What is candidate relationship management: definition and examples

Candidate relationship management improves the candidate experience by increasing the rate of engagement with the organization and enhancing talent assessment.

Nowadays, profiles that actively apply for a job or passive candidates with strategic skills for companies are transforming and are looking for projects that share their expectations and offer them a long-term evolution. 

For this reason, there are more and more strategies that blur the boundaries between a candidate and a client, something that requires recruiters to implement marketing dynamics in their recruitment. Thus, positioning employer branding and attending to candidates’ perceptions is unavoidable.

If you want to know more about what is candidate relationship management, know some examples and understand what it can offer you, this article will interest you.

Candidate relationship management definition

Candidate relationship management (CRM) is a strategy for improving relationships with current and future candidates that manages all candidate relationships with the company even before a selection process.

This approach focuses on tailoring the candidate experience to enhance their employee experience, avoiding situations like employee absenteeism, among others,, strengthening their relationship with the organization, increasing their engagement and boosting their performance.

It is also a positive approach for profiles that are not going to be hired, leaving a good feeling that can lead to future applications and recommendations of the company in their environment.

One of the principles of candidate relationship management is to proactively build a meaningful and value-added relationship with the candidate. This implies a more dynamic and active approach to the recruitment and talent assessment processes.

In other words, candidate relationship management adapts the concept of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) from sales teams to Human Resources (HR) to talent management.

What is a candidate relationship management system? Effective features

Candidate relationship management system (CRM) is a comprehensive talent management center where a kind of nursery of different types of profiles is kept: 

• People who have applied for a job in the organization at a given time. 
• Active candidates who are currently undergoing a selection process. 
• Passive candidates, i.e. people who are not actively looking for a job, but who have skills, knowledge and experience that are of interest to companies. 

This tool is very valuable for the creation of a recruitment marketing strategy to attract candidates through personalized campaigns, automate certain communications in the early stages of a selection process, segment candidates based on different criteria, etc. 

It is, in a way, an upgrade of the recruiter and sourcer functions that optimizes resources and improves the success rate of hires, while creating a talent pool.

To benefit from these advantages, you can turn to CRM software, programs based on intelligent automation that have features such as: 

• Talent segmentation and pipelining based on the company’s hiring requirements and goals.
• Objective and relevant talent acquisition reports and data essential to know where the candidates of interest are, how to approach them, which channels to use, etc.
• Personalized environments for each candidate placed at the strategy’s center to adapt the strategy to evolving relationships. 

Candidate relationship management examples

Candidate relationship management softwares are based on CRMs for customer and user management, so they can offer you some tools that are compatible with the management of a marketing strategy adapted to Human Resources (HR). 

However, a CRM specifically designed to create and manage talent pools will always work much better, and combine it with an ATS or Applicant Tracking System, which allows you to manage the entire recruitment process and much more. 

Some examples of CRM software with ATS are Zoho Recruit, Bizneo HR, Ceipal ATS, Breezy or 100Hires. 

Also, some CRM solutions incorporate Artificial Intelligence functions capable of proposing personalized recommendations of candidates according to search criteria, user preferences, etc.

5 tips to get the most out of your candidate relationship management strategy

Once you have found the program that fits your company’s needs, take note of the following recommendations to boost your candidate management: 

1. Make a detailed profile of the type of candidates you need and build strong relationships through the channels where they are found such as social networks, job boards, etc. It is important that you maintain relationships with a pool of top candidates. 
2. Promote your employer branding to attract the talent you are looking for. Normally, the more qualified the talent, the more demanding it will be. Promote Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) initiatives.  
3. Promote respectful, constructive and continuous interaction with candidates with personalized and regular communications that you can automate through CRM and ATS systems. 
4. Encourage candidates in the process and solicit their feedback to better tailor their experience, but also to detect potential flaws to address in future hires. In the same way, it is recommended that you keep in touch with the profiles that were not selected but that fit the company’s needs for future opportunities. 
5. Take care of your evaluation processes with online monitoring systems compatible with your recruitment software. It is essential that they respect privacy and security laws, as well as offer a level playing field. 

At Smowltech, we are well aware of the impact of assessment processes on employer branding. Therefore, we offer our clients proctoring plans that meet the most demanding talent assessment and recruitment processes. If you request a free demo, we can show you all the solutions we can provide to improve your candidates’ experience and help you meet your objectives.