Currently, the labor market is very competitive. Unlike in the past, where employers chose candidates, today, the opposite is the reality. Candidates have more power and freedom when hunting for a job, and hence choose their employers.

As such, businesses need to differentiate themselves in the job market. They need to find ways to engage candidates in the entire recruitment process and offer a great candidate experience. The question that follows is, ‘how can enterprises provide candidates with an incredible experience and keep them interested in their organization in the recruitment process?’

The simple answer is ‘recruitment CRM.’ The software allows companies to manage and nurture candidates, and subsequently, attract top talent and fill positions quickly and cost-effectively. This article examines what recruitment CRM is and why your business needs it. Also, it explores signs that you need recruitment CRM to streamline your hiring efforts.

What is Recruitment CRM?

Recruitment CRM is a software that allows businesses to engage candidates when they apply for employment opportunities in their companies. It aims to offer timely and relevant communication with candidates in a bid to nurture them and preserve relationships with them over time in a central location. In recruitment, CRM stands for candidate relationship management.

What Does Recruiting CRM Do?

In a nutshell, a recruiting CRM enables recruiters to find –and hire top-notch candidates. With a recruitment CRM, you can retrieve a candidate’s file in the talent database, and access their skills, qualifications, and previous employers. Recruiters can use the data stored in the database to establish relationships with candidates and reach them on a personal level.

A recruiting CRM enables you to;

  • Create a talent network in a single searchable database
  • Nurture and manage candidates – you can track a candidate’s journey from application to starting their job.
  • Organize and manage vast applications, particularly during large-scale recruitment
  • Facilitate recruitment activities such as conducting qualification screening, scheduling interviews, and performing background checks.
  • Track the effectiveness of recruitment strategies.

 

Why You Need a Recruitment CRM

A recruitment CRM is vital in providing an excellent candidate experience in the hiring process. It also makes your job as a recruiter easier. Below are the benefits of a candidate relationship management software.

1.      Create Detailed Candidate Profiles

With a recruiting CRM, you can access all relevant information on a candidate, ranging from skill sets, interests, social accounts, and previous employers. You don’t have to spend time searching through records and databases to get candidate data.

2.      Keep Candidates Engaged

A recruiting CRM helps keep candidates engaged and excited about the probability of joining your company. You can interact with candidates seamlessly in the hiring process.

3.      Build Talent Pools Quickly

When you have a central place to store candidates’ information, you can create talent pools. This way, you can identify the best candidates for your open roles.

4.      Foster Timely and Personalized Communication

Recruitment CRM allows you to send timely and personalized updates on the progress of the recruitment process. Research shows that 82% of candidates expect employers to update them throughout the hiring process.

5.      Streamlining the Application Process

Nowadays, candidates don’t want to spend hours filling application forms. Fortunately, a good recruitment CRM streamlines the application process. Candidates can even apply for a job through social media.

6.      Establish Relationships with Future Hires

While you may not hire every qualified candidate who applies for a position, you may want to build a relationship with them for future hires. A recruiting CRM allows you to maintain a network of candidates for future opportunities.

7.      Save Time

Forget about the time-consuming and laborious manual recruitment processes. Recruiting CRM automates most mundane tasks saving you time –and money.

8.      Track the Performance of your Hiring Efforts

A recruitment CRM helps you to determine what is working and what is not in the hiring process. You can establish your total time to hire and channels driving quality applicants to refine your recruitment strategy.

Signs You Need a Recruitment CRM

Although you may argue that ATS or spreadsheet is working for you, it is no longer the most efficient option. The time has come to adopt a recruiting CRM and take your recruitment efforts to the next level. Here are the indicators that you are ready for recruiting CRM.

· You Actively Source Candidates

ATS is primarily reactive –you only use it when candidates have applied. When actively sourcing candidates, ATS is ineffective. You need a recruiting CRM to find and manage prospects.

· You use Spreadsheets to Manage Candidates

While people use different tools to manage candidate data, ranging from sticky notes to Outlook tasks, spreadsheets are the most common. However, spreadsheets are useful for accounting and terrible for recruiting. With spreadsheets, updates are done manually, and you have to use them together with other tools like email.

· You are Recruiting Hard-to-fill Roles

While some roles have numerous applicants, others do not. When handling hard-to-fill roles, you need to create a pipeline of candidates and nurture relationships. Recruiting CRM can help you build a talent pool.

· You Devote Loads of Time to Processes and Workflow

If you waste much time with ATS processes and workflows, you deserve better. Modern recruitment CRMs save time by automating most of the processes and workflows.

· You have Several Profiles of the Same Person

Numerous situations can lead to duplicate profiles in your ATS. This is mainly because ATS’ design compromises visibility while managing things from a requisition approach. Below are several scenarios that can lead to duplicate profiles for ATS and not CRM.

  • Sourcing a candidate already in the system
  • A past candidate re-applying
  • A candidate applying for two separate jobs at the same time
  • An employee referring an applicant already in the system

· Your ATS is a Candidate Graveyard

You probably have thousands of candidates’ data in your ATS. Unfortunately, the data is rotting away because it is outdated and hence, unusable. A recruiting CRM turns a candidate graveyard to a goldmine where you can source candidates in the future.

Bottom Line

As the talent market becomes more competitive, more employers and recruiters are focusing on candidate experience. Whether your organization is recruiting two candidates or tens of them, one thing is for sure –you require a system to manage and nurture every one of them. Recruiting CRM offers a way to make hiring efforts efficient and build relationships with candidates. Learn more about Loxo’s recruiting CRM.