ATS API Integrations: All You Need to Know

If you are looking to integrate multiple HRIS and ATS apps with a single API , check out Knit API. If you are looking to learn more about key ATS API concepts, data models and use cases, keep reading.

Hiring the right talent is crucial to building a high-performing organization, yet the dynamic nature of recruitment has made this process increasingly complex. To keep up with these challenges, companies now rely on various applications to streamline and automate the hiring journey.

Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) have become the backbone of this evolving hiring ecosystem, encompassing everything from sending job requisitions to final offer acceptance and onboarding. In fact, 78% of recruiters using ATS report improved efficiency in their hiring process. To further optimize these systems, organizations are increasingly adopting ATS API integrations, enabling seamless data exchange between applications and enhancing the overall recruitment experience.

ATS integrations enable smooth communication between various tools—onboarding platforms, job boards, scheduling software, assessment applications, HRIS, payroll systems, and more. Below are a few key examples:

ATS integrations for internal use: Integrating ATS software with assessment software to accelerate candidate testing

For technical roles, companies often require candidates to complete coding or technical assessments via third-party platforms. By integrating the ATS with an assessment portal, any status update in the ATS that triggers an assessment can automatically notify the candidate. This eliminates manual data entry, with results automatically fed back into the ATS, speeding up the next step of the recruitment cycle.

E-signature company building integration with their customer’s ATS platform for smooth onboarding

Companies increasingly use e-signature platforms to send offer letters and manage regulatory formalities. E-signature providers now offer integration with ATS platforms for their customers to automatically receive candidate data once an offer is made, ensuring a smooth onboarding process without the need for manual information transfers.

ATS API integrations are transforming recruitment by simplifying and automating workflows for internal operations and customer facing processes alike. In this article, we’ll explore the different aspects of ATS integration, including key concepts, use cases, data models, best practices, and challenges, to understand how ATS APIs are reshaping the future of hiring.

Benefits of ATS API Integration

ATS API integration offers significant advantages for both internal teams and external partners. By streamlining the recruitment process, it enhances efficiency, accelerates hiring timelines, and minimizes resource expenditure. Below are the top benefits of implementing ATS API integrations:

Reduce recruitment time

One of the key benefits of ATS API integration with other recruitment tools is the reduction in recruitment time. By eliminating the need to manually update information across portals, organizations can accelerate the pace at which candidates move to the next stage. This ensures that the positions get filled faster. The time to hire becomes shorter, minimizing delays, and ensuring open positions are filled faster while reducing the risk of losing top talent due to slow processes.

Accelerate onboarding and new employee provisioning

Beyond recruitment, ATS API integration speeds up onboarding and provisioning for new hires. By connecting ATS with onboarding platforms such as e-signature tools or document verification systems, companies can expedite the process of getting employees operational. Additionally, API integration automates provisioning tasks, such as assigning software access, permissions, and licenses based on role and department, ensuring new hires are equipped to start contributing sooner. Invariably, this helps companies ensure that their new employees are productive from day one.

Prevent human errors which can disrupt hiring lifecycle

Even minor mistakes in recruitment can have significant consequences, potentially derailing the entire hiring process. For example, a single-digit error in a salary offer can not only frustrate candidates but also impact the company’s financial stability. By automating data transfers and reducing the need for manual entry, ATS API integration significantly lowers the risk of these costly errors. This automation ensures accuracy throughout the hiring process, safeguarding the organization from both financial losses and reputational damage.

Simplify reporting of hiring data trends

ATS API integration allows companies to generate comprehensive reports on hiring patterns and workforce dynamics by connecting ATS with other HR and recruitment platforms. This integration provides real-time access to data, making it easier to track key metrics like time-to-hire, cost-per-hire, and candidate conversion rates. For instance, integrating ATS with a Learning Management System (LMS) helps identify skills gaps in new hires. Similarly, the integration of ATS with Employee Resource Planning (ERP) systems can provide insights into long-term workforce needs to make more informed decisions about resource allocation and recruitment priorities.

