Why Do You Need A Recruitment CRM? The Ultimate Checklist
Originally published at opengeekslab.com on August 28, 2020
Qualified employees are the key to productive workflow and business success, though finding the right people becomes highly challenging because of the abundance of candidates on the market, therefore making recruitment CRM platforms more and more popular. Enterprise recruiting solutions offer an efficient alternative to traditional recruiting methods that ensures finding talents spending minimum time and money.
In this post, OpenGeeksLab will define what recruitment CRM software is, list its most essential features, and describe the benefits a company gets after adopting recruitment software.
What is Recruitment CRM?
Recruitment software serves as an umbrella term for a range of tools used to support and optimize the recruiting process. Recruitment platforms vary according to several criteria, most common of them being basic objective and customer company type.
Recruitment systems fall into:
1. Applicant Tracking System (ATS)
ATS is the main recruiter’s tool while dealing with active job candidates. Its functionality includes job posting, resume processing, and interview tracking. ATS also manages peculiar algorithms (keyword filters, knockout questions) for resume screening automation.
This group is represented by Workday, Greenhouse, iCIMS, Taleo, SAP SuccessFactors, and Smart Recruiters.
2. Candidate Relationship Management (CRM)
The main function of a candidate relationship management platform is active candidate sourcing and potential applicant database creating. Unlike ATSs, CRMs manage not only active candidates, but passive ones as well. Within CRM, recruiters often use marketing technologies to increase the company’s visibility and attract future employees.
The best recruiting CRM software examples include Bullhorn, Beamery, Avature, Breezy, and Smashfly.
3. Interviewing Software
Interviewing software allows conducting interviews with candidates online via live video-chat or even reviewing pre-recorded videos for managing more applications at the same time period.
Spark Hire, Olivia, myInterview, Jobpal, and Outmatch stand among the most popular online interviewing software examples.
Although developers usually aim at creating unified products equally applicable by recruiters irrespective of company size, there are still significant differences between recruiter strategies in different scale organizations. Three most common types of companies that go for CRM recruitment systems are:
1. Enterprise
The major peculiarity of enterprise recruiting solutions is a high level of integration and combinability. Enterprises often use other tools like HRMS (human resources management system), HRIS (human resource information system), or ERP (enterprise resource planning) system, so they need different products being compatible with one another to perform a smooth workflow.
2. Agency
As well as enterprises, agencies process big data amounts, thus requiring well-developed optimization and automation tools. Besides, agencies need customer relationship management features, as they commonly track diverse vacancies for different clients.
3. Small to Medium Business (SMB)
The majority of SMBs require the basic features the development company provides, but at a smaller scale. Besides, in SMBs many recruiting processes are done manually, as they usually manage minor data scope and, thus, do not require high-level automation.
Recruitment Software Market Share
Recruitment CRM systems have been firmly established by enterprises for about a decade, though the interest in adopting or creating custom recruiting solutions constantly grows. Thus, despite the modern market already offers varied web-based and mobile apps improving recruiters’ routine, there is always a place for innovation and another app.
Analytics claim that the recruitment software market is going to expand and grow by $683.80 million from 2020 to 2024. In 2020, year-over-year growth rate estimates 4,74%, though CAGR for the predicted period will reach over 5%.
According to the research, 74% of recruiters have already adopted recruitment CRM software into their workflow, and about 95% of companies share positive experiences of using some form of CRM recruitment systems.
Benefits Recruitment Software Brings to Your Business
Now let’s see how companies benefit from integrating the recruitment system into their business processes.
1. Boosted Productivity
Developing custom recruiting solutions or adjusting ready-made ones boosts not only recruiter efficiency, but general company success as well. Ensuring a productive working environment for recruiters, one optimizes overall workflow too. Vacant positions are taken faster and more qualified employees give preference to the company providing feedback quicker than competitors.
2. Automation & Unification
Recruitment CRM software introduces a high level of unification into the recruiting process. It allows easy sticking to a single format with multiple automated features and pre-designed patterns of data entering, processing, and output. Automation also expands onto improving candidate experience, as CRM platforms ensure timely reminders and keep applicants informed about their applications.
