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With so many different talent management software solutions available, figuring out which is right for you is tough. You know you want to automate and organize key processes like candidate sourcing, screening, placement, and payroll management—but now need to figure out which tool is best. In this post, I'll help make your choice easy, sharing my personal experiences as an HR specialist using dozens of different staffing tools with teams of all sizes, with my picks of the best staffing software overall.

What is Staffing Software?

Staffing software is a specialized tool designed to assist staffing agencies and HR departments in efficiently managing the recruitment and placement of employees. It streamlines processes such as job posting, candidate sourcing, screening, interviewing, and onboarding.

Key features of staffing software include automated job posting and candidate sourcing, efficient resume screening and applicant tracking, streamlined interview scheduling, integrated payroll and billing systems, compliance management with labor laws, robust reporting and analytics, and effective communication tools for interaction with candidates and clients.

Overviews Of The Best Staffing Software Solutions

Here’s a brief description of each staffing software system that made it into my top 10 list. I’ve highlighted each system’s key features and explained why I included it in this list. Keep reading to find additional bonus picks at the bottom of the list.

Best ATS with CRM and AI automations

  • 14-day free trial
  • From $15/user/month
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Rating: 4.9/5

Used by thousands of staffing and recruitment agencies in over 90 countries, Manatal is the leader in simplifying the recruitment process by offering a unique mix of core ATS tools, new and innovative AI-powered features, and a customer relationship management system.

Manatal’s interface is both practical and intuitive, and as a result, little to no training is required and teams can quickly start leveraging its tools. The platform includes all the standard ATS features such as daily recruitment processing, drag and drop pipelines, compliance tools (i.e. GDPR, CCPA, PDPA, and others), a career page builder, a full analytics suite, skill bank, candidate and job history, activities management, collaboration tools, a placement management system, and all main functions that relate to candidates’ information and records.

More innovative features include things like powerful search functions, AI-based recommendations, candidate scoring and social media recruitment (Linkedin, Facebook, GitHub, and more). These features have proven extremely valuable in streamlining activities like candidate sourcing and screening, as well as in helping leverage large existing candidate databases.

Finally, Manatal includes a complete CRM (customer relationship management) system that allows its users to track and manage leads and customers throughout the whole client lifecycle.

Manatal offers an open API and integrations with Linkedin, Gmail, Outlook, Mailchimp, and other workflow apps.

Manatal costs from $15/user/month and comes with a free 14-day trial as well as a free demo.

Best for recruiting and staffing hourly workers

  • Free demo available
  • Pricing upon request
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Rating: 4/5

TalentReef is a recruiting, hiring, and talent management software specifically designed for managing hourly workers. It's a pretty comprehensive tool that covers everything from applicant tracking and onboarding to performance management and employee engagement.

There are a few standout features that I really appreciate in the software. First off, the applicant tracking system is top-notch. It's easy to post jobs, screen applicants, and track candidates throughout the hiring process. The onboarding tools are also really useful. You can automate a lot of the paperwork that comes with hiring new employees, and make sure new hires have everything they need to hit the ground running.

Once you've recruited and onboarded new employees, you can use the employee engagement features to keep staff motivated at work. These features include goal setting, evaluations, performance check-ins, and pay and position management.

TalentReef offers pricing and a free demo upon request.

Best for managing short-term staffing, plus onboarding & offboarding workflows

  • 14-day free trial + free demo
  • Pricing upon request
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Rating: 4.4/5

Teamtailor is a cloud-based recruitment & ATS software that's well-suited for in-house recruiting staff or those tasked with short-term staffing. You can use it to post job vacancies, manage applicants, and communicate with candidates throughout the recruitment process.

Teamtailor includes all the basic features you'd expect, such as customizable career pages, applicant tracking, candidate management tools, and analytics. You can post job openings on numerous industry-specific job boards and social media sites, simultaneously, ensuring your job postings are easy to discover by active job seekers.

Teamtailor also includes collaborative hiring features like assigning roles, sharing feedback, and communicating tools that enhance transparency, reduce communication gaps, and improve decision-making regarding hiring candidates.

Key features that support fast-paced staffing include automatic resume screening, interview scheduling, and candidate communication tools. In addition, their more advanced features like custom candidate statuses, bulk actions, and candidate scorecards will also help you evaluate and move candidates through your recruitment pipeline efficiently.

For hired candidates, Teamtailor offers onboarding checklists that help HR teams collect all the information they need from new hires to provide a great first-day experience. Similarly, for short-term hiring, its offboarding checklist ensures a smooth exit from the organization, leaving no loose ends.

Teamtailor's recruitment analytics dashboard tracks key metrics like the source of candidates, time to hire, and candidate quality, making it easy to identify which recruitment channels perform best, optimize job descriptions, and improve candidate engagement. Another neat thing about Teamtailor is that it's available in multiple languages and is compatible with any device.

