Businesses white label applicant tracking systems (ATS) to remain competitive, reduce customer churn, expand their market share, and grow revenue (amongst several other benefits).
However, to fully understand the value of a white label ATS, it’s important to note how much recruiting problems hurt your clients' brand, employees, and bottom line.
The value an ATS provides underscores why it’s a worthwhile investment to white label this product. It’s also vital to know how an ATS can add value to your clients when it’s time to market your newly integrated ATS to gain market share, add value for current customers, and monetize your ATS to generate new revenue streams.
The information in this post is also beneficial if you’re trying to convince stakeholders at your organization of the value of an ATS for your customers.
Recruiting costs small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) valuable time and money. Glassdoor reports that it costs the average U.S. employer $4,000 and 24 days to find and hire a new employee (and that’s not taking into account onboarding time and costs).
Hiring is time-consuming. Businesses, especially SMBs, dedicate a lot of time to recruiting, interviewing, and hiring candidates. In fact, small business owners spend up to 40% of their working hours on tasks that don’t generate income, including recruiting and hiring. Companies risk top candidates losing interest, taking other jobs, or losing faith in the organization if the hiring process goes too long.
New hires are company investments that don’t mature right away. Research shows it takes up to eight months before an employee reaches full productivity and generates revenue for a company. Turnover amongst employees happens, but a strong hiring process helps support retention and saves money.
Additionally, the cost of replacing an individual employee can range from one-half to two times that employee’s annual salary.
Without proper recruiting strategies and technology, bad hires will happen. According to the World Economic Forum, a company benefits $5,303 for hiring a superstar performer but benefits $12,489 by avoiding a toxic hire.
An ATS can:
Think of an ATS as the recruitment equivalent to a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, which today’s successful companies consider necessary. So is an ATS.
Companies that successfully utilize an ATS save up to 20% of their time on the hiring process. Software recommendation platform GetApp surveyed their users who use an ATS and found that 86.1% reported that using an ATS has increased the speed at which they hire.
The average cost per hire in the United States now sits around $4,700. For specialized or senior roles, that number can clear $10,000 without much effort. On top of that, every day a position stays vacant costs a business roughly $98 in lost productivity, and the average role takes 40 or more days to fill.
Employers across the country can’t recruit quality candidates. It costs businesses approximately 90 dollars daily when an entry-level job remains vacant. Additionally, other employees often pick up the slack when a position is vacant, working overtime to make up the difference (studies show that productivity drops drastically at 50 hours of work a week).
An ATS can help businesses increase applicant traffic by:
Additionally, 78.3% of hiring managers said an ATS improved the quality of candidates they hire.
A 2024 hiring challenges report found that 56% of employers say "not enough qualified candidates" is their single biggest recruitment headache. Small and mid-sized businesses feel this the most. When a key role goes unfilled, it affects productivity, morale, and the bottom line all at once.
The HR industry is now employee-focused rather than HR-focused. The candidate experience is more important than ever. Businesses must consider candidates as customers to attract, engage, and delight them.
60% of job seekers quit while filling out online job applications because of their length or complexity. That’s a bad “customer” experience. An ATS can streamline the application process so that they only have to provide the same information once, not be asked redundant questions, and complete the application quickly.
30% of job seekers rated responsiveness as the most important to their candidate experience. Applicant engagement and experience can be significantly improved with features like text to apply, simplified application forms, and an attractive careers page. Those with a positive experience are more likely to accept a job offer, reapply in the future, or refer others to the company.
An ATS provides users their own full career site—a competitive ATS offers custom application forms, QR codes, and workflows so users can tailor the needs of their businesses and the preferences of their ideal job candidate. For candidates, a competitive ATS is easy to use and mobile-friendly for the end-user, leaving them just as delighted with interacting with your company as their favorite e-commerce business.
A 2025 report found that 57% of job seekers have abandoned an application mid-process because it was too complicated or too long. That means more than half of interested candidates are walking away before your clients ever get to evaluate them. That's not a pipeline problem. That's a process problem.
Candidates also care deeply about responsiveness. A 2025 candidate experience report found that 66% of candidates said a positive hiring experience significantly influenced their decision to accept an offer, while 26% declined offers outright because of poor communication or unclear expectations.
The inbound marketing experts at HubSpot define employer branding as “your reputation among the workforce as well as your employees’ perception of you as an employer.” A good employer brand can reduce turnover by 28%, while 75% of active job seekers are likely to apply for a job with a strong employer brand.
Building a strong brand starts with the recruiting process If candidates have a bad recruiting experience, overwrought applications, miscommunication, or communication lags, they develop negative connotations with the brand. This could be especially damaging as 72% of job seekers report sharing their negative application experiences online, and 55% report they avoid filling out applications with companies with negative online reviews.
A great candidate experience gives job seekers positive brand connotations and, at its best, turns them into brand evangelists.
Recent data shows that 70% of job seekers are more likely to apply to a company that actively manages its employer presence online. A strong employer brand reduces turnover and attracts higher-quality applicants. A weak one, or worse, a reputation for a frustrating hiring process, actively drives people away.
The data is clear that candidates who have a bad recruiting experience are likely to share it. They leave reviews. They tell their networks. In a tight labor market, that kind of word-of-mouth matters more than most companies realize.
When candidates apply for jobs, they must get a good sense of the company and feel optimistic about the application process. Yet, according to Talent Board’s Candidate Experience (CandE) Global Research Report, only 25% of all candidates rated their hiring experience as great. An ATS can help your clients quickly find better matches for roles by making a stellar first impression.
The relationship between your clients and their future employees starts as soon as they click on their job listings. An ATS can support these goals with easy-to-understand job listings, engaging application forms, self-schedule interview tools, and communication from the hiring team. A competitive applicant tracking system will have the tools to support both the hiring team and the candidate experience. Employees who have a good experience from the beginning of the recruiting process and are a good match for their role are likelier to stay with a company for longer.
On the flip side, a chaotic or impersonal hiring process breeds early doubts. The numbers back this up: 61% of employees who left their jobs did so within the first 12 months, and 42% of voluntary turnover is considered preventable by the employees themselves. That means the seeds of retention, or the lack of it, get planted early.
In addition to branding options, HiringThing's ATS offers a variety of customized workflow options. From reviewing resumes and sending skills assessments to obtaining stakeholder approval and scheduling first interviews, custom workflow options ensure you don’t lose any applicants while advancing only those with the best qualifications.
Why reinvent the wheel for every form, job description, and message you need? Instead, with a customizable ATS, you can choose from a selection of existing templates or create your own templates for all your communications.
HiringThing is a modern recruiting and employee onboarding platform as a service that creates seamless talent experiences. Our white label solutions and open API enable HR technology and service providers to offer hiring and onboarding to their clients. Approachable and adaptable, the HiringThing HR platform empowers anyone, anywhere to build their dream team.