The recruiting environment has taken a major turn in recent years with the smarter hiring professionals realizing that it’s not an employer but an employer/job seeker powered process. In such a case, emphasis on doing more than just saving contact details of future candidates has increased. Now, candidate relationship management is absolutely necessary. It is more than a bunch of tools, the process encompasses everything from establishing a connection with the applicant to understanding their expectations from the job and more.
The better you are at managing your relationship with a candidate, the higher are their chances of joining your firm. And let’s be clear, the top candidates are not just looking for a massive salary hike (they might already have it). CRM also helps you figure out what exactly the candidate wants and if they are the right investment for the organization. With that in mind, through this blog, let’s discuss a few things you can do to become better at candidate relationship management.
What is Candidate Relationship Management?
Candidate Relationship Management (CRM) is essential for nurturing candidates and developing positive experiences and relationships with them. It encompasses all candidate interactions throughout the recruitment cycle, from job ad to hiring and beyond. Effective CRM ensures a positive candidate experience for hires and leaves a favorable impression on unsuccessful candidates, encouraging reapplication and referrals.
To streamline the CRM practice there are several software and applications in place. These CRM Tools can assist you in building and establishing better relationships with candidates. They allow recruiters to track and organize candidate interactions, from initial contact to post-hire engagement. CRM systems typically include features such as candidate communication, application tracking, and data analysis to streamline recruitment efforts and enhance the candidate experience.
7 Ways to Become Better at Candidate Relationship Management
Build/ be part of the right communities
One of the most important parts of recruiting is sourcing. You need to know where you will find the right candidates for a job and how to approach them. If your recruitment process still relies on traditional channels of sourcing, maybe you need to take a second look at your strategy. Put some effort in reaching out to diverse communities for discovery. When doing so, make sure the community is large enough, the people in it are close knit and open for job applications.
From boy scouts to local LGBTQ groups on facebook, think outside the box when starting out with your research. Dive into a conversation, ask for referrals, show your desire to hire from teh countunity. Remember, it’s a continued process and will certainly pay off when a recruitment opportunity comes knocking at your door and you know just the right place to get the candidates.
Consider every candidate
After the initial screening process is done and dusted and you are left with a handful of candidates, put your biased glasses on the side and give each candidate a fair chance. Acknowledge each candidate’s application and give them a fair chance of putting themselves out there. This also means that you standardize the hiring process for every candidate. Go above and beyond to explain your company culture and working environment, focus on building a two way communication, ask the right questions and above all, listen.
Don’t make applying impossible
Whether it’s an application form on LinkedIn or a career page, once your application process is complete, go back and try applying yourself. Check how much time it might take for a candidate to apply and if the process is too complicated for even the most desirable candidate to follow. Remember, you don't have to ask all the questions in the application process. Keep some for the interview. Now, if at all, the process has to be strenuous, make sure you address each applicant. Imagine applicant’s spending hours filling up forms and never hearing from the employers. Value your applicants time, use the CRM system to notify all applicants of their status.
Be in touch
As an avid recruiter, one of your jobs is to have the ability to not only fulfill current employee needs but also forecast the ones that might turn up in the future. Accordingly, you must keep in touch with passive candidates and prospective candidates. Further, keep a track of past interviewees who could be future candidates. Use ATS software, spreadsheets, or databases to store their contact details and skill notes. You don't need their resumes immediately; just names, contact info, and skill comments. This method efficiently identifies known potential candidates. Maintain detailed notes for quick candidate searches. You can also create a talent pool with these candidates and upload them on Skima. Once up, you can simply put up a job description and find the right candidate for the job from within the pool instantly via AI matching score.
Use your employee referral network
An employee referral network is crucial for building candidate relationships. It uses existing connections to attract qualified candidates. Referrals often lead to higher-quality hires due to the trust and endorsement from current employees. This strengthens the candidate relationship management process by tapping into trusted networks and building a positive candidate experience.
Work on employer branding
The importance of employer branding has grown exponentially. It’s not about the pride of finding a chance to work in an MNC or a large corporation for a top-tier candidate anymore. Candidates today look for work culture, stability, diversity, inclusion and equity among other prospects before making a decision to join an organization. As an employer, how do you convince the right candidates that you are who they should choose? It’s employer branding. Whether it’s your interactions with under-represented groups or social median posts on the diversity of your workforce, it's important that you build an open and accepting image of the organization to attract and retain the right candidates.
Use the right CRM tools
You can’t do everything yourself. Moreover, there are definitely some tasks in your recruitment process that are best suited to a Candidate Relationship Management software. So, pick a CRM tool that can take the burden of administrative tasks off your hands and make space for more candidate interactions and relationship building.
You can’t make and maintain relationships with all and every candidate. But, you need to make one with the ones that matter to you today and will do in the future. Become a better recruiter, use Candidate Relationship Management tools to enhance candidate experience and hire better candidates for any job role.