Hiring guide

Healthcare ATS evaluation checklist for US and UK teams

Compare healthcare applicant tracking systems with a practical checklist for applications, interviews, credential-check handoffs, access and pricing.

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What to focus on

Bring a real workflow

Choose one representative vacancy, two reviewers and fictional candidate data. Test the process from application to offer.

Record what you observe

For each task, mark native support, separate integration, manual process or unavailable. Record setup effort and any extra cost.

Define your must-haves

Agree which requirements are essential before the demo. A polished walkthrough should not substitute for testing those requirements.

1. Test a short application on a phone

Create a nursing, care-support or practice-administration vacancy. Include the location, working pattern, essential qualifications and a small set of relevant questions. Apply with fictional information on a phone and note any unnecessary account creation, difficult uploads or repeated fields.

Check that a recruiter can find the answers alongside the application. Change a question on one job and confirm that it does not unexpectedly change other vacancies. Draft supports job-specific application questions and separate internal screening questions.

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2. Hand a candidate to the next reviewer

Ask a second reviewer to find a candidate, read the application, add job-related feedback and identify the next decision. Test the permissions of the actual reviewer role rather than an administrator account.

For a provider with several sites, test which records each hiring manager can access. For an agency, test the client-review experience. In Draft, evaluate assigned client reviewers and the paid candidate-sharing workflow against your specific access requirements.

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3. Separate document collection, tracking and verification

Ask the vendor to show three different tasks: collecting a document, tracking its expiry date, and verifying the credential with an authoritative source. Record which tasks are built in, which need a partner, and which remain manual. A parsed qualification or uploaded certificate is not verification.

For US nursing roles, consult the relevant licensing board and Nursys services. For NHS recruitment in England, use the NHS Employment Check Standards to frame your checks; do not assume that the same checklist applies to every UK employer. Draft does not currently provide automated professional-license verification or dedicated credential-expiry monitoring.

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4. Follow an interview and offer through to completion

Test available interview times, calendar behavior, rescheduling and candidate messages. Create a sample offer and follow its signing workflow. Record whether each step works on mobile and whether the reviewer can see its status.

Distinguish interview scheduling from staff rostering, and a signed offer from permission to start clinical work. Draft supports interview scheduling and offer signing; specialist checks and the employer’s final start decision remain separately owned.

5. Review information handling before uploading real records

Establish who can view, download, share and delete candidate information. Test with fictional records first. Ask about retention, exports, access history, subprocessors and contractual terms, and have the appropriate people in your organization review the answers.

Do not upload patient records into an ATS evaluation. Do not infer a healthcare certification, a contractual commitment or suitability for sensitive occupational-health documents from general security wording on a vendor’s website.

6. Compare the cost of the workflow you actually tested

List open vacancies, recruiter seats, client reviewers, messaging, automations and any external checking services. Separate the subscription price from implementation costs and third-party fees. Check what happens when you reach a free-plan limit.

Draft’s pricing page shows the current vacancy and recruiter-seat allowances. Workflow automations, bulk candidate emails and candidate sharing require a paid plan. Use the same workload when comparing vendors so a low entry price does not hide a materially different scope.

A few useful answers.

What should I bring to a healthcare ATS demo?

Bring a representative vacancy, your required checks and reviewer roles, and fictional candidate information. Ask to complete the application, review, interview and offer tasks yourself, then document gaps and extra costs.

Is credential tracking the same as credential verification?

No. Tracking stores information such as a credential’s expiry date. Verification checks its validity with an authoritative source. Ask for a demonstration of each capability and confirm which service performs it.

Is this a ranking of the best healthcare ATS products?

No. This is a practical evaluation checklist published by Draft.jobs, an ATS vendor. It explains how to test your requirements and identifies limits of Draft’s current recruiting features; it does not claim an independent comparison or clinical certification.

Check the requirements at the source.

Nursys
Check current US nurse licensure verification and monitoring services and coverage directly.
NHS Employment Check Standards
Use the applicable NHS England guidance when preparing an NHS recruitment evaluation.

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