Workable vs BambooHR vs Personio: best ATS for recruiting in small HR agencies
For small HR agencies with 5-25 employees in Belgium and the Netherlands, Personio often emerges as the best ATS choice due to seamless integration with local HR processes, while Workable excels in flexible workflows for rapid scaling and BambooHR offers strong all-around HR support—though it's less tailored to local markets.
Which ATS is right for your small HR agency?
Choosing the right ATS (applicant tracking system) can transform how your team sources, screens, and places consultants. The challenge for small HR agencies isn't just about recruitment functionality—it's about integration with local compliance, salary administration, and jobboards like VDAB and Indeed.nl that your candidates use daily.
Each of these three platforms takes a different approach. Personio bundles recruitment into a comprehensive HR suite designed for European teams. BambooHR positions itself as an HR backbone with recruitment bolted on. Workable focuses purely on recruiting with highly flexible workflows and global reach.
The question isn't which is objectively "best"—it's which fits your agency's workflow, budget, and growth plans. Let's break down how they actually perform in practice.
How do Personio, BambooHR, and Workable compare for small agencies?
Here's what matters most when evaluating these three platforms:
Personio stands out for integrated HR and recruitment in one platform. You get candidate pipelines alongside employee data, leave management, and salary processing—all built for EU compliance from the ground up. This matters for Belgian and Dutch agencies because it handles local variations (Belgian leave days, Dutch tax rules) without workarounds. Pricing starts around €50-100 monthly for small teams, and it scales as you grow.
BambooHR takes the opposite approach—it's employee-focused HR software with recruitment added. If your agency does significant internal HR work (managing consultants, tracking availability, onboarding), BambooHR integrates those functions well. However, it's US-centric, so you'll need third-party tools like Nmbrs or AFAS to handle Dutch/Belgian salary administration. Starting at US$250+ monthly, it's pricier for pure recruitment needs.
Workable is the purist ATS—recruitment only, but done exceptionally well. It excels at building scalable, flexible pipelines for high-volume hiring. If your agency runs 15-20 job openings monthly, Workable's collaborative features (team ratings, comments, skill matching) shine. It integrates with jobboards globally, though fewer local Belgian/Dutch connections than competitors. Pricing starts around €100 monthly.
The critical difference: If you're managing consultant placements and internal HR processes simultaneously, Personio wins. If speed and pipeline flexibility matter most for high-volume recruiting, choose Workable. If you need a well-rounded HR platform where recruitment is secondary, BambooHR is solid—but be ready to integrate other tools.
What's the real ROI for small agencies using these platforms?
Time savings is where the payoff happens. A typical small HR agency spends 15-20 hours weekly on administrative recruitment tasks—reviewing CVs, coordinating with candidates, screening for client fit, scheduling interviews. A good ATS cuts this by 30-50%.
Personio users report approximately 40% faster time-to-hire when they set up automated workflows. One Dutch HR bureau with 15 employees recruiting 30 consultants per quarter reduced their screening time from 8 hours to 5 hours per week simply by automating CV parsing and initial qualification questions. At a recruiter's hourly rate of €40-50, that's roughly €6,000-8,000 annually in direct savings—before accounting for faster placements and reduced consultant downtime.
BambooHR's value lies in reduced onboarding friction. When you're placing consultants with clients, faster onboarding means faster revenue recognition. Users typically see 15-20% improvement in consultant-to-client handoff speed through e-signature workflows and centralized documentation.
Workable shines for agencies filling multiple similar roles repeatedly. If your team manages rotating consultant positions (IT contractors, HR consultants, finance specialists), Workable's template-based workflows mean the 20th placement takes 60% less setup time than the first. This compounds—agencies scaling from 15 to 35 placements monthly see the biggest ROI gain here.
Real ROI formula: (Hours saved per month × recruiter hourly rate) - platform cost = net monthly benefit. For most small agencies, this breaks even within 2-4 months.
Which platform integrates best with tools you already use?
This is where local context matters enormously.
Personio integrates naturally with:
- Nmbrs (Dutch payroll—critical for consultant salary processing)
- AFAS (Belgian/Dutch HR systems)
- VDAB job postings (Belgian job board)
- TestGorilla (skills assessments)
BambooHR requires more assembly:
- Zapier connections to Nmbrs and AFAS (workaround, not native)
- Indeed integration via Zapier
- Parseur for CSV batch CV imports
- This creates more moving parts and potential failures
Workable covers:
- Global jobboards (Indeed, LinkedIn, local boards via API)
- Google Workspace and Slack integrations
- CSV exports for spreadsheet-based workflows
- Limited native payroll integrations (you'll use Zapier for Nmbrs)
For Belgian and Dutch agencies, Personio wins on integration simplicity. You get VDAB posting, Nmbrs payroll sync, and Dutch compliance baked in. The other two require more Zapier gymnastics and custom setup.
Getting started: implementation timeline and best practices
You don't need to overthink this. Here's how to pilot and roll out successfully:
Week 1-2: Pilot phase
- Post 1-2 real consultant vacancies in your chosen platform
- Test the application form (keep it to 5 fields max—agencies lose 40% of candidates at longer forms)
- Review how CVs arrive and whether parsing works reliably
- Check if candidate communication feels natural for your team
Week 3-4: Team training
- Have your recruiters use the system daily for one full hiring cycle
- Test reporting—can you easily see time-to-hire, source of hire, and placement success rates?
- Set up basic automations (e.g., reject non-matching skills automatically, send rejection emails at scale)
Key setup details for each platform:
Personio: Map your candidate pipeline stages to your actual process: Application → Screening → Skills Assessment → Detachment Review → Offer → Placement. Activate automated follow-ups to candidates after 5 days without response (reduces admin time by ~30%). Connect VDAB posting directly to the system.
BambooHR: Use Parseur to automatically extract data from bulk Indeed applications into structured fields. Set up the mobile app for recruiters conducting interviews—notes sync instantly. Create candidate pipelines per consultant specialism (IT, HR, Finance).
Workable: Build reusable templates for recurring roles. Use the collaborative rating system where all team members score candidates independently, then discuss outliers. Export monthly hiring metrics to a Google Sheet for client reporting.
Making the final decision
Here's what should drive your choice:
- Choose Personio if: You're in Belgium or the Netherlands, managing 5-15 consultant placements monthly, and want minimal setup friction. You already use (or plan to use) Nmbrs for payroll.
- Choose BambooHR if: Comprehensive employee HR features matter—you're tracking consultant availability, managing internal team data, and want everything in one ecosystem. Budget isn't tight.
- Choose Workable if: Your agency handles 15+ placements monthly, values team collaboration in hiring, and benefits from template-based scaling. You're willing to use Zapier for local integrations.
Pro tip: All three offer free trials. Book a 30-minute demo, post one real job opening, and see which platform feels natural to your team. The best ATS is the one your recruiters will actually use consistently—not the one with the fanciest feature list.
Ready to streamline your recruitment?
If your agency is building a stronger hiring process but still using spreadsheets and email, you're leaving hours of productivity (and revenue) on the table. The right ATS isn't just software—it's the infrastructure that lets small teams punch above their weight.
Whether you choose Personio, BambooHR, or Workable, the next step is getting it implemented correctly. If you're also looking to strengthen your overall client-facing presence and brand authority while you're optimizing recruitment, check out how Luniq helps HR agencies and recruitment firms build professional, high-converting websites—because better recruiting starts with candidates finding you first.