Ask any agency owner what frustrates them most about their ATS and the answer is generally always the same:
"My team never updates it.”
We hear it again and again. Owners spend thousands on a system that promises visibility and structure, yet recruiters keep running their desks from email, LinkedIn, and even spreadsheets. The ATS ends up as a place to dump information when they have to, not a tool they actually want to use. And it is not because recruiters are lazy. It is because the systems are not built for them.
Most recruiters see their ATS for what it has become, a pit of useless information that doesn’t help them place candidates. Once a CV is uploaded, it disappears into the void. Notes get lost. Workflows pile up. Searching is painful.
One recruiter told us: “I try to keep it updated, but I have no idea if the data is accurate, so I just jump onto LinkedIn or put up a job ad and see who applies.”
And they are not wrong. If a system feels like busy work, people will naturally avoid it. So why would they bother putting in the effort in the first place?
The reality is that most ATS/CRMs are optimised for the wrong people. They are designed for owners and managers who want dashboards, or for finance teams who want reports. They are not designed for the consultant on the phone with a candidate, trying to fill a job today.
The simple answer is that a recruiter only wants two questions answered from their ATS:
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Who is available right now?
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What should I do next?
Instead of clarity, they get a wall of data. So they default back to what feels easier: memory, inboxes, and spreadsheets.
As one agency director put it: “We pay a fortune for our ATS, but the team still don’t use it. And if they do, it’s only to keep us happy with their KPI reporting, not to actually keep it updated.”
This is a mix of productivity and revenue loss. Recruiters are forced to juggle multiple tools just to do one job, and because the data in their ATS is unreliable, they often start every role from scratch. A new job ad is posted, a new batch of applicants arrives, and more time is spent screening. Meanwhile, the competition is moving faster and winning the placement.
This is where the real cost lies. Agencies do not lose fees because they cannot find candidates. They lose fees because opportunities are slipping through the cracks, and strong candidates from past jobs get forgotten and are not even considered.
The very system that was meant to protect revenue ends up costing you more.
(Ever wonder why the owners of the biggest job board in Australia also own one of the main ATS platforms?)
That is exactly why we built JobTetris. We lived the pain of systems that looked powerful on the surface but failed recruiters in practice. We wanted something that worked the way recruiters actually work. So we stripped it right back. Everything a recruiter needs is built in, with a simple interface that is easy to keep updated.
When a recruiter logs in, they see exactly what they need to do today. No guessing. No digging through threads.
We also built in live candidate availability. Instead of calling through old lists or chasing candidates who are already off the market, JobTetris shows exactly who is available right now. Your database becomes a living asset, not a graveyard of old records. And we made sure it comes with the tools recruiters actually use every day. Opportunity tracking, resume formatting, reference checks, scheduling, AI call transcription, vendor management, and reporting are all included built in, not bolted on.
Your ATS does not need more dashboards. It does not need more drop-downs. It needs to help recruiters do the two things that drive placements:
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Find the right candidates for the job.
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Know exactly what to do next.
That is the gap JobTetris fills. Recruitment is hard enough without fighting your own systems.
Stop paying for platforms your team avoids. Start using a system that makes their lives easier and helps them place candidates faster.
