Most recruitment agencies use one (unless they are still in the 90s with a Rolodex or keeping everything in a very complicated excel spreadsheet) but are CRMs a necessary evil or do they actually add value? Well, it’ll be no surprise to find that as well as just being somewhere to keep a note of clients and candidates I think they actually add value. I spoke with a few CRMs to get their thoughts too. In summary the main benefits are:
- A database of candidates (bit of a “durr” statement maybe – but honestly so many agencies don’t look in their database first!)
- Being able to accurately track communication
- Giving you useful data to make better business decisions
- Time saving tool when using just the one interface
- Covering your arse if the shit hits the fan.
Alan Hiddleston of Firefish additionally shared this little nugget with around candidate engagement with me:
CRMs when used correctly, can have a huge impact on how invested your candidates feel in you as a brand. As competition for the best talent increases, candidate engagement is becoming hugely important to recruiters. Communication breakdown can often mean a lost placement if your candidate doesn’t feel looked after and goes to another agency. A good CRM makes it much easier to keep candidates warm whilst searching for the job that they’re a fit for. Your CRM should allow you to engage with candidates through social sharing, managed and personalised mailing lists, job alerts and by prompting recruiters to reach out to candidates if there hasn’t been any contact in a while. Then, when you’ve found them the right job, you will be able to easily transition them through to placement with little hassle, and everyone happy.
Nanci Stanger, managing director at Stanger Kirkwood (a welfare to work recruitment agency) backs up my thoughts and says:
A CRM system improves customer service as any member of staff has access information and can act upon it; it creates efficiencies in all areas.
80% of emails to contacts and candidates are via a CRM sysytem. The information cannot be changed so if there is ever any discrepanies of “recall” of a conversation with a client or candiate we have physical evidence. It constantly updates and builds canvassing information which can be accessed by consultant and manager. In the days before a CRM sytem, each person had boxes of cards on their desks. There was no sharing of information and only very organised sales people were very successful. The rest were average at best. CRM systms allow Recruitment Consultants with avarage talent to be more successful as they are trained better and forced to run an efficient desk.
Bond have recently published an ebook on how to use your CRM to Search for the Right Candidates.
Finally this is a great summary from Mike Robinson of HRS
Quality, up to date and accurate data is essential in successful recruitment, the quickest candidates to engage are those sitting in your CRM with complete and current profiles. A recruitment specific CRM should help you find, engage and place more candidates quickly whilst keeping everyone aware of what is going on. A recruitment CRM should add value to your organisation by:
Integrating and improving workflows
A recruitment CRM should bring all the tools a recruiter needs to do their job (social networks, email marketing, candidate and skill matching etc.) into a single system.
As recruitment continues to evolve recruiters will become increasingly reliant on multiple applications. This can create a disjointed and complex workflow, which in turn increases the likelihood of mistakes and miss opportunities.
Cutting out time wasted as result of switching between different packages adds real value to the day-to-day activity of a recruitment professional. A CRM built for recruitment will increase recruitment efficiency, enabling more placements to be made.
Backing up vital data
Client and candidate data is integral to successful recruitment. A recruitment CRM will add value to your business by ensuring business critical data is backed up regularly and stored securely.
Don’t put your business at risk by relying on locally stored documents or external hard drives to back up data. What happens if a file corrupts? Or the machine you use crashes or stops working completely?
Reporting
Advanced reporting, recruitment metrics and analytics can help recruiters make informed business decisions, they also help identify potential problem areas before they become a major issue. From consultant KPIs, recruiter activity, open jobs, communications and job activity reports, a CRM system will help recruiters and team leaders monitor and optimise activity.
Automation
A recruitment CRM should automate time consuming, repetitive tasks enabling recruiters to get on and speak to top candidates. Creating and updating candidate records (from applications and CVs), skill tagging and invoice generation should all be automated processes.
The less time a consultant spends on recurring tasks the more time they have to build relationships and make placements. A recruitment CRM should make recurring admin tasks significantly quicker.
In summary a modern day recruitment CRM should do much more than simply store candidate and client data. A recruitment CRM should add real value to a business enabling you to find, engage and place more candidates. We’ll be running two recruitment technology events in 2016 where you can see a range of the best CRMs and get more tips of how to best use yours.
