Nowadays, Customer Relations Management (CRM) tools and Application Tracking Systems(ATS) exist and keep improving.
Businesses can manage their customer relationships with CRM systems. It includes the data and information that are associated with them. CRM allows you to store prospects and customers’ contact information and leads and sales opportunities in one central location.
Recruiting means finding qualified candidates to fill open positions. A recruiter’s job is to match job-seekers with potential hirers.
It allows them to maintain two constantly changing pipelines and strike lightning-strike between them.
The act of a candidate getting hired is known as the proverbial lightning bolt. It requires patience, organization, timing, and lots of skill.
The candidate pool is constantly updated with applicants with diverse skills. Open positions are constantly being added to the client pipeline.
Recruiters use CRMs
Recruiters can use many different tools to keep track of the various pipelines. CRMs are functional SQL databases that can keep track of many moving parts.
They also have enough flexibility to work as a one-size-fits-all solution for recruitment.
CRMs are the ideal tool for client relationship management.
They offer a variety of communication and tracking capabilities and workflows, automation, and automation that make CRMs invaluable in managing client pipelines.
Recruiters can also save time with CRMs by automating tasks. Many CRMs offer personal email sequences which allow recruiters to send a series of emails with standard messaging.
It is useful for new candidates and clients seeking open positions.
Tracking the applicant’s journeys through the recruitment pipeline is critical for recruiting. CRMs excel at this task.
Many CRMs, including Nutshell (just saying), offer a variety of excellent reports that can help you analyze and optimize your pipelines and processes within the recruitment space and beyond.
CRMs and Recruiters
It’s unclear whether sales and recruiting processes are identical enough to make a CRM useful for both. A lot of functionality is built into CRMs to cater to various industries.
CRMs that include forms are great for posting jobs (directly from your website, which can be cool) and collecting information directly from candidates. The best part about forms is that they eliminate the need for repetitive information solicited via email and phone calls. It opens up many recruiting opportunities.
Recruiters can also benefit from CRM’s automation capabilities, automating as many communications as possible.
Many standard messages must send to recruiters. These messages can automate in a CRM to trigger at certain points in the recruitment pipeline.
CRM reporting capabilities are also very useful. It is important to examine any pipeline from all sides. CRMs make it easy. By regularly reviewing reports, recruiters can easily see what parts of their client and candidate pipelines are not functioning properly.
Reporting helps you identify the best clients and which recruiters fill those positions. It also allows you to see trends within your organization’s recruiting pipelines.
CRMs are used to manage both the recruiting pipelines.
Candidates and applications
It isn’t easy to keep track of all the candidates in the talent pool.
Software like CRMs and ATS systems both address this problem. They allow recruiters to create a new entry for each person in their database and record associated data (skills and requirements, education and location, preferences, etc.). You can view their profile in the system.
A CRM software also allows recruiters to attach candidates’ resumes directly to their profiles. Having the resume on hand for candidate communications and phone calls is a great idea. You can also attach the resume to an email to send to clients.
There are many ways to view data in CRMs.
For example, a skill (or any other data point) can search within the system. It allows parsing large lists of candidates with diverse data points easily.
A recruiter might, for example, start their search by entering SQL in the CRM search bar and then export the results.
This pipeline manages all the candidates that a recruiter may want to submit to a client. It doesn’t matter how many positions are available; if it isn’t doing its job properly, there won’t be any applicants to match them.
Clients and open jobs
The business development pipeline is the second pipeline. This pipeline is also known as the client pipe. It implicitly emphasizes the contrast with the candidate pipeline.
The pipeline serves the purpose of new industry development. It is a common practice for business development professionals in all industries. Sometimes, the goal is to find investors, sell a product or secure a contract.
The goal in this instance is to fill open positions with candidates from your recruiters who become employees of the client’s organization.
If the pipeline isn’t functional or the open positions stop flowing, all the applicants can’t help. It is why it’s so important to maintain both pipelines.
A quality CRM is almost always used to service the client pipeline. It allows recruiters and BDRs to keep track of client communications and open positions.
Additionally, because this is often a collaborative process. CRMs with team cooperation tools are crucial in preventing wires from getting crossed, communications being duplicated, or any members being left in the dark about the status of a deal or lead.