Improve candidate and recruiter experience

ATS API integration improves the experience for both candidates and recruiters by streamlining processes and reducing manual tasks. Candidates benefit from a smoother, more standardized hiring journey with faster feedback, thanks to automated workflows. For recruiters, integration eliminates the need for manual data entry and allows quick access to candidate information across platforms. This lets them focus on hiring top talent and closing more positions in less time, boosting both productivity and job satisfaction.

By leveraging ATS API integration, organizations can optimize their recruitment processes, drive efficiency, and ensure smoother hiring and onboarding experiences for all stakeholders.

ATS API Data Models Explained

The first step to facilitate ATS integration is to understand the different ATS concepts that can help you familiarize yourself with the right terminology.

1. Job requisition

Even before an organization starts receiving and processing applications, a key concept to understand is job requisition. Essentially, a job requisition is a template or a form which contains all the details about the job for which applicants are being sought. This includes details on the requirements as well as the process of closing the positions, like assessments, interviews, etc. It may also include details of the hiring manager and other relevant information. Different apps can have different ways of assigning job requisitions.

2. Sourcing and mapping

Sourcing and mapping starts once the job requirements become clear. The HR or the recruitment manager generally navigates through different platforms and candidate pools to identify the right candidates and map them to different openings within the organization. Sourcing is when the hiring manager proactively reaches out to qualified candidates for a specific job opening.

3. Candidates, attachments and applications

These three are integral concepts for any ATS API. While the terminology might change slightly for different applications, you will find all of these in some essence.

Candidates refers to the individuals who apply for different roles and this category contains all details about them including name, location, skills, qualifications, etc. While most of the information is public, some information about disability, caste, religion, may be sensitive and stored privately.

Next key ATS integration concept is that of attachments. Each candidate brings forth a set of documents that are relevant for the job they are applying to. These generally include the resume, cover letters, previous work samples, portfolios, etc. Together, these documents are referred to as attachments.

Finally, a candidate may apply to one or more roles. Thus, they can have different applications. The application generally has information regarding when the application was started, current status, active or archive, etc.

4. Interviews, activities and offers

Another set of concepts come into play when the communication with a candidate begins.

The first of them is the ATS API concept of interviews. This object generally has information about the interview like the location, date and time, whether or not it happened, etc.

Activities as a data object for ATS API refers to different communications that happen with a candidate. It includes details on emails, comments, and other aspects focusing on the subject, activity body, etc.

Finally, after all communication and interviews, offers are rolled out to candidates. The offer object stores data such as the date the offer has been extended, till when it is valid, when the offer is to be accepted, job start date, etc.

Most ATS apps have specific data models which they use to streamline workflow and dataflow. As a unified API for ATS integration, Knit focuses on the following data models for ATS API:

Application info

Contains all applicant details like job ID, status, owner, credited to (who receives credit for the application), applied at, updated at, etc. It also contains information about the candidate, location, links and documents attached, among others.

Application stage

The stage at which the applicant is currently at, ranging from applied to selected or rejected with a stage ID and stage name.

Application interview

Keeps all the information regarding a candidate's interview, when it is scheduled for, start time, end time, status, list of interviewers, location, etc.

Application rejection

Contains data and information about any rejected application or candidate, including job ID, reason for rejection, rejected at which stage, etc.

Application offers

All the offers extended to an application. It contains the details about the offer as well as the status to define whether the offer has been extended, signed, declined. It also keeps data on when the offer was extended, when it was closed, etc.

Application resume

Application resume or attachments refers to all the documents (such as resume, cover letter etc) which are associated with a particular candidate or application. They are present in the form of downloadable links and when it was created.

Along with these application data models, Knit also offers several key job data models. For more details, check our documentation

ATS API Integration Best Practices for Developers

Successful ATS integration requires a clear grasp of key concepts and the adoption of best practices throughout the development and maintenance phases. Here are essential practices for developers to consider:

Conduct thorough ATS API research

Start with an in-depth understanding of the ATS API you plan to integrate with. This involves not only grasping communication protocols and authentication methods but also performing market research on its penetration, security measures, reliability, and performance history. Access to comprehensive, up-to-date API documentation is critical for understanding functionality, endpoints, rate limits, and troubleshooting potential errors. High-quality documentation, which is clear and easy to understand, is the foundation for building and maintaining seamless integrations.

