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Why do you need a CRM in your recruitment strategy? How is it different from your ATS? These are the questions asked by thousands of businesses trying to get the best results when it comes to recruiting.
The ATS/CRM debate has only just begun, now is the time to make sure you fully understand what both tools can offer as a tool for candidate sourcing.
Even the best software in the world can't solve hiring problems, but getting the right technology can save you time and money and get you ahead of the competition.
ATS or CRM: Definitions
It's time for quick definitions so we can all be on the same page.
RATS: one “Applicant Tracking System” allows you to follow the recruitment process in its entirety, to follow the path of candidates for a job offer and to register the requests of candidates. ATS is the traditional tool for recruiters. There are many, such as Taleez, TeamTailor, or Beehire.
CRM: one “Customer Relationship Management” (in French “Customer Relationship Management”) aims to optimize the quality of the customer relationship in order to retain him and maximize the turnover or the margin achieved with him. In the field of recruitment, a CRM is intended for job seekers and candidates. It's the engine that drives your sourcing team, allows you to create talent pools, and helps you build and maintain relationships with passive talent. Just like ATS, there are many with different specificities, such as Firmao, more dedicated to small and medium-sized businesses, or Hubspot more focused on large businesses.
In other words, ATS is a workflow and compliance tool that manages candidates. As for CRM, it is an ecosystem of all passive and active candidates, as well as anyone who has already applied to your company. The CRM is a real intelligence center for the talents that you can acquire.
Why choose an ATS to recruit?
An ATS offers several advantages that make it an essential choice for recruiters who want to optimize their recruitment process.
Here are 4 reasons why ATS is essential:
1. Automating repetitive tasks:
An ATS simplifies your daily life by automating your repetitive and time-consuming tasks (e.g. sorting resumes, sending notifications to candidates, scheduling your interviews, etc.). This saves you time and allows you to focus on missions with higher added value.
2. Centralization of information:
All candidate data is stored on a single platform that can be accessed at any time. This simplifies access to your exchange histories and allows you to easily follow the evolution of your applications.
3. Improving team collaboration :
An ATS facilitates better collaboration between the members of your team. No more scattered email exchanges, your team can now share feedback, track interactions, and collaborate effectively.
4. Facilitating the pre-selection of candidates:
Thanks to filtering algorithms, an ATS helps you pre-select your candidates based on specific criteria. This feature makes the sorting process faster and more accurate, allowing you to focus on the most promising candidates.
Why choose a CRM to recruit?
A CRM offers advantages that allow you to strengthen your recruitment strategies:
1. Proactive candidate management/Candidate nurturing :
A CRM allows you to develop long-term relationships with your candidates, especially those who are not actively looking for a job. For example, you can keep passive candidates engaged by sending them relevant content, updates about your business, or future opportunities, which increases your chances of recruiting them when they become available.
2. Advanced segmentation:
A CRM allows you to segment your candidates according to several criteria (e.g. skills, experience, location, level of commitment, etc.). You can thus target your recruitment actions more precisely and personalize your communications for each group of candidates.
3. Commitment monitoring:
You can track and measure the engagement of your candidates, whether through opening emails, clicking on links, or responding to communications. This data helps you identify the most interested candidates and adjust your communication strategies to maximize your conversions.
4. Improving the candidate experience:
Unlike an ATS, which is often focused on the recruitment process, a CRM focuses on the candidate experience. It allows communications to be personalized according to the preferences and individual needs of candidates, improving the perception of the company as an attentive and responsive employer.
While ATS remains the most used tool, CRM is gaining in importance. Indeed, many analysts think that in the future 60% of the recruitment process will be managed by CRM!
But how do you know if you need a CRM or an ATS?
How do you know if you need a CRM or an ATS?
ATS and CRM have distinct goals in talent management. ATS focuses on automating the hiring process, making it ideal for effectively managing a large volume of applications.
Conversely, CRM focuses on building long-term relationships with candidates, by allowing personalized and targeted exchanges, even with those who are not actively looking for candidates.
So, the choice between a recruitment CRM and an ATS depends on several key factors related to your specific recruitment needs.
This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it should give you an indicator of whether or not you can use a CRM.
Do you actively source candidates?
If your hiring process is mostly reactive, meaning you only deal with candidates who have applied, an ATS is the ideal tool. It will allow you to effectively manage the follow-up of applications, centralize information and automate repetitive tasks. On the other hand, a CRM takes a more proactive approach. It will help you identify the prospects you really want and allows you to maintain new relationships over the long term.
Are you a team of multiple recruiters?
If you are a small team, an ATS may be enough to meet your needs. It makes it possible to centralize applications and ensure effective collaboration between team members.
