“An ATS may seem like an easy way to save time and money in the recruitment process,” Bryan Lazarski of Lazarski Law told HR Dive via email, “but it also requires ongoing evaluation and adjustment both for the company’s practical needs and, importantly, to ensure compliance with discrimination laws.” Even seemingly valid qualifications can sometimes have a disparate impact on protected groups. Business must periodically review the system to look at who is being rejected, and if there are legitimate, non-discriminatory reasons for the exclusion.

When plaintiffs’ lawyers evaluate a potential class action, the first level of analysis is whether the employer has some uniform “policy or practice” that would lend itself to class treatment, Lazarski said; “The system of algorithms and protocols employers use with an ATS can itself provide such a policy or practice.”