Compare an ATS against the hiring work your team actually owns.

Choose a vacancy with active candidates and the recruiter, hiring manager and interviewers who already own its next steps. Ask what a new owner must be able to find: the current stage, recent communication, the next interview, outstanding feedback and the decision context. That gives the comparison a testable purpose.

Do not make the current spreadsheet a deliberately weak alternative. A clearer shared tracker, agreed stage names and a feedback deadline may be the right immediate repair for a team that does not yet need a new system. Put that option beside the proposed ATS so the buying group can compare a credible alternative.

Mark each question as essential, useful or out of scope for the first rollout. Give essential questions the highest local weight, then ask each evaluator to record what was demonstrated rather than relying on a sales promise. A blank answer should stay blank until its owner supplies evidence.

NIST’s acquisition guidance describes making functional, assurance, documentation, responsibility and acceptance criteria explicit. Use those categories as prompts for your own buying group, not as a compliance checklist.[1]^[1]

Recruitment processes can involve significant candidate information. The ICO’s guidance covers recruitment and selection processing, including the information organisations handle while recruiting.[2] Keep the comparison specific: ask what the team needs for its purpose, who needs access, which records it will retain or migrate and which questions need privacy, security or legal review.^[2]

This checklist does not decide those matters for you. Record the applicable policy, jurisdiction, adviser and open question instead of turning an unresolved requirement into a score. A product demonstration is evidence about a workflow, not proof that a customer has met every obligation.

Download the CSV scorecard and copy it into the team’s usual spreadsheet tool. It includes example workflow, data, implementation and commercial questions, together with columns for priority, local weight, evidence, evaluator score, owner and an acceptance condition. The numeric score is only a discussion aid. It should never replace a recorded decision.

Before a recommendation, ask each evaluator to distinguish demonstrated fit from an assumption, a configuration question and a missing answer. Review the essential questions first. A high total cannot compensate for an unowned privacy question, a missing workflow or a commercial scope the team has not seen.

Hire supports configurable hiring stages, candidate ownership, communication, interview scheduling and structured feedback after interviews.[3] Use the active vacancy to inspect how those pieces connect for your team. Scorecards organise post-interview evidence. Recruiters and hiring managers retain every hiring decision.^[3]

Bring the unanswered questions from the checklist to a Hire conversation. Confirm the workflow, configuration and package scope relevant to the pilot before you rely on it. If the evidence points to a narrower process repair or a smaller pilot, keep that conclusion open.