Integrations are available with BambooHR, Checkr, Glassdoor, JobMatch, LinkedIn, and Workday.

Pricing details for Teamtailor are available upon request. You can also request a free demo or a 14-day free trial through their website.

Best for recruiting and executive search firms

  • 14-day free trial + free demo
  • From $99/user/month
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Rating: 4.6/5

Recruiterflow is a modern CRM and applicant tracking software for recruiting and executive search firms, designed to make recruiting more productive. Features include sourcing capabilities, pipeline management, recruiting workflow automations, productivity support, and a robust reporting suite.

Recruiterflow is known to pack powerful features without compromising on user experience, boasting a clutter-free UI. With 1-click sourcing, email automation, and two-way email sync, Recruiterflow delivers a great user experience and saves recruiters hours in administrative work.

You’ll be able to easily source potential candidates from LinkedIn, Github, AngelList and Xing and use Recruiterflow’s Google Chrome extension to reach out to them right within your browser window. Plus, any jobs you post will be displayed on LinkedIn, Indeed, Zip recruiter, and other job boards for free.

Recruiterflow costs from $99/user/month billed annually. They also offer a 14-day free trial and a free demo upon request.

Best staffing software for collaborative hiring

  • Free demo available
  • Pricing upon request
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Rating: 4.3/5

Trakstar Hire is a staffing and recruiting platform tailored for collaborative hiring and applicant management. From sourcing candidates through screening, interviewing, hiring, and onboarding the platform facilitates better communication both with potential hires and among the internal hiring team. Recruiting managers and teams can use the tool to optimize workflows and evaluate prospects as they progress through the staffing process. It's one part of the broader Trakstar product suite that supports staffing, onboarding, and talent management.

The software simplifies interview scheduling with a shared calendar that integrates with Google Workspace and Outlook365. Recruitment analytics and easy data sharing within the platform help all members of the hiring team stay up to date on various candidates' progress. Features like automated responses, reminders, and built-in email templates support streamlined and consistent communication.

The tool also provides career site management, and integrates with job boards like Indeed. The software also has integrations for common workplace communication tools like Slack and Zoom, as well as various other HR software like BambooHR, QuickBooks, and ADP Workforce.

Pricing is available upon request. You can get a free quote through a form on their website.

Best staffing software for staffing agencies

  • 15-day free trial + free plan available
  • From $30/user/month
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Rating: 4.4/5

Zoho Recruit is a staffing software designed for recruiters and corporate hiring teams. The tool helps hire a workforce that is in sync with the changing talent demand and hire more qualified candidates.

Users can post jobs to multiple job boards, automate and manage candidates, clients, & contacts, and spend less time on mundane processes.

Zoho Recruit’s staffing software caters to multiple hurdles faced by recruiters. With complete solutions for both in-house recruiters and staffing agencies, Zoho Recruit helps users source, track, and hire the best candidates, without any juggling required across different media.

The tool includes features for customizing every aspect of your workday and automating tasks like sending emails, updating interview status, and more. Zoho Recruit also provides reports and analytics for hiring strategies.

Best for AI-powered candidate scoring

  • Free plan available
  • From $99/2 users/month
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Rating: 4.5/5

Unnanu Hire is a complete recruitment and staffing platform with artificial intelligence (AI) and automation tools that transform your staffing processes. It supports and streamlines the hiring journey for employers and candidates alike, helping match open roles with suitable applicants.

You can manage your job postings with the software, and post jobs to multiple job boards with just a few clicks. The pre-populated talent database seeks out applicants to match the best ones to your job posting. You get access to hundreds of vetted candidates sourced from around the web. They also offer email distribution, onboarding, and AI/ML resume search features, as well as unlimited job postings.

The software has advanced AI scoring algorithms to automatically evaluate candidates and effectively narrow down your pool. It also offers a complete applicant tracking system (ATS) that makes it easy to keep track of all your candidates, schedule interviews, and even send out offer letters. You can also conduct video interviews through the platform.

Paid plans start from $99 per month for up to 2 users, and a free plan is available with some limitations.

Best staffing & ATS for talent sourcing and engagement

  • Free demo available
  • Pricing upon request
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Rating: 4.3/5

SmartRecruiters is a cloud-based talent acquisition software that comes with features for candidate experience, manager engagement, recruiter productivity, hiring budget, hiring speed, and hire quality for use by companies of any size. SmartRecruiters, unlike other software options we’ve mentioned, offers nonprofits free plans and huge discounts on bigger plans and donates a portion of their equity to a foundation.

