What is Workday ATS and how to optimize your resume for it?
The Workday ATS is a part of the broader recruiting tools and suite offered by the organization. It is utilized by around 98% of the organizations that are part of the Fortune 500 companies list.
If your resume is getting constant rejection, then it must be because of the lack of ATS optimization. Read this guide to explore the Workday ATS, its features, process, and rejection criteria.
Moreover, learn how to optimize your resume according to the ATS standards.
CTA: Want to learn more about ATS resume scanning and online tools? Explore ProResumes blogs.
What is Workday Recruiting?
Workday recruiting is a comprehensive system offered for HR and recruitment teams at different organizations. This system focuses on tasks like talent acquisition, job management, screening, scheduling, and onboarding.
These functions can be easily utilized and managed through the Workday ATS, which is supported by AI technology. This software for recruiting helps organizations in attracting and employing talented individuals to support business growth.
What is the difference between Workday ATS and other applicant tracking systems?
The Workday ATS is a part of a unified platform for recruiting instead of being a standalone software. It offers strategic tools and features to manage talent acquisition instead of HIRS data silos.
The organizations that utilize the HR suite by Workday integrate their connections, hiring and broader recruitment strategies into a comprehensive system. The best thing about having this system is the lack of problems that occur due to managing various separate systems.
Following are a list of things that separate the Workday ATS from other applicant tracking systems:
Efficient candidate tracking
The software offers efficient applicant tracking with the help of customizable talent pipelines. Moreover, the system also ensures that the entire tracking process is in compliance with modern hiring practices.
AI tools for candidate matching
The tools utilize AI technology and features to find the right talent according to the requirements of the organization. It analyzes and filters applicants according to the exact skills to gather a qualified bunch of talent.
Dashboard for analytics
The ATS offers advanced dashboards that focus on providing comprehensive reports and analytics. It helps the professionals in dealing with certain bottlenecks, candidate management, and onboarding. Moreover, the data from reporting and analysis is utilized to smoothly manage the hiring funnels.
Self-service features for candidates
The mobile-friendly applications and career sites offer self-service options for the candidates to enhance their experience. Moreover, it also helps significantly decrease the drop-off rates of applicants.
What are the main features of Workday ATS?
The applicant tracking system, which is a part of Workday recruiting, manages the following aspects of the hiring process:
- The system offers a targeted and dependable procedure for sourcing potential applicants through a job search.
- The system provides a range of features that support talent acquisition and recruitment processes.
- The ATS helps recruiters automate hiring campaigns and manage candidate volume.
- The system also offers help in management and scheduling interviews.
- It allows the submission of client details with the use of mobile applications or social media messaging.
- It offers customizable job post designs to attract as many talented candidates as possible.
- The system offers an advanced reporting system and analytics dashboard to manage hiring procedures.
- It can easily sync the details and updates on all integrated platforms, social media sites, and more.
- The system offers pre-made templates that can be utilized for sending job offers to potential employees.
How does the Workday ATS process the resume of a job applicant?
Since you’re already aware that many organizations utilize Workday ATS, it is essential to understand its work process. Job seekers can easily plan and create their resumes according to the requirements of this software.
Here’s how this applicant tracking system analyzes and ranks your job application in 2026:
Document upload and conversion
At the first step, the ATS converts the applicant’s resume into a searchable PDF after its upload. However, the uploaded file format should be either PDF or DOCX for smooth parsing.
Otherwise, the links of Google Docs or the image-based PDFs downloaded from Figma or Canva get errors during conversion. The safest file format for a resume is the Word document. However, the applicants should ensure the readability of their PDF files before submission.
Resume parsing and field extraction
The Workday ATS performs OCR parsing to extract the major career detail fields from the searchable PDF. It is also known as Optical Character Recognition parsing, which extracts data from resume sections like contact, experience, and more.
However, at this point, many resume documents fail because of the lack of resume formatting. OCR parsing is mostly affected because of the use of tables, columns, headers, footers, imagery, infographics, and more.