3. Reduced Expenses & Time Waste
Recruiting process stands among the most time and money consuming business procedures: from job posting to onboarding. As hiring qualified employees affects overall company’s success, a business owner should care of having efficient recruiters. Adopting a CRM app, one moves a significant part of the recruiter’s tasks to machine processing, thus reducing time spent onto manual work and extra expenses. Besides, one can rely on free recruitment CRM platforms, avoiding developing expensive custom recruiting solutions.
4. Data Processing Optimization
Looking for candidates, recruiters manage big data amounts, which should be processed properly. Doing all the work manually provokes delays in workflow and may cause mistakes. Having tedious routine tasks optimized by recruitment CRM systems, recruiters can redirect attention to more complicated creative assignments increasing their own productivity.
5. Improved Interviewing Process
Interviewing process is improved as well, as both candidates and recruiters do not waste time on interaction not leading to positive results. CRM platforms often provide automatic resume screening, withdrawing from the general list those applicants who do not suit the company’s requirements. Additional features like chatbots, machine questioning, or AI implementing will help recruiters leave only engaged candidates.
6. Vast Talent Pools & Detailed Candidate Profile
CRM recruitment systems serve as a tool for creating talent pools as well, as screened resumes and candidate data can be stored within the in-built database even if the application was rejected. Besides, machine processing supports creating a detailed candidate profile for recruiters to choose the most suitable candidate for the company’s team and, together with colleagues, bringing it to success.
Essential KPIs
Before starting recruitment CRM development, a business runner should examine niche KPIs. Let’s uncover the most crucial ones:
1. Market Research & Business Analysis
Understanding market trends lays a firm basis for any software development, especially if the sphere is as versatile as human resources. Profound research and business analysis are a must before building your own recruitment CRM platform, as they show the relevance of your idea on the modern market, its competitive chances, and help define the appropriate target audience.
2. Challenges to Overcome
Setting a definite goal is a half-way to success, thus before embodying your recruiter tool idea, clarify its details. Use business analysis reports to understand which customer problem you intend to solve and define minor challenges your application must overcome as milestones for product development.
3. Proper Feature Set
Well-developed functional scope will make recruiters turn to your product more and more even if there already exist similar competitors on the market. Ensure your platform supports all the basic features recruiters need during candidate hiring: from sourcing to onboarding. Do not forget to implement profound management tools for recruiters to optimize their routine tasks like resume screening or interview schedule tracking.
4. Multiple Integrations
CRM recruitment systems must be compatible with other corporate software platforms used by businesses (ERP, accounting tools, HRIS, HRMS) to ensure smooth and efficient performance. Think over possible integrations, as recruiters often use information from third-party sources like email, social media accounts, career sites, stuffing platforms. Providing appropriate tools will be a nice bonus to basic functionality.
5. Mobile Functionality
Creating a mobile version is a must on the modern market, as it keeps customers informed wherever they are as far as there is an Internet connection. Mobile version of the platform may be implemented either via ensuring accessibility of existing site/web-app on mobile devices, or by creating a separate mobile application with correspondent functionality and personal account access.
6. Reliable Software Vendor
Finding a reliable software vendor guarantees your future success and high product quality, thus rely on well-regarded platforms to get started. If you aim at developing custom recruiting solutions, pay significant attention to the development team you partner with. Dwell into details while project planning, discussing, and stating your requirements as clearly as possible to avoid misunderstanding and rebuilding the project from scratch afterward.
Must-Have Features
Recruitment software features vary depending on different factors including software type, customer company type, and client objectives. Most common feature set includes:
1. Recruitment Process Management
Recruitment process management is a basic feature needed to guarantee successful recruiter software running. It actually holds control of the other features’ performance, ensuring correct interaction between different components. Besides, the recruiting process management feature ensures CRM platform customization, e.g., to make an existing enterprise recruiting solution perfectly suit your peculiar business case.