SmartRecruiters gives users the ability to create branded pages without the need to code. Keep everyone on the team in the loop with notes, notifications, and social tools whether you’re on the desktop or the mobile app. The pre-integrated assessment tools make screening and evaluating candidates easier and saves time. Automating advertising to move within your budget and standardizing candidate evaluation criteria are some of the other things SmartRecruiters also enables its users to do.

SmartRecruiters integrates with solutions for job boards, sourcing, recruitment marketing, communication, candidate assessments, background checks, onboarding, and analytics.

SmartRecruiters offers pricing details upon request.

Best staffing software with job board integrations

  • Free demo available
  • From $175/user/month
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Rating: 4.4/5

TargetRecruit is an enterprise software designed for staffing and recruiting firms and is native to Salesforce. It comes with CRM, Front Office, Middle Office, and Portals features that enable users to improve business relationships, source and place the right candidates, as well as to manage timesheets, pay and bill, through mobile-ready portals.

TargetRecruit has an applicant tracking system, job board search, job posting, job management features as well as global mapping, candidate presentations and branding, credentialing, e-signatures, reporting and dashboards, flexible workflows, email integration that all make searching for, matching and placing applicants easy.

TargetRecruit has over 140 integrations with Salesforce Native apps and others for accounting, assessments/testing, background verification, chat bots, commissions tracking, contract management, email integration, marketing automation, payroll, relationship mapping, video conferencing and so much more.

TargetRecruit costs from $175/month and offers a free demo.

Best staffing software with business intelligence (BI)

  • Free demo available
  • Pricing upon request
Visit Website
Rating: 4.1/5

Bullhorn is a staffing software that lets users enjoy the benefits of an all-in-one solution for recruiting & sales, pay & bill, reporting & engagement, and VMS integration. With these features, users will be able to track and onboard applicants, manage timesheets, invoice, gain insights, automate workflows, and communicate on the go.

Bullhorn gets rid of information silos and allows users to work together to place candidates in as little time as possible. With a powerful search feature that sifts through 100 million candidate records and gives you results in less than half a second, and the advanced customisation functionality within the software on both desktop and mobile screens make Bullhorn a clear choice for recruiters who hate wasting time.

Bullhorn integrates with more than 100 solutions in an open ecosystem that will enable users to migrate from their old systems to Bullhorn with ease.

Bullhorn pricing is available upon request. Plan options include Team, Corporate, Enterprise, and Enterprise Plus.

10 Best Staffing Software Comparison Chart

This comparison chart summarizes basic details about each of my top staffing software selections. You can view pricing details and the availability of free trials or demos side-by-side to help you find the best staffing agency software for your budget and business needs.

Tools Price
Manatal From $15/user/month
TalentReef Pricing upon request
Teamtailor Pricing upon request
Recruiterflow From $99/user/month
Trakstar Pricing upon request
Zoho Recruit From $30/user/month
Unnanu Hire From $99/2 users/month
SmartRecruiters Pricing upon request
TargetRecruit From $175/user/month
Bullhorn Pricing upon request
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	Compare Software Specs Side by Side</h2>

Compare Software Specs Side by Side

Use our comparison chart to review and evaluate software specs side-by-side.

Compare Software

Other Options

Here are a few more worthwhile options that didn’t make my shortlist of the best staffing software. I didn’t have room for a full review for each of these but they are still worthy of consideration:

  1. Avionté

    Best staffing software with payroll & billing

  2. ENGAGE

    Best AI talent intelligence with actionable market analytics

  3. SmarterSelect

    Best for NGO & grant staffing

  4. JobAdder

    Best for 3rd party integration options

  5. GanttPRO

    Best staffing project management software with Gantt charts

  6. Recruit CRM

    Best for recruitment agencies

  7. hireEZ

    Best for outbound recruiting with access to 800+ million candidates

  8. Tracker

    Best staffing software with ATS, CRM, and automation

  9. Connecteam

    Best staffing software for drag-and-drop scheduling and employee task management

  10. PCRecruiter

    CRM + ATS software with a browser tool to scrape and store data off any webpage.

Selection Criteria For Staffing Software

Each time I set out to develop a new top 10 list of software, I always determine the key criteria I want to assess in each software solution first. That way, I can be certain I won't miss anything crucial when I'm comparing each system to the next.

Here's a short summary of the main selection and evaluation criteria I used to develop my list of the best staffing software for this article:

Key Features

Each platform on this list has unique features that make them stand out. However, I used this list of core recruiting platform features to make sure each system also covered the basics too: 

  • Applicant tracking system: A built-in method to collect resumes, parse keywords, and manage the hiring pipeline.
  • Candidate scoring: A scoring system for flagging the most qualified candidates based on the standards you determine for each role.
  • Recruiting CRM: Ways to track, manage, and follow up on ongoing relationships for both active and passive candidate sourcing.
  • Interview scheduling: Connection to internal or external calendar software to book interviews with incoming applicants.
  • Talent acquisition: Resources for marketing to the best candidates and conversion metrics for tracking your engagement efforts.
  • Hiring process automations: Workflow triggers that take some of the basic admin work off the shoulders of your team.
  • Job posting creation: Job post building, optimization, and dissemination across internal and external hiring webpages.