Plan the integration process with clear timelines

Once developers have a clear understanding of the APIs they want to integrate with, creating a comprehensive integration plan is critical. Prioritize which ATS integrations to tackle first and adopt a phased approach for rolling out each integration. Clearly define timelines to help allocate resources effectively and mitigate conflicts with core product development. Ensuring stakeholder alignment and securing buy-in is essential for smooth execution.

Test ATS API integration for performance and reliability

While building integrations is the first step, it is important to ensure rigorous testing in different environments and across diverse use cases. This helps prevent API errors which can lead to significant downtime and even compromise the performance of your applications. While the ATS may have its own testing protocols, however, it is ideal to conduct internal testing to ensure smooth performance and address issues proactively. In addition to ensuring smooth and error free functioning, your testing should also include capturing remediation steps in case errors crop up. Implement continuous monitoring and logging to catch and rectify errors over time, ensuring your integration remains stable and reliable.

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Considering scalability from the beginning

Scalability should be an integral consideration from the beginning of ATS API integration. As your business grows, so will the need to not only support more ATS systems but also to expand the scope and functionality of existing integrations. This can include adding new features, supporting larger volumes of data, or connecting to more complex workflows as the requirements of your customers evolve. To achieve scalability, it's crucial to design your API integrations with flexibility and extensibility in mind. This may involve modularizing your codebase so that adding new ATS systems or features doesn’t require overhauling the entire integration. Your system should be able to handle an increasing number of API calls and larger datasets without compromising response time or stability.

Develop robust error handling mechanisms

Despite the best efforts in testing, certain errors are likely to crop up from time to time. While it is critical to continually invest in increasing the testing coverage, it is equally important to develop and educate your internal and external stakeholders about handling common errors. Develop error-handling mechanisms that are not only effective but also simple enough to understand and can be executed by non-technical and customer facing teams as well. This will help reduce the burden of all error handling on developers, enabling them to focus on core product functionalities. This requires thorough documentation which not only captures the remediation steps but also explanations of their root causes. Continuous logging and monitoring of errors will help identify and address recurring issues over time.

Considering alternatives to in-house ATS API integration development

It is also important for developers to weigh in all engineering priorities to decide whether to build and maintain ATS API integrations in-house or to outsource them. Today, there are several external integration tools that are available to help building and maintaining ATS integrations. While iPaaS or workflow automation tools can help with internal integrations, embedded iPaaS and unified APIs are ideal for customer facing integrations. Increasingly, developers are inclining towards ‘buying’ integrations as tools like unified APIs can help connect with most ATS applications with a single connector, enabling speed to scale, while taking care of all authentication, communication protocols, management and everything else.

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By following these best practices, developers can create robust, scalable, and efficient ATS API integrations that deliver lasting value.

Popular ATS APIs

By now you understand that there are several layers to the ATS integration with different types of applications. Here are the top ATS APIs which you should consider connecting with to make hiring smooth and streamlined for your organization.

1. Job posting APIs

The first set of ATS integration you should look out for is the one which can help you with job posting. This involves ensuring that your company profile and job openings are visible to potential candidates to generate interest and leads.

Top job posting ATS API: Indeed, Monster, Naukri, The Muse

2. Candidate/ Lead sourcing APIs

Once the job has been posted, the next step is to build a pipeline of potential candidates. ATS applications for candidate and lead sourcing help extract important candidate data for profile matching, referrals, etc.

Top candidate sourcing ATS API: Zoho, Freshteam, LinkedIn

3. Resume parsing APIs

The next step after candidate sourcing is resuming sorting. Here resume parsing applications make sense for your ATS integration. These help with automated collection, storage and filtering of resumes. Resume parsing ATS APIs can help extract relevant information from resumes like skills, expected salary, previous experience, etc. to help align candidate profiles with job requirements.

Top resume parsing ATS API: Zoho Recruit, HireAbility, CVViz

4. Interview management APIs

Resume screening needs to be followed by interviews to identify a role-fit for the candidates. However, interview management can be extremely complicated. ATS APIs for interviews help address all challenges, including assessments to gauge technical skills, scheduling, managing interview related travel information, etc.

