ATS vs. human eye in recruitment NEW TANDEM

An ATS (Applicant Tracking System) is software that centralizes applications and automates part of the initial screening. It analyzes keywords, years of experience, qualifications, location, and CV format to help streamline the process.

Its growth has a fairly practical explanation. The volume of applications per job posting has grown by 182% since 2021 (High5Test), yet HR teams’ time remains limited. As a result, between 70% and 75% of large organizations already use an ATS. And not just to filter candidates out: it’s also used to manage communications, interviews, and much of each application’s journey.

On our blog you’ll find more content on how to prepare a recruitment process from start to finish.

How the ATS filters candidates

The system looks for matches between the job posting and the résumé. If the vacancy requires experience in “payroll management,” for example, that exact phrase can make a difference. The key is to describe your real skills naturally, not to fill your CV with keywords out of context.

Format also matters. Columns, graphics, or images with text can make automated reading difficult, so a simple PDF or Word document is usually a safer choice. It may not be as visually striking, but it helps ensure the information gets where it needs to go.

Beyond this initial screening, many ATS platforms can also handle interview scheduling, send communications, organize databases, and support data protection compliance.

Its main advantage is clear: it saves time and cost, maintains consistent criteria, and keeps a record of the process. That said, the outcome depends on proper configuration and human oversight.

How the human eye filters candidates

This is where something that no automatic filter fully understands comes into play: context. A career change between industries, a career path with pauses, a self-taught background, or experience that doesn’t exactly match the job title can make a lot of sense when someone looks at it closely.

A recruiter can also assess motivation, communication style, and team fit. You’ve probably experienced this: on paper, two applications look similar, but once you talk to the candidates, the perception changes completely.

Even so, human review isn’t infallible either. The first read of a CV lasts between 7 and 30 seconds, and fatigue, pressure, or unconscious bias can all play a role. Without shared criteria, two professionals can reach very different conclusions when reviewing the same profile.

ATS vs. human eye: quick comparison

AXIS	ATS	HUMAN EYES
Speed and volume	Very high	Limited
Objectivity	Consistent but rigid	Contextual but subjective
Detection of potential	Low	High
Bias risk	Data/configuration bias	Unconscious bias
Cost	Lower operating cost	Greater dedication to people
Candidate experience	Fast but impersonal	Slow but personable

The question, then, isn’t about choosing between technology or people. It’s about deciding which part of the process to automate and when professional judgment should step in. That’s usually where the difference lies between a process that’s genuinely agile and one that just eliminates candidates quickly.

When the algorithm gets it wrong

The main risk with an ATS is false negatives: valid applications that disappear because the system doesn’t recognize a synonym, doesn’t read a certain format correctly, or applies an overly restrictive rule. The figure of 77% of applications rejected due to formatting errors (airesume.guru) proves this.

There’s also algorithmic bias: a decision made by a program doesn’t mean it’s neutral — if the underlying data or rules contain bias, the system can reproduce it at high speed. Harvard Business Review examines how hiring algorithms introduce bias and addresses the current challenges in its research on AI and fairness in hiring. That’s why an ATS should be a support tool, never the sole judge.

Quick tips for candidates

Use keywords from the job posting, woven naturally into your sentences.
Avoid tables, columns, and images containing text.
Use PDF or Word depending on what the job posting requires, and double-check spelling and dates.
Describe your achievements with concrete data, without making up skills you don’t have.

Conclusion

An ATS brings order and speed to the recruitment process: it organizes applications, streamlines screening, and makes it possible to manage large volumes of résumés in a short time. However, like any automated system, it has its limits: it analyzes keywords and structured data, but it can’t capture nuance, context, or potential beyond what the résumé itself reflects.

That’s why at New Tandem we don’t use these kinds of automated filters: we prefer professional analysis and a human touch to guide every recruitment decision. This allows us to evaluate each candidate individually, give opportunities to profiles that an algorithm would reject for not fitting a predefined template, and ensure fairer, more personal recruitment processes tailored to the real needs of each company and each person. That said, even though we don’t use these ATS filters, we do rely on profile management tools to centralize all information, making the more methodical tasks easier to carry out.