The resumes often get rejected by ATS because the details included in these elements either get jumbled or excluded.
NLP (Natural language processing) analysis
This ATS utilizes modern semantic analysis for resume ranking with the use of NLP. The use of natural language processing helps the system analyze a resume according to job descriptions with semantic alignment.
However, this also works against the applications that lack proper keyword optimization. The NLP processing algorithms help the system in analyzing a document according to context relevance.
Knockout question screening
This is the initial phase that disqualifies a number of job applications at the start. This is a criterion that requires answers to some important questions. However, a single wrong answer will eventually result in the disqualification of a candidate.
Moreover, the questions also depend on the requirements of each organization. So, it is important for applicants to research the company and prepare answers to avoid disqualification.
Hiring manager review
Once the applicant clears the knockout questions screening phase, their job application is accessible to the recruiter. These professionals utilize keywords to search the applications from the candidate pool in Workday ATS.
The job applications that appear on the first page of recruiter searches include optimal keywords and NLP variations.
Why does the Workday ATS reject a job application document?
Job applicants who are interested in saving their resumes from falling into the rejection category must be aware of the following criteria:
Wrong answers for knockout questions
This is one of the main reasons for resume rejections, according to research. This often happens because of an application issue, which causes panic with ambiguous questioning.
The applicants should be prepared for this screening phase and understand the question before answering. If the system asks about experience, count all the amount of experience that requires the use of relevant skills.
Use of columns, tables, and wrong formatting
The OCR parsing by Workday ATS happens from left to right and top to bottom. Avoid using two-column resume templates since they are mixed by the parser and are irrelevant to the system.
Moreover, the inclusion of contact details in the header or footer of the resumes makes the parser skip it entirely.
Use of non-traditional section headings
If you’ve used an ATS resume checker for your job application, then you might’ve faced issues because of non-standard headings. This ATS can’t read your creative headings and analyze an application for the standard resume section headings.
Relying on the Auto-fill feature for submission
Many applicants get rejected because they rely on the auto-fill feature by Workday, which doesn’t work well. It often swaps the fields and writes wrong information, which automatically rejects an application.
According to TalentTuner, 34% of job applications that used the auto-fill feature reported errors. Moreover, the best way is to fill all the fields manually or integrate LinkedIn for structured data.
Lack of resume alignment with the job description
Workday ATS utilizes an NLP analysis for resume screening, but recruiters often look for exact phrases or keywords. To ensure visibility by automated systems and recruiters, use both abbreviations and full forms of the main terminology.
What is the internal referral tracking feature by Workday ATS?
Do you know that the Workday ATS can easily integrate with referral tracking systems? This feature often gives more visibility to referred candidates over other job applicants.
Moreover, it often allows the applications of such candidates to bypass the initial automated screening process. It eventually increases the chances of recruiters screening for the applications of referred applicants.
Here’s how you can benefit from this feature of the Workday HIRS:
- Professional networking: To earn a referral from someone from the target company, an applicant requires networking. A job seeker can earn professional referrals through LinkedIn networking or by having acquaintances through professional event networking. Having a referral from a current employee of the company works in favor of the job applicant. The ATS instantly tracks and gives priority to referred applications.
- Engagement with the target company’s content: The Workday software also tracks the activity of a candidate with the online content posted by the target organization.
The ATS analyzes the interaction of a candidate with job postings, company updates, and more. The online activity helps in enhancing the status of the applicant’s profile.
What are the benefits of the user profile and application history features of the Workday ATS?
The Workday ATS allows candidates to create profiles to save their career documents, like resumes and cover letters. This feature helps in applying to other positions in target companies. Moreover, it shows the entire application graph to the recruiter.
The following are some methods that can be utilized to avail the benefits of this ATS feature:
- Update profiles regularly: The applicants should have a habit of updating their profiles bi-weekly or monthly. This helps in keeping your experience level and current work position up to date. Moreover, this also helps in tailoring the user profile according to the requirements of job postings. This eventually increases the chances of a user profile being matched with a job that requires maximum skills.