Top interview management ATS API: Calendly, HireVue, HackerRank, Qualified.io, Talview

5. Candidate communication APIs

Communicating effectively with the candidates is extremely important during the whole hiring process. ATS APIs for candidate communication can help automate email, text and other messages and keep track of all interactions in a streamlined manner.

Top candidate communication ATS API: Grayscale, Paradox

6. Offer extension and acceptance APIs

Finally, once you decide to onboard a particular candidate, you need relevant ATS integration for extending the offer where the candidate can accept the same and share any document(s) that you might need for onboarding. Offer acceptance applications facilitate electronic signatures, and other formalities in a seamless manner.

Top offer extension and acceptance ATS API: DocuSign, AdobeSign, DropBox Sign

To check out Knit’s entire ATS and HRIS API catalog click here

7. Background verification APIs

When you are extending an offer, it is very important to ensure background verification or check for your potential employees. While you may have performed initial reference checks when you received the application, while hiring someone, you need to get a more comprehensive understanding of their profile. Doing this manually can be extremely time and resource extensive.

Here, ATS integrations for background verification can help you run a check based on your required parameters on the candidate profile and flag any concerns if they appear. This way, you can be rest assured that the employees who come on board don’t have any form of ethical or legal or any other baggage.

Top background verification ATS API: Certn, Hireology, HireRight, GoodHire

8. Analytics and reporting APIs

Now that your hiring is complete, you should analyze the entire process to gauge where you stand in terms of open positions, the DEI status for your organization, overall headcount, etc. ATS integration for analytics and reporting can help you get dashboard with all such information

Top analytics and reporting ATS API: LucidChart, ChartHop

ATS API Use Cases: Real-World Examples

One of the biggest benefits of ATS integration is that organizations are easily able to integrate a lot of data about the candidate and terms of hiring with significant new use cases.

On one hand, organizations can internally use this data for better decision making and ensure effective human resources distribution. On the other hand, this data can become the foundation for other companies to facilitate seamless business continuity across industries.

In this section, we will discuss the top ATS API use cases that SaaS companies are applying today.

I) Seamless onboarding

The first major use case for data from ATS APIs revolves around onboarding and building of HRIS data. With ATS integrations, important data about the candidate like demographic information, qualifications, documents, attachments, identity proofs etc. which are collected during the course of applicant tracking can be automatically transported to the HRMS or HRIS. Furthermore, the salary details and other terms of employment as shared during offer extension can also be communicated to the payroll APIs.

This brings along twin benefits.

First, the candidate doesn’t have to share the same information multiple times, making onboarding smooth for them.
Second, your HR managers also don’t have to invest manual bandwidth and efforts in replicating the data for their records.

II) Compensation management

As mentioned, ATS API integrations can ensure that all details about the candidate compensation are shared with the payroll application to facilitate correct salary calculation and on-time disbursement. This is specifically useful if you are on a mass hiring mode and don’t want to delay your payroll.

Furthermore, compensation data from your ATS, not only for the selected candidates but also the salary expectations and other details can help you ensure fair and equitable compensation management. This data can help you understand what the market expectations are and how you are able to address the same. Similarly, data from ATS API can help gauge discrepancies or differences that might crop up across gender, experiences, level of seniority. Invariably, this data can help you facilitate fair pay based on market standards to attract the best talent.

At the same time, third party companies which are experts in compensation management and consulting can integrate this data with their findings to help you with the best practices.

III) Diversity and inclusion

An essential part that you need to focus on during hiring and afterwards is the diversity and inclusion aspect of your workforce. The ATS API data can help you understand the diversity of the candidate pool vis-a-vis the final hiring and closing of positions. Based on this data, your internal DEI team or external experts can help you understand if there is a leakage of diversity along the way.

Invariably this will encourage you to understand if some part of your hiring process is biased or if you are using ATS applications which are not inclusive enough. You can identify the positions or roles where your diversity ratio is specifically low to understand the concerns. Simultaneously, you can make conscious efforts to bridge this lack of diversity.