Additional Features

I also always dig into the following core functionalities no matter what type of software system I'm reviewing:

  • User Interface (UI): Staffing software should be easy to navigate when it comes to things like sorting and sorting resume data, maintaining a candidate database, and managing hiring workflows. Candidate experience should also be easy, clean, and seamless.
  • Usability: Staffing software will be used by staffing professionals, team leaders, HR reps, and staffing agencies and should have an easy-to-use system to accommodate this.
  • Software Integrations: You'll want your staffing software to connect to your other workplace software, like communication software, enterprise resource management software, CRM, applicant tracking software (ATS), and so on.
  • Value for Price: I looked for systems that offer a fair price for the variety of features offered with a preference for software that offers a sliding scale of price ranges for different group sizes.

People Also Ask

Do you have general questions about staffing software, how it’s used, or how much it costs? These answers to frequently asked questions are a great place to start!

Who uses staffing software?

Staffing agencies are obviously one of the most likely candidates to use staffing software. But many larger corporations with robust HR departments and large recruitment tams may also use staffing software to handle their own internal staffing initiatives. Even still, sometimes organizations use a mix of internal hiring and recruiting agency help.

Temporary staffing software may be used by staffing firms to source temp or contract-based workers, too. Temporary staffing may be facilitated alongside permanent staffing solutions to boost workforce support.

Why use staffing software vs going through a staffing agency?

By choosing staffing software over an external software agency, you become completely in control of your hiring process. Additionally, any time or money you put into the recruitment tools will stay with your company for future hiring processes. A recruiting firm handles hiring for many different clients, so you might not get the one-on-one support you need.

What are the most popular tools that staffing agencies use?

Staffing companies use many different tools to help them source top talent. Commonly used recruitment solutions include:

What are some benefits of using staffing software?

Staffing software offers numerous benefits. It’s designed to help you organize your candidate data, build talent pools for each position, schedule interviews, and screen applicants, and all in the name of efficiency. By speeding up your time-to-hire, you’ll be able to snap up top talent before they accept a job elsewhere, which is the ultimate goal of every professional recruiter.

Using staffing software or other digital hiring tools can simplify your recruitment process immensely. For example, LinkedIn notes that using recruiting algorithms to find the most productive candidate and shortening the time it takes to make an offer will lead to greater hiring success.

With 46% of talent leaders believing that finding high-talent candidates is itself difficult to do and 52% of hiring managers struggling to identify top candidates amongst the slew of available names, it makes sense to let your sophisticated software do as much of the heavy lifting as possible.

 

How much does staffing software generally cost?

Most staffing software systems are available under a SaaS (software-as-a-service) contract. For that type of agreement, you can expect to pay anywhere from $10-$100 per user per month or more. In the past, staffing solutions were occasionally available for a one-time fee, which ranged between $250-$1000 per user. However, that type of agreement is hard to find these days, with most vendors preferring to operate under monthly SaaS agreements.

Software Reviews of Other Recruitment Solutions

Are you looking for other types of software solutions to streamline your entire recruitment process or help you manage your top talent better? Check out our other specialty software reviews too:

More Resources for Recruitment Teams & Best Practices

Looking for more than just software recommendations? No sweat, we've got you covered! Here are some links to our other rich recruiting resources to help you optimize your hiring process from end-to-end:

Stay in Touch

I hope this list gave you a thorough explanation of how staffing software can help you run your staffing business more effectively. By leveraging modern automation and team collaboration tools, you'll gain hours back in your week, so you can focus on more important portions of your hiring process.

Before you go, I also recommend subscribing to our People Managing People newsletter. You'll stay up-to-date on our latest articles, podcasts, and other resources specially curated for HR professionals.

By Kim Behnke

Kim Behnke is an HR Tool Expert & Writer for People Managing People. She draws on her 9 years of human resources experience and her keen eye for systematic processes to support her analyses of the top HR tools on the market. She is passionate about maximizing efficiencies and streamlining workflows to ensure internal systems run smoothly. Kim's HR experience includes recruitment, onboarding, performance management, training and development, policy development and enforcement, and HR analytics. She also has degrees in psychology, writing, publishing, and technical communication, and recently completed a Certified Digital HR Specialist program through the Academy to Innovate HR. When away from her desk, she can usually be found outside tending to her ever-expanding garden.