- Use Workday’s skill-matching feature: Many companies utilize the skills-matching feature for various job postings. The candidates who have optimized user profiles with the right skills and experiences benefit from this feature.
This helps various applicants in getting job recommendations that are aligned with their qualifications.
What is the process of tailoring your resume for Workday ATS scanning?
Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you create your resume according to the requirements of the ATS:
Analyze the job description
The first thing is to analyze the job description in detail. The candidates can do this by manually filtering main terminology and keywords or using AI to extract them. Having an entire keyword list will support and optimize the resume content for automated parsing.
Use the correct resume format
It is important to follow the right resume format to ensure ATS compatibility. The applicants should use a reverse-chronological format. Moreover, the sections of their resume should be in the following order:
- Contact details
- Professional summary
- Work experience
- Education
- Skills
- Other sections
Note: Avoid hybrid or functional resume formats since they don’t work well with Workday ATS.
Optimize for keywords and NLP
The professionals should write the exact abbreviations or full forms for a program or tool in their resume. Moreover, they should use synonyms and include NLP variations.
The job applicants can also focus on keyword optimization with optimal usage and frequency in each resume section.
Utilize standard section headings
It is important to use standard resume headings instead of non-standard ones. Here’s how you should write a heading for your resume:
- Work History (wrong) Experience (right)
- Core competencies (wrong) Skills (right)
- About me (wrong) Professional summary (right)
Utilize an ATS score checker
The applicants can also ensure how their application will perform in the ATS by using an ATS resume checker. These tools analyze the keyword matching, parsing accuracy, and readability of an application.
Here’s a list of some ATS resume scanners that can be utilized by job seekers:
- Jobscan
- Resume Worded
- Skillsyncer
- Enhancv
- Rezi
CTA: Getting your applications rejected by Workday ATS? Connect with Proresumes and get a free resume review to find out the main issues of your resume.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. Does the Workday ATS parse PDF file resumes?
Yes, the applicant tracking system that is a part of Workday recruiting easily parses readable PDF resumes. However, applicants who used image-based PDF resumes or complex formatting might get rejected by the ATS.
Q. What are the knockout questions used by Workday ATS?
The knockout questions used by the ATS are pre-screening questions which are used to disqualify applicants. These questions mainly confirm things like degree requirements, willingness to relocate, work authorization status, and more.
According to research, answering negatively to such questions results in instant disqualification and zero chances of human review. Moreover, the majority of Workday ATS rejections are caused by wrongly answered knockout questions.
Q. Why do companies prefer using the Workday ATS?
Most companies prefer using this ATS because it is cost-effective and convenient to use. It is not a standalone software, but rather a tool integrated with the HRIS (Human Resource Information System).
The Workday software is more popular for its HIRS, which handles reporting, payroll, taxes, and more. However, the Workday ATS is a feature that easily integrates with the rest of the system.
This is the main reason why organizations use it to manage a number of tasks from a single platform.
Q. How to find the best applicant tracking system (ATS)?
There are a number of applicant tracking software in the market that offer a list of features. However, every company has different recruitment needs due to its size and industry.
The following is a list of criteria that are often used by companies to choose an ATS:
- User-friendliness: The most essential thing for considering a product is the user experience. Companies choose products that don’t require much training, work intuitively, and perform plenty of tasks.
- Easy to scale: Organizations mostly invest in the ATS software that just don’t manage their current workflow, but are scalable for the future. It is essential to choose a system that is adaptable and offers modification in hiring strategies and managing job applications.
- Integration with HR workflow: Large corporations invest in the application tracking systems that offer smooth integration with their existing HR procedures. This ensures smooth implementation and saves the time of the HR professionals.
- Cost-effectiveness: It is often the main reason for concern for many organizations while investing in an ATS. However, the pricing module of every software differs according to training requirements, add-on features, maintenance, and support.
- Implementation procedure: Many organizations select software or systems on the basis of the duration required for implementation. The best ATS software usually takes little time in implementation. However, the implementation of large corporations is often complex and should be clearly planned.