Why combining a CRM and ATS benefits your staffing or recruiting agency

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How candidate relationship management software helps you build a strong network of candidates and clients.

What did recruiters do before applicant tracking systems? Actually, don’t tell us. We remember. File cabinets overflowing with paper resumes, stacks of precariously balanced business cards, and candidate interview appointments scrawled across the pages of worn-out calendar books. *shudder*

The advent of digital applicant tracking systems (ATS) in the late ‘90s saved us from our overstuffed Rolodexes by introducing searchable candidate databases, along with automated recruitment processes and, eventually, recruiting metrics.

But for all they gave us, those early ATS tools still didn’t help recruiters manage relationships with client businesses or high-quality candidates. Enter customer relationship management (CRM) software and candidate relationship management software (confusingly, also CRM), which – when combined with an ATS – provide recruiters with the tools needed to build and maintain relationships with clients, and shepherd their candidates through all stages of the recruiting and hiring processes.

What is a CRM in the staffing and recruiting industry?

The acronym CRM came out of sales, hence its first meaning, “customer relationship management,” the process of identifying sales leads and maintaining relationships with customers and potential customers. CRM tools, like Salesforce, facilitate the sales process by automating communications, providing metrics on communication effectiveness, and more.

The other meaning of CRM, specific to the recruiting and staffing industry, is “candidate relationship management,” which involves – you guessed it – creating and managing relationships with recruitable talent. (If you’re not a fan of the same acronym representing different processes, candidate relationship management is sometimes referred to as “talent relationship management.”) In fact, the very idea behind a recruiting CRM is that candidates are treated like customers, and recruiting CRMs are designed to help recruiters attract and retain high-quality candidates for potential job placement when the right opportunity arises.

When we use the acronym CRM at Crelate, we’re actually talking about both “customer relationship management” and “candidate relationship management”, which we combine within our all-in-one recruiting CRM and applicant tracking system.

(It’s worth mentioning that the acronyms “CRM,” the other “CRM” and “ATS” are often used interchangeably, particularly when it comes to all-in-one recruiting platforms like ours at Crelate, just in case they weren’t already confusing enough.)

Learn more about Crelate’s all-in-one recruiting CRM and applicant tracking system.

What does a recruiting CRM do?

Ultimately, a CRM helps your recruiting business keep tabs on job opportunities for your candidates and on available candidates with the skills for those opportunities. By helping you stay on top of those candidates and opportunities, your CRM helps your business place candidates and build revenue, and it also helps you to strengthen and grow relationships with both your clients and candidates for future opportunities.

So, what exactly does a recruiting CRM do? First and foremost, it stores all your contact, company and opportunity information. But it also tracks data like:

  • Recruiting metrics, like the number of calls and emails you’re making in an effort to engage prospective candidates and client companies
  • Any notes on crucial information about clients and candidates, which can be referenced and shared by anyone within your organization
  • Recruitment analytics, like what type of deals are driving your revenue (Retainers? Placement fees?)
  • Timelines and deadlines, like which contracts need to be sent out and when?
  • Much, much more

Effectively, your CRM provides you with a top-down view of your pipeline, providing comprehensive detail on each opportunity and candidate, linked to a complete history of all external and internal communication around them, from emails, to phone calls, to texts, to you name it.

And by combining your CRM with your ATS, you create a single tool that merges your sales and recruiting processes, with everything you need to know about candidate information, recruitment activity and job opportunities all living within the same well-organized, efficient and time-saving system.

The all-in-one recruiting CRM and applicant tracking system

Now you know the difference between CRM, CRM and ATS, and how combining all three processes within one tool makes your business more efficient, precise and profitable.

To learn more about Crelate’s all-in-one recruiting CRM and applicant tracking system, and how we can help you be more efficient and win more business, schedule a demo today.

Filed under: Relationship Management Software