If, on the contrary, you are part of a company that has several teams of recruiters or has a specialized department, a CRM becomes essential. It allows the entire team to share notes, track candidates, develop and maintain candidate prospects, and document activity transparently and collaboratively across the organization.
Do you have profiles that are difficult to source?
If you're mainly recruiting for current positions and are always inundated with applications, an ATS will help you quickly and efficiently sort through candidates.
On the other hand, if you are looking for rare or highly specialized profiles such as PHP developers, your success will depend on the ability to set up a pipeline of candidates and maintain relationships, and not only by posting an ad on a jobboard.
This is where CRM comes into its own: its very purpose is to help you build a pool of passive talents that match your employer brand and to your career opportunities.
Do you need to fill positions quickly?
If you need to fill positions quickly in high-turnover environments, an ATS is essential to effectively manage the continuous flow of applications. On the other hand, for longer recruitment cycles that require regular monitoring and maintaining relationships with candidates, a CRM is more appropriate.
Do you have a large number of candidate profiles in your ATS?
How many candidates have applied to your company over the years? Thousands? More?
This data is accumulating in your ATS, obsolete and unusable. There may be hundreds of candidates who are relevant for positions, but the data is inaccurate, so you'll never know.
A good CRM can automatically update all the data from your ATS and allow you to target the best of these previous candidates for positions.
Do you participate in job fairs or launch online communication campaigns to generate interest?
Job fairs and online communication campaigns are a great way to build your employer brand and attract passive candidates. The problem is that it's hard to measure ROI. It's hard to keep up with candidates who came to your event or saw your campaign.
Too often, you are unable to express the value of the event in the first place!
A good CRM will automatically track the participants in your events and the prospects for your campaigns. It will help you maintain these budding relationships and give you the numbers you need to prove to your boss how valuable initiatives are!
Why not combine ATS and CRM?
Choosing between ATS and CRM may seem difficult, but the real added value is often found in combining them. By using both tools, you improve both the efficiency of your recruitment process and the management of your long-term relationships with your candidates. This approach allows data to be managed in a fluid and proactive manner, integrating a comprehensive view of each candidate's journey, from the first application to the long-term commitment.
How do you know if you need a recruitment CRM?
Recruiting CRMs are increasingly the sexy choice (in as far as recruiting systems can be sexy), but how do you know if you really need them?
This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it should give you an indicator of whether or not you can use a CRM.
1. Do you actively source candidates?
The ATS is fully responsive - you can only use it to deal with candidates who have applied. There is an obvious problem here. If you are actively looking for candidates, you cannot use your ATS.
On the contrary, a good CRM allows you to be proactive, to target the prospects you really want and to build new relationships.
2. Are you a team of multiple recruiters?
If you're a recruiter working solo, you could get away with keeping the details of the relationship in your head and balancing a number of different recruiting tools.
If, on the other hand, you are part of a team, all of your candidate data should be accessible at all times. You need to know the status of each relationship and whether colleagues have already spoken to a candidate.
With a recruiting CRM, you and your team can share notes, track candidates, develop and maintain candidate prospects, and document activity transparently and collaboratively across the organization.
3. Do you have profiles that are difficult to source?
While some positions will always be inundated with applications, many profiles are much more difficult to recruit than others.
If you're looking for PHP developers, your success will depend on the ability to build a pipeline of candidates and maintain relationships, not just by posting an ad on a jobboard.
This is where CRM comes into its own: its very purpose is to help you build a pool of passive talents that match your employer brand and to your career opportunities.
4. Do you have a large number of candidate profiles in your ATS?
How many candidates have applied to your company over the years? Thousands? More?
This data is currently rotting in your ATS, obsolete and unusable. There may be hundreds of candidates who are relevant for positions, but the data is inaccurate, so you'll never know.
The right CRM can automatically update all the data from your ATS and allow you to target the best of these previous candidates for positions.
5. Do you participate in job fairs or launch online communication campaigns to generate interest?
Job fairs and online communication campaigns are a great way to build your employer brand and attract passive candidates. The problem is that it's hard to measure ROI. It's hard to keep up with candidates who came to your event or saw your campaign.
Too often, you are unable to express the value of the event in the first place!
A good CRM will automatically track the participants in your events and the prospects for your campaigns. It will help you maintain these budding relationships and give you the numbers you need to prove to your boss how valuable initiatives are!
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- Detection of active and passive candidates across the web based on the largest HR targeting database (socio-demographic, behavioral and contextual criteria).
- Distribution of opportunities in the form of attractive advertising, in the right place and at the right time across the entire web, where your target navigates every day among millions of websites, mobile applications and social networks.
- Generating interest, receiving relevant candidates directly into your ATS or CRM tool, regardless of your enrollment process.
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