In recruitment circles, CRM stands for Candidate Relationship Management. In other industries, the ‘C’ in CRM can instead stand for Customer or Client. A CRM in recruitment is primarily used to automate communication and keep candidate information up to date.
What is TAT?
Known in full as ‘Turnaround Time’, TAT is an acronym used to reflect how long the initial stages of the recruitment process take. It is given as the number of days between a position ‘opening’ and a candidate accepting an offer. There are other similar metrics that take into account the wait between offer/acceptance and start date, and even the time from the vacancy ‘opening’ through to a candidate starting.
As a recruiter, one of the key challenges is to keep the time between a vacancy becoming available and the candidate starting their role as short as possible – whilst also ensuring the best candidates are hired.
What are the advantages of using a CRM?
There are a number of benefits to using a Candidate Relationship Management system. The main ones are:
Reduced paperwork: Having everything in a digital format is a great way of reducing paperwork and is more eco-friendly.
Automation of some tasks: CRMs are able to automate some of the more repetitive tasks, freeing up time for recruitment staff to spend on building relationships with candidates.
Analytics: Many CRM systems have built-in tools allowing for analysis of the recruitment function performance.
Communications: A CRM enables timely, relevant and personalised communications with potential, current, and even past candidates.
Speed: Perhaps the key benefit is that using a CRM can speed things up overall.
What is a web-based CRM?
A web-based CRM is essentially a system that ‘lives’ in the Cloud as opposed to local computers. There are many advantages to these systems.
What are the advantages of web-based CRMs?
– Accessibility is one of the key advantages. A web-based CRM can theoretically be accessed from any device anywhere in the world there is an internet connection.
– Collaboration is much easier with a web-based system. Multiple people can access the same information and can work on the same files/records at the same time.
– When a system is in the Cloud, updates to the software are dealt with by the provider so you will always be running the safest and most up-to-date versions.
– Web-based CRM systems are more easily integrated with existing software such as GSuite or Office 365 programmes. They can also be integrated/linked to payroll, HR, or finance systems.
How can using a CRM helps reduce TAT?
Any CRM (web-based or otherwise) will be able to reduce the TAT and also should be able to significantly reduce the length of time between advertising a vacancy and a candidate starting in that role. This is through a mixture of automation (communications, offer letters, reference requests etc.) and better organisation/record-keeping.
- Companies can identify and reach out to relevant candidates who are potentially open to new opportunities.
- Streamline and easily manage the data across various stages of the hiring pipeline – number of people interviewed, shortlisted, offered the job, accepted and joined.
- Compare turnover rate – the percentage of people leaving the company within a certain period of time. Automating the whole process through CRM can help the recruitment team to make better hiring decisions.