The last important thing about the client pipeline is that it must always be current to allow clients and candidates to contact them with the most relevant information.
What is an applicant tracking program?
An applicant tracking system can compare to a CRM in technical terms. The software is almost identical, with a SQL database at its core and a nice UI.
However, they are brand different and have industry-specific functionalities. CRMs tend to lean towards sales, while ATS systems focus more on recruiting.
CRMs and ATS systems serve as candidates and relevant information repositories. The systems give each candidate a page where their current skills, employment history, and other information can view like a hub. Both systems allow attachments, such as resumes or employment documents, to be uploaded.
The ability to quickly search the system with keywords is another important feature. It makes it easy to find suitable candidates.
The most common feature of both systems is the capability to keep notes about each candidate during the recruitment process. All members of the team can view and access notes in real-time.
They can use it for feedback, reminders, or any other purpose relevant to the candidate (or client).
Applicant tracking systems versus CRMs.
CRMs have more general-purpose functionality. ATS systems are often able to manage the application process from the box. Some ATS systems allow you to create candidates using a resume manually.
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Transform website visitors into leads
Nutshell makes it easy to create and embed web forms, monitor their effectiveness, and reach out quickly to form-fillers.
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Combining the pipes
Many companies use an ATS with a CRM. Some companies use only an ATS, and others use a CRM. We’ll be discussing how to use CRM to optimize efficiency at every stage of the recruitment process.
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The candidate pipeline
The candidate pipeline describes the process candidates follow before submitting to clients. There are many steps involved in qualifying and preparing candidates for submission.
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A candidate is created in the system, or a resume collect
Although this step can vary from company to company, a common model is for a resume to be imported into the CRM via Dice, Monster, or LinkedIn.
Sometimes, candidates may submit their resumes directly to the recruiting team. However, they will still be added to the CRM as a person, and their resume will be attached as normal.
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Phone screening of candidate
A phone screen aims to meet the candidate and establish some goals. The following are some common questions that you might ask on a phone screen:
- Generic skills test or verbal skills assessment.
- Test of job-specific skills or verbal assessment.
- Salary expectations.
- Open positions require consent.
The CRM saves all the key points from the phone screening conversation like a note that any team member can view.
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Sign the consent form
Although it is a quick step, it is crucial in recruitment. It gets its step. Candidates who have not signed a consent sheet cannot submit to open positions. Otherwise, issues could arise down the line.
The consent form signing is recorded in the CRM. It is attributed to the pipeline stage and the person hub in CRM. It ensures that nothing gets lost.
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The client pipeline
The business development team’s focus is on the client pipeline to ensure open positions are always open.
Like most business development processes, this one is more intuitively compatible with CRM functions.
The business development pipeline for your own business
It’s not worth spending too much time analyzing, as the impact of which strategies companies use for acquiring leads can be profound. It could include:
- Creating leads through the website
- Referring partners organizations
- Profit from a long-standing client base
- Host job fairs
- Participating in seminars and events
- There are many more
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The client offers an open position
It’s almost the same as a candidate signing consent forms when a client posts an open job. The pipeline has provided a lead that can be used as an open position.
It will become a CRM lead, and your team can attach people and companies to it. It allows candidates who have been shortlisted for the position to be added to it and managed from there.
The lead also includes information about the client’s company and any other job description information. It is easy to communicate with clients directly about the job by clicking on the lead and then clicking on the company or hiring manager to send them an email.
You can attach dollar amounts to each lead. It will indicate the compensation a hiring company is willing to pay for the candidate or your company’s benefit from closing the job. It depends on the metric you want to use in your reporting and breakdowns.
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The matchmaking pipeline
The matchmaking pipeline is where both pipelines meet. It’s often badly managed, with many companies handing over their ATS to email communications.
A tech handoff at this critical stage is essential because it prevents everyone from being able to view future communications unless they are CC’d in subsequent emails. It is also the end for any reporting, as the pipeline software (ATS or CRM) usually doesn’t allow visibility into the next stages.
Final Note
The previous stage of creating a lead indicates an open position is incomplete unless the recruitment process continues within a CRM.