IV) Automated job posting

ATS API data will be incredibly helpful in automating the job posting process. For instance, data from interviews and other applications can indicate the pipeline of candidates and their status. In case the pipeline for a particular role is getting extremely weak with a lot of rejections during interviews or offer acceptances, your ATS application for job boards can be triggered for job posting followed by candidate sourcing and resume parsing.

Here, the idea is to reduce manual time that goes into identifying which roles are still open and doubling down efforts on sourcing candidates for the same. This will only be possible when you can get real time data with continuous sync from your ATS APIs about the status of different candidates and applications.

Common ATS API Integration Challenges

While ATS API integrations offer numerous benefits, developers and teams often encounter significant challenges. These include:

Loss of incompatible candidate and other recruitment data

One of the major challenges in ATS API integration is managing incompatible data formats between different systems. Various applications may use different syntax or naming conventions for the same data fields, such as candidate_ID in one system versus cand_ID in another. Without proper data normalization, these discrepancies can lead to critical issues like data duplication, loss, or inconsistency during transfers. For example, some fields might not match up correctly, causing crucial recruitment data to go missing or become corrupted. Developers are often forced to spend a significant amount of time transforming data to ensure it aligns across different systems. Even with diligent normalization efforts, some data might still be lost or altered in transit, which can have far-reaching impacts on the recruitment process. Missing or incomplete candidate profiles can result in recruitment delays and even the loss of qualified candidates, making data management a critical issue.

Recruitment delays due to delayed and inconsistent data sync

Data sync is critical for ensuring timely recruitment processes, but ATS API integrations often face delays due to rate limiting, throttling, or inefficient retry mechanisms. These factors can slow down syncing of candidate data between systems, especially when handling large volumes of information. Inconsistent data syncs may lead to applications being partially transferred or, worse, lost during the recruitment process. For example, if the ATS doesn't sync with internal HR systems in near real-time, recruiters may not have access to the latest candidate information when it matters most. This can cause delays in shortlisting, interviewing, and onboarding, which ultimately slows down the entire recruitment lifecycle. Furthermore, inconsistent data sync can lead to missing key candidate applications, especially for in-demand roles, which could result in losing high-quality talent to competitors who have more efficient systems in place.

Long duration of deployment and high associated costs

Developing ATS API integrations in-house or partnering with less-experienced vendors can significantly extend both time and cost. On average, building a single API integration can cost over $10K, which includes developer salaries, quality assurance testing, and management oversight. The process often takes around four weeks, meaning core product development is frequently delayed or paused entirely to accommodate the integration efforts. This becomes especially problematic as businesses grow and need multiple ATS integrations to keep pace with client demand. As a result, companies quickly find that the time and financial burden of managing integrations in-house becomes unsustainable. Each additional integration compounds the problem, consuming more resources and further delaying essential product features. Over time, these prolonged development cycles and escalating costs make it increasingly difficult to maintain product scalability and remain competitive in the recruitment software market.

User interface and integration issues

Maintaining a consistent user experience across integrated systems is another challenge with ATS API integration. When users move from the core platform to an integrated ATS system, discrepancies in design, navigation, and functionality can create a disjointed experience. For example, while the core product might have a sleek, modern design, the ATS interface could feel outdated or difficult to navigate, frustrating both internal users and external customers. This lack of consistency can lower user satisfaction and may result in lower engagement rates with the integrated system. Creating a seamless UX across these systems often requires additional time and effort, such as custom branding and interface adjustments for each new integration. The more complex these systems become, the higher the cost and time investment, making ATS integrations not only challenging to implement but also costly to maintain in-house, especially for scaling companies.

Limited ATS API vendor support

Another major hurdle in ATS API integration is the lack of adequate support from ATS vendors. Many ATS platforms offer incomplete or outdated API documentation, which makes it difficult for developers to implement and maintain integrations efficiently. Even when documentation is provided, it often lacks details on newer software versions or critical integration processes, leaving developers to rely on guesswork. Furthermore, real-time support from vendors during integration failures or technical issues is rare. Without immediate assistance, developers are left troubleshooting on their own, which can delay the integration process and disrupt user experience. This lack of support can lead to prolonged downtime or data sync errors, negatively impacting both recruitment teams and candidates. For customer-facing integrations, these disruptions can result in poor product performance, a compromised user journey, and even a potential loss of business if issues remain unresolved for too long.

