The Age of the Customer”? As du Toit put it, today’s customers live in a world where they “not only have opinions, but also a voice” and they’re “empowered with freely available information to find the best solutions for their problems.” Many applicant tracking system providers fail to grasp this. Instead, they cobble together as many possible data points as they can and throw them at their users all at once in an incomprehensible jumble of tables and graphs.
It’s one thing to have the ability to show your users the information they want to see. It’s another (inadvisable) thing altogether to make sweeping assumptions about the information your customers want. This kind of overloaded interface can also lead to a difficult and confusing search process for any information that’s not immediately obvious.
Bullhorn’s applicant tracking system is designed to work the way you work, with integrated email access and LinkedIn Recruiter integration helping to keep your team’s users working within the ATS environment. Search and match functionality makes it easy to find important contacts, and Bullhorn’s automated data capture will keep your records up-to-date. Perhaps most importantly, the search and reporting functions can both be customized and filtered to show your users exactly the information they need to be at their best. Bullhorn’s applicant tracking system gives users a personalized recruiting experience made specifically for “The Age of the Customer.”
The new Bullhorn user interface (UI), rolled out in 2026, brings cleaner navigation, faster data scanning, and more speed and clarity across the entire platform. With the new Bullhorn UI, existing data, workflows, customizations, and integrations stay the same.
Frequently asked questions about easy-to-use applicant tracking systems
Can an applicant tracking system be easy to use?+−
Yes. It can be difficult to find a provider that devotes as much time to the user experience as it does to its system’s core functionality, but an applicant tracking system can be easy to use. Bullhorn’s applicant tracking system is designed to work the way you work. The new Bullhorn user interface (UI), rolled out in 2026, brings cleaner navigation, faster data scanning, and more speed and clarity across the entire platform.
What makes an applicant tracking system hard to use?+−
An overloaded interface. Some providers cobble together as many data points as they can and show them to users all at once, in a jumble of tables and graphs. That also makes it difficult and confusing to find any information that is not immediately obvious.
What makes an applicant tracking system easy to use?+−
Search and reporting that can be customized and filtered to show users exactly the information they need, integrated email access and LinkedIn Recruiter integration that keep users working within the ATS, and automated data capture that keeps records up to date.
Is Bullhorn easy to use?+−
Yes. The new Bullhorn user interface (UI), rolled out in 2026, brings cleaner navigation, faster data scanning, and more speed and clarity across the entire platform. With the new Bullhorn UI, existing data, workflows, customizations, and integrations stay the same.
Does Bullhorn have a modern interface?+−
Yes. The new Bullhorn user interface (UI), rolled out in 2026, brings cleaner navigation, faster data scanning, and more speed and clarity across the entire platform. With the new Bullhorn UI, existing data, workflows, customizations, and integrations stay the same.
