The real challenges of enterprise ATS implementation – and how to overcome them

Is your recruiting tech stack actually helping you scale – or is it holding you back? As your organisation grows, technology that powers your people processes is no longer simply nice to have – it becomes foundational to your success. And your applicant tracking system (ATS) often plays a central role. You need a reliable partner to help you scale, manage risk, support global teams and handle a higher volume of requisitions.

For enterprise teams, a well-implemented ATS is the foundation for hitting hiring goals, supporting business priorities and keeping compliance on track. But technology overload is a real concern. Forrester finds that 85% of companies have 10 or more technologies within their tech stack, yet more than 50% believe they’re lacking the capability or processes to manage fragmented tools. 

And when it comes to HR tech in particular, choosing the wrong tool can risk the HR team’s reputation and impact. “Nearly half of the HR staff we surveyed reported that use of HR technology solutions has damaged HR’s reputation across the organisation,” said Piers Hudson, Senior Director in the Gartner HR practice. The same research found that only 35% of HR leaders were confident their current approach to HR technology was helping them achieve business outcomes. 

These numbers may not be news to you if you’re leading an enterprise TA team, but you might be wondering how to translate them into actionable steps for your ATS implementation. 

We caught up with several members of Velocity HCM Consulting Group, HR technology experts who specialise in implementing and optimising applicant tracking systems. You’ll hear tips from CEO and co-founder Steve Koerner, co-founder Hamlet Caminero and consultants Shelby Wolf and Joseph Krengel. 

Keep reading for an in-depth look at the real ATS implementation challenges you’re likely to be facing – and how to overcome them.

Key ATS implementation challenges and solutions

‍Scalability limits: The challenges

When you’re rolling out an ATS across multiple regions or business units, a few organisational and process challenges almost always pop up.

Over-customisation and over-engineering: “Each business unit or region has a number of different needs. And if you’re building and accounting for each one of those specific needs, you run into some really painful challenges that might not be immediately apparent,” the Velocity team said. “The result is going to be watered-down or really hard-to-use reporting.”

Loss of automation benefits: If you end up localising every process, you may inadvertently create more manual work for yourself. “You’ll see your inefficiencies increase because you won’t be able to take as much advantage of integrations,” said the Velocity team.

Eroded business influence: When your team gets tangled up in tedious processes and can’t rely on the integrity of your reporting, it has a major impact on your credibility: “You start to experience eroded business influence,” said the Velocity team. “Your seat at the table might end up being out at the kids’ table.”

This echoes Gartner’s research, which found that two out of three HR leaders believe that if they don’t take action to improve their approach to technology, their function’s effectiveness will decrease. 

Solutions and best practices for scaling successfully

We’ve seen a few of the challenges you’re likely to face when it comes to scaling your ATS. Here’s how the Velocity team suggests avoiding or overcoming them.

Apply the 80/20 rule: When it comes to standardisation vs. localisation, the Velocity team recommended following the Pareto principle. Keep 80% of your workflows and processes standardized and allow 20% to be localised to region-specific compliance or cultural needs.

Establish a strong configuration owner: You can add accountability and adherence in your system by assigning a single system owner. This person understands the downstream implications of every workflow change, keeps customisations in check and consistently monitors to make sure everyone is adhering to the approved processes. 

Formalise stakeholder collaboration: The Velocity team noted enterprises that are most successful at scaling their ATS take a systematic and structured approach to working with stakeholders. They hold weekly committees with representation from TA, HR, IT and other key functions to ensure alignment and accountability. 

Prioritise change management and training: If you’ve ever tried to roll out a major change at your org, you know there will always be some roadblocks to overcome. The Velocity team said change management is a major differentiator:

What separates the good from the bad and the great from the good is change management. Anyone who puts a proper emphasis on end-user training and testing is already leaps and bounds above other recruiting operations.

^{– Velocity HCM team}

Maintain transparency post-launch: Finally, don’t assume that you’re done once you’ve launched your ATS. Look for ongoing opportunities to offer training and education. “Leveraging end-user training and monitoring is really how you ensure that your process remains structured over time,” said the Velocity team. They also noted that many enterprise companies will proactively send out newsletters or regular updates about system changes so all users stay informed and engaged.
‍

Centralisation and integrations: The challenges

Your ATS will rarely work in isolation – it will need to integrate with and complement other tools in your tech stack. Here are some common pain points enterprises experience when it comes to integrations.

Single-minded tool selection without ecosystem thinking: Enterprises often choose tools in isolation, focusing on functionality rather than how they’ll integrate into the larger tech ecosystem. This single-minded approach can lead to problems when it comes to integrating disparate tools.

Fragmented stakeholder ownership: Who actually “owns” the integration end-to-end? Being able to answer this question separates the successful teams from the not-so-successful ones. “At enterprise orgs, you have so many different stakeholders involved – TA, HR, IT and vendors. Each person knows a part of the tech stack, but nobody owns the whole ecosystem. And the great orgs really know that that means they collectively own the integration,” the Velocity team noted.