Building Your First ATS Integration with Knit: Step-by-Step Guide

Knit provides a unified ATS API that streamlines the integration of ATS solutions. Instead of connecting directly with multiple ATS APIs, Knit allows you to connect with top providers like Keka ATS, ADP Workforce Now ATS, BambooHR ATS, Bullhorn, Greenhouse, Darwinbox ATS, Workday ATS API and many others through a single integration.

Learn more about the benefits of using a unified API.

Getting started with Knit is simple. In just 5 steps, you can embed multiple ATS integrations into your App.

Steps Overview:

Create a Knit Account: Sign up for Knit to get started with their unified API. You will be taken through a getting started flow.
Select Category: Select ATS from the list of available option on the Knit dashboard
Register Webhook: Since one of the use cases of ATS integrations is to sync data at frequent intervals, Knit supports scheduled data syncs for this category. Knit operates on a push based sync model, i.e. it reads data from the source system and pushes it to you over a webhook, so you don’t have to maintain a polling infrastructure at your end. In this step, Knit expects you to tell us the webhook over which it needs to push the source data.
Set up Knit UI to start integrating with APPs: In this step you get your API key and integrate with the ATS APP of your choice from the frontend.
Fetch data and make API calls: That’s it! It’s time to start syncing data and making API calls and take advantage of Knit unified APIs and its data models.

For detailed integration steps with the unified ATS API, visit:

Getting started with Knit

Knit's ATS API vs. Direct Connector APIs: A Comparison

As mentioned in one of the preceding sections, developers can choose from different alternative approaches to build and management ATS API integrations. Especially, from a customer facing integrations perspective, developer’s can either use direct connectors i.e. build integrations in-house or leverage a unified API like Knit’s ATS API to connect with the preferred ATS applications. Here is a detailed comparison to help you choose between these.

The number of ATS API integrations

Start by analyzing the number of ATS tools you wish to connect with. Depending on the volume of integrations needed as well as their functionalities and scope, the choice between Knit’s unified API versus direct connector API will become easier.

Use Knit’s ATS API: Need to connect with a wide variety of ATS applications, which have different use cases, data syntax, communication protocols and authentication models

Use Direct connector API: Need to connect with only a select few ATS tools where you have complete access to API documentation and wish to retain complete control over the code

Domain expertise among developers

Next, building and maintaining ATS API integrations requires a high level of domain expertise for ATS. There are several terminologies, concepts and nuances that developers need to understand to ensure integration with different ATS tools and their own product.

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Use Knit’s ATS API: When developer’s have limited ATS domain expertise and don’t understand the concepts well; When developer’s don’t have the bandwidth to upskill themselves with ATS concepts and knowledge

Use Direct connector API: When developer’s have deep expertise and understanding of ATS related concepts and are able to keep pace with new developments in the field

Urgency and scalability plan

The decision between using a unified ATS API versus a direct connector will also depend on how urgent the integration requirement is and whether or not there is a need to scale over time as well as the proposed timelines for scalability

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Use Knit’s ATS API: When you wish to go live with ATS API integration within a few days and don’t have enough resources at hand to manage the integration process; When you wish to connect with multiple ATS applications with a single connector, unlocking scale at an accelerated pace, i.e. when connecting with multiple integrations fast is imperative

Use Direct connector API: When you have sufficient time in hand to roll out integrations (each integration can take ~4 weeks to build) and the integration requirement is restricted to a few, i.e. you don’t wish to add many new ATS integrations to your offerings in a short span of time

Costs and resources involved

Costs and resources that are required for building and maintaining integrations can be a key deciding factor when it comes to choosing the right integration approach. Depending on the availability of budgets as well as the availability of human resources, developer’s can choose which way to go.

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Use Knit’s ATS API: When you don’t want to spend a huge amount for each integration you build; When you don’t have free engineering bandwidth to invest in projects other than core product functionalities, or you don’t want to dilute the core tech roadmap

Use Direct connector API: When you have enough budgets to build and manage integrations (each integration costs ~$10K); When you have enough engineering bandwidth to accommodate integration development without diluting the core tech roadmap and priorities

Data normalization and transformation

To ensure consistency in data sync with high quality integration performance, normalizing and transforming data across different data models is extremely important. Furthermore, the choice you make should also ensure guaranteed scalability in data sync, irrespective of data load, without compromising on the quality of the sync.