2. Applicant Management
Applicant management is the main feature regulating recruiter — candidate interaction. It ensures the procedures like resume screening, interviewing, onboarding running smoothly, allows tracking candidates and creating talent pools.
Applicant management feature often includes pre-hire assessment and background checking opportunities, as hiring employees recruiters must evaluate not only professional qualities, but also personal traits to assure each candidate will become a harmonious part of the team.
3. Vacancy Posting
A convenient job posting feature stands among core opportunities a good recruitment system must provide. Placing vacancy openings through different mediums (like job boards, talent communities, third-party career websites, social media, advertisements) is a tedious and time-consuming task. Thus, developers of CRM platforms implement varied automation elements to make job posting procedures easier and faster.
Besides, with specified software, recruiters can build an in-house career portal allowing candidates to search vacancies directly connected with the peculiar organization. Developing own career portal guarantees information being up-to-date because of its synchronization with the general database and makes company-applicant interaction more productive, removing mediators like third-party vacancy posting platforms.
4. Resume Search & Analysis
Resume management appears among the most important recruiting processes, thus developing a CRM platform, one must include features that will optimize it. Automatic resume screening feature is one of the kind, as it allows recruiters to spend less time and effort onto analyzing obviously inappropriate applications. Due to high-level standardization, recruitment software algorithms, based on keywords, easily single out pre-suitable candidates, thus recruiters can shift directly to the interviewing process.
5. Interview Management
Interview management feature allows organizing candidate interviewing procedures conveniently for both recruiter and candidate. This feature automatically schedules appointments considering a candidate’s preferences and sends reminders (either in-app or by email) to keep the person informed about their interview status.
6. Reporting & Analytics
Proper reporting and detailed analytics are of primer importance for any recruitment system. A well-developed analytical dashboard allows recruiters to track their productivity via metrics like applicant-to-interview ratio, source of recruiting, time to fill a position, etc. Based on these data, recruiters can properly understand strengths and weaknesses of their strategy, and adjust it to get more profits per the same time unit. Automatic report sharing also helps managers observe current success and efficiency of their recruiters and their influence onto the general company’s progress.
7. Onboarding Guidance
Onboarding is now considered an important part of the recruiting process as well. Although the candidate is already a part of the team officially, in fact there follows an adjustment period for both company and candidate to understand whether this vacancy decision was right. Modern CRM platforms track employees during this period and provide onboarding guidance, making adaptation quicker and smoother.
How Can You Make Money from Your Recruitment CRM?
There exist various monetization models that help CRM recruitment systems bring profits. As a rule, they differ according to the platform’s business objectives and its target audience. Most common options include:
1. Pay Per User
Charging pay per user is one of the most widespread ways to monetize your CRM platform. Depending on the user type (single recruiter or organization), there are different pricing plans designed for personal or commercial accounts. Fees may be collected either monthly or via getting access after a one-time purchase. Average annual fee usually fluctuates between $50-$100 per user, while a one-time fee is from $250 to $1000 per account.
2. Pay Per Hire
Charging pay per hire is less popular than pay per user, though it is an efficient alternative for platforms cooperating with organizations that hire new employees seasonally, as there is no need to pay annual fees for services that are not used at the moment. Fees per hire typically range between $200-$500 per one hired candidate.
3. Pay Per Employee
Pay per employee monetization model is popular with large enterprises where CRM system recruitment tools may be used by workers who do not belong to team recruiters. This model presupposes charging monthly fees depending on the company’s total staff size. Regular fee per employee is from $4 to $8 annually, though often there are discounts for an increasing number of employees.
Need to Build Your Own Recruitment CRM?
Recruitment CRM software is the modern answer to challenges companies meet while hiring new employees. Investing into a proper recruitment CRM system makes candidate search easy and efficient, filling the ranks of your enterprise with proficient and promising newcomers that will contribute to overall company development.
Looking for custom recruiting solutions? Do not wait to contact us and share your idea! Our team is always ready to cooperate and build a product perfectly fitting your particular business case. Still, have doubts or want more details? Book an online consultation with our expert to discuss the aspects you are interested in.