Weak architecture and documentation: Integrations essentially involve moving data from one place to another. And this process can fail when data ownership and flow aren’t clearly mapped. The Velocity team said they often see trouble arise when teams skip the step of identifying the source of truth for each data type, such as jobs, candidates and cost centres. This leads to confusion and duplicated work later on.

Solutions and best practices for effective integrations

You’ve seen all the ways integrations can fail to deliver. Here’s what the Velocity team suggests to ensure your integrations live up to their promise.

Take a collective ownership mindset: Rather than letting each individual team choose the tool that fits their needs, successful enterprises treat integrations as a shared responsibility across HR, TA and IT. They define clear accountability for data flow and maintenance rather than siloed ownership.

Involve users when gathering requirements: One standout customer example from the Velocity team involved sending end-user surveys to capture every functional need before any design took place. This workflow ensured integrations were built to support recruiters’ real workflows and not built on assumptions.

Don’t skip user acceptance testing (UAT): Many teams run out of time and don’t end up running user acceptance testing. “This step is skipped a lot more often than you might think,” the Velocity team said. But when organisations do prioritise it, they end up catching common but not top-of-mind edge cases, like what happens when you need to process same-day hires after the sync has been run for the day.

When in doubt, document everything: If there’s one key to success the Velocity team has identified, it’s strong documentation. “Documentation was a secret sauce ingredient that we saw again and again, starting with a map of the data flow and ownership model,” they said. 

Design for future scalability: “The organisation that you are today is not the global organisation that you’ll be in three years,” the Velocity team explained. This is why they caution against building brittle, one-off scripts for each system. “You might need a new background check vendor, and that might break not only your background check integration, but down-the-road integrations as well.” They recommend building reusable logic so future vendor or workflow changes don’t break your integrations. 

Consider investing in middleware: Depending on your team’s maturity and budget, it might make sense to invest in integration-platform-as-a-service (iPaaS) to serve as a modular middleware layer that standardises mapping between systems. If this investment doesn’t make sense for you today, you can replicate some of this flexibility by maintaining meticulous documentation and standardised logic libraries.
‍

Best practices for successful enterprise ATS rollouts

Based on their deep expertise in helping enterprise clients implement and optimise their ATS, here are the best practices the Velocity team shared. 

Acknowledge where you are today – and plan your steps from there. “There’s no amount of technology that can fix a broken process,” said the Velocity team. But they noted that the right vendor can provide an outside perspective. Not only can they help you chart a path forward that aligns with their technology, but they can partner with you to develop your process so that it runs as smoothly as possible within the new technology.

Involve the right compliance stakeholders from the outset. Problems often arise when TA teams don’t involve their IT and other compliance-focused colleagues early enough. The Velocity team noted, “We’ve seen a lot of issues when compliance folks don’t get involved until the train is already rolling away, a system is already implemented or integrations are already purchased.” This is especially important when you’re hiring in multiple countries or regions that have different regulations – or if you’re anticipating an IPO in the near future and compliance will be more closely scrutinised.

Don’t be afraid to get technical before signing a contract. Spend time creating data flow diagrams so you know exactly where your data will be stored and how your integrations will work. “Uncovering the fine print is hard and annoying, but the best orgs aren’t afraid to do it,” said the Velocity team.

Make data governance a priority from day one. Data governance is what the Velocity team said separates successful enterprise organisations from the unsuccessful ones. In addition to having a clear owner in place, they recommended holding meetings on a regular basis (think quarterly or semi-annually) to make sure you’re staying on top of regulations.

Treat this as a transformation project. Remember: you’re doing more than simply adding a new tool to your tech stack. You’re attempting to change people’s behaviour, and that involves regular communication and training both before and after the actual launch date. 

The right vendor partnership matters here. The Velocity team emphasized that inadequate support is one of the top reasons enterprises consider switching ATS providers. Look for providers that offer comprehensive technical support with quick response times and knowledgeable staff who can address complex enterprise needs.

Secure executive sponsorship and cross-functional alignment. Enterprises with successful ATS implementations have TA leaders who are adept at getting a seat at the business table and making the case for this investment in a range of settings. This is critical because in the enterprise setting, nothing happens in a silo. Every tool or process has the potential to impact (and possibly break) others, so getting executives and people from other departments involved can help you anticipate issues before they escalate.

Consider how you’ll lay the foundation for future users. Having a forward-looking mindset is the key to your organisation's future success. “The best users think about future users, too. They have processes and workflows built into their new hire onboarding,” the Velocity team said.

You’re not alone: Get the ATS implementation support you need

If you find yourself facing one (or more!) of the challenges we’ve outlined here, remember that you’re not alone. “We noticed these patterns – tool selection, stakeholder involvement and architecting the system – have shown up again and again, regardless of budget, sophistication or systems being integrated,” said the Velocity team. 

Knowing these common challenges is the first step to overcoming them – but it doesn’t end there. You’ll need to take intentional steps to help your team and your organisation diagnose your specific roadblocks and come up with an action plan.

The Velocity team noted that this tends to be an ongoing process – not a one-time event: “Even if you’ve heard this before, it’s worth hearing it again so that you can get ahead of it,” they said.

Looking for the right ATS to support your company’s needs? See why Greenhouse is an award-winning ATS for enterprise companies like DoorDash, Betterment and MLB.