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Use Knit’s ATS API: When you want all data normalized at 10x speed across all ATS applications without investing any developer bandwidth; When you want to ensure webhook based architecture and eliminate the need to maintain a polling architecture; When you want to leverage automatic retry mechanism at regular intervals when rate limits kick in

Use Direct connector API: When you have enough developer bandwidth to normalize data from each ATS application under use; When you can manage retries in data sync, without exploiting the integration in-house

Communication and authentication protocols

ATS applications use different protocols, like REST, SOAP, GraphQL, etc. and the same holds true for authentication methods, including OAuth, API keys, Passwords, etc. Managing diverse communication and authentication protocols can be a deciding factor between unified APIs versus in-house development.

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Use Knit’s ATS API: When you want to outsource the headache of managing different communication and authentication protocols and wish to only expose your developer’s to one unified model for all ATS applications

Use Direct connector API: When you have the bandwidth and the expertise to build integrations corresponding to different protocols, which not only requires time, but also significant domain knowledge

Security and privacy

Security is a big concern when it comes to managing integrations. Managing the secure transmission of candidate data is critical to ensure legal compliance as well as candidate delight.

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Use Knit’s ATS API: When you want to encrypt your data when in transit as well as when at rest, without any additional engineering efforts from your end; When you want to use a third-party tool, but without the risk of any data being stored in its servers

Use Direct connector API: When you can manage complete encryption and data security in-house with the right expertise, tools and can ensure elimination of human errors which become major causes of security breaches.

Ongoing maintenance and management

How you intend to maintain and manage your integrations will also define your decision to buy vs build ATS API integration.

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Use Knit’s ATS API: When you want to ensure automated and effective monitoring and logging for all APIs and get access to a detailed Logs and Issues dashboard i.e. a one page overview of all your integrations, webhooks and API calls

Use Direct connector API: Have enough resources with technical knowledge to not only log errors, but to also offer real time guidance to to your end customers for troubleshooting and resolution

Security Considerations for ATS API Integrations

As mentioned above, security is one of the major concerns when it comes to ATS API integration development and management. Here is a quick list of the top security concerns and some of the best practices to mitigate the same.

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Knit’s approach to security:

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Only unified API in the market that does NOT store a copy of your end user data in its servers or share it with any third party
All data syncs are via webhooks, eliminating the possibility of data exposure during sync
Secure data transmission with dual encryption, when in transit and when it rest, along with an additional security layer for PII
SOC2, GDPR and ISO27001 certified
Continuous infrastructure monitoring with the finest intrusion detection systems

TL:DR

The evolving and dynamic nature of the recruitment landscape is pushing companies to build integrations with ATS tools, be it for internal use or to position it as a customer-facing offering. ATS API integration accelerates the entire recruitment process, helps create a delightful experience for candidates and recruiters and ensures that new employees can be productive from day one. Whether it is connecting job boards with ATS API to accelerate candidate sourcing or integrating onboarding tools with ATS applications to automate the process of employee provisioning, there are several use cases for ATS API integration.

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However, these benefits are accompanied by a set of challenges in terms of data sync inconsistency, data transformation, interface issues, data incompatibility, limited vendor support, etc. Invariably, companies are looking for alternate options to building ATS API integrations in-house and are adopting unified APIs like Knit to outsource the same. Knit’s ATS API helps companies to:

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Integrate once and connect with all major ATS applications
Ensure the highest level of security during data transmission, when at rest, without any data storage in servers
Normalize data across ATS applications to ensure compatibility for use
Monitor integration performance and log all errors in detail with a single dashboard access for all API calls, requests
Eliminate the need for a polling architecture with webhooks based data sync
Access any non-standard data you need, but are not included in the common data model
Leverage automatic retry mechanism to address rate limiting challenges

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Connect with one of our experts to discover how Knit’s ATS API can serve your ATS integration needs.

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