As a majority-autistic technology company, auticon is in a unique position to use our team’s talents to build innovative solutions that support our neurodiverse workforce. We’re excited to feature two new products our team developed to better meet the needs of our autistic job candidates, our employees, and our clients. The first is a custom-built Applicant Tracking System (ATS) that aligns with our autism-friendly recruitment process.
We spoke with Gary Jones, a senior delivery manager at auticon and the technical lead on the project, and Louise Stone, who leads auticon’s recruitment and neuroinclusion services, to learn more about the ATS.
Why did auticon decide to create a custom ATS, and how does it differ from existing products?
Louise: As we grew as a company, the manual processes through Excel and Teams folders that we were using were not a sustainable option for us. We needed something more automated and more powerful so we could accurately track our candidates, employees, clients, and roles. When we looked into existing options, they were geared towards direct-hire or staffing companies and none of them really worked for our needs. We wanted an easy-to-use and customizable solution that aligns with our neuroinclusive recruiting process and tracks the metrics we need.
Gary: Many of the existing off-the-shelf ATS solutions offer limited customization options, which makes it difficult for a company like ours, which employs individuals on the autism spectrum, to tailor the system to our specialized processes and workflows that make our company different from traditional companies.
Louise: And because this is a custom in-house solution, it’s not static—we can update and change things as our needs change.
A sample dashboard view in auticon's ATS that provides an overview of current applicants
How does the ATS use artificial intelligence, and how do you make sure AI doesn’t replace humans in making important hiring decisions?
Gary: While some existing ATS solutions offer AI-powered features, the details are usually obscured. This limits our ability to see where AI is used, how it's making decisions (if any), and how the models were trained. The AI functionality in our custom solution was purposely designed not to make any decisions, but rather to serve as a tool to help us identify hard skills, soft skills, and abilities, and to summarize information to make it easier to find and process. This helps streamline our hiring process.
Can you tell me about the technology stack and development process for this product?
Gary: Our ATS is built using a modern tech stack, including:
Since this product was developed internally, multiple auticon technologists have been able to contribute to it. These include both seasoned senior-level software engineers and more entry-level/junior developers. The project has enabled the entry-level engineers to gain more experience, and the more seasoned engineers to get introduced to new libraries, frameworks, or concepts such as AI (LLMs, Retrieval-Augmented Generation, prompt engineering).
When a new candidate applies to auticon, what are the different steps involved in evaluating them and how are those captured in the ATS?
Louise: First, candidates fill out a tech skills survey, which will soon be automatically imported into the ATS and help populate their profiles. We’ve designed the survey to minimize subjectivity and increase accuracy in self-assessments. After an informal chat with me, they go through a technical challenge, a tech chat, and a job coach chat. The tech challenge results and our notes from the chats are all uploaded to the ATS, with key tags extracted for easy reference while still providing access to the full details. Additionally, we're developing another custom application, the Support Spectrum, for capturing and reporting on support needs, which will be integrated into the ATS. (Read the follow-up blog on the Support Spectrum).
Overall, the ATS helps capture the full picture of each candidate’s skills and experience, not just from their resume but also from each step of the hiring process. All of this information helps us make an informed decision on who may be a good fit for each role our clients are hiring for.
A sample candidate list and candidate profile in auticon's ATS
What other unique features does the ATS have to support auticon’s hiring process?
Louise: In the future we will have automatic profile generation, which is very tailored to us and our process. We will also have parsing capabilities of notes, including job coach notes, where we will be able to pull out tags related to support needs. We have a matching capability that screens people in rather than out—it will show us candidates who have a distant match to a similar skill needed in the role, so it’s not screening out people based on a few specific keywords. We are also tracking custom experience levels by role and other things like time to hire, which will further improve our process as well as our internal data.
These insights from Gary and Louise show how our autistic-led recruitment and tech team is innovating in inclusive hiring. Their custom ATS aligns with the steps of auticon’s neuroinclusive recruitment process and uses AI to organize and present detailed information on each candidate’s skills, enabling auticon's team to make informed hiring decisions.
The second blog in this series features another innovative tool designed to capture and report on employee support needs. This tool, the Support Spectrum, is actively being integrated into the ATS and will further enhance auticon’s hiring process and our inclusive workplace.
About the Authors
Gary Jones is a Delivery Manager for auticon US. Gary has more than 20 years of experience in software development and over a decade in software engineering leadership roles. He specializes in bridging software development, strategy, and innovation for large and entrepreneurial organizations and working with neurodivergent professionals,
Louise Stone leads recruitment and neuroinclusion services for auticon US. Since joining auticon in 2020, she has been at the helm of the company's autism-friendly recruitment process. She has led the development of a “ready to work” community of autistic job seekers and has helped develop and launch a suite of neuroinclusion offerings. Louise is autistic and frequently writes and speaks on autism and employment issues from both her personal and professional experience.