Ready to reach more applicants and fill positions faster? Learn how candidate relationship management software helps your agency compete for top talent.
Article Highlights:
- What is Candidate Relationship Management?
- What is Candidate Relationship Management Software?
- How It Benefits Government Recruiters
- The Best CRM Software
For the past several years, government agencies have been facing staffing shortages. As a public sector recruiter, you understand the challenge better than most. It’s hard to fill open positions. According to a recent NEOGOV survey, roughly 6–10% of government jobs remain unfilled. Why is it so difficult?
It’s hard to find qualified candidates. There are fewer of them applying for public sector jobs, so you’re not just competing with the private sector – you’re competing with other agencies as well. Unfortunately, manual recruiting processes are still prevalent in government HR, making it difficult to compete for top talent.
The public sector needs a solution because the stakes are high. Unfilled positions put extra pressure on existing staff, increase overtime hours, and reduce the quality or quantity of services – all of which contribute to employee turnover.
The solution is managing relationships with candidates more effectively. But sourcing talent, marketing your agency, communicating with applicants, and analyzing recruitment data takes a lot of time. That’s why you need candidate relationship management software. Keep reading to learn more about this ultimate recruitment hack.
What is Candidate Relationship Management?
In sales and marketing, there’s something called customer relationship management. Simply put, this is the process of generating interest and nurturing relationships to increase future profitability. Most companies use software to manage their relationship with customers, as well as collect and analyze data, because it would take too long to do it well manually. Public sector HR needs to adopt the same mentality with candidates.
Candidate relationship management (CRM) is the process of sourcing qualified candidates and nurturing relationships with them over time, with the goal of matching the right candidate with the right job (even if the right job isn’t currently available).
Managing candidates effectively requires a structured system. This system should include a candidate database, clear and consistent communication, and the ability to measure the success of recruitment campaigns. You don’t have to use software, but doing it manually takes a lot of time – time you don’t have. With a candidate relationship management system, you can easily do all this and more.
What is Candidate Relationship Management Software?
The keyword in candidate relationship management software is relationship. No matter how many applicants you source for an open job, you can only hire one person. By maintaining relationships with talented candidates over time, you make it easier to hire for future positions.
A candidate management system lets you market your agency, source more applicants, connect with top talent, and track recruiting efforts with real-time data. Sound appealing? Here are the key features public sector agencies need in a CRM tool:
- Access to a talent pool of government job seekers
- Customizable landing pages for events, departments, etc. (without IT support)
- Ability to add custom forms and CTAs to landing pages (without IT support)
- Cloud-based storage with all candidate information
- Ability to tag/organize candidates by skills, role preference, etc.
- Automatic candidate notifications when a new job matches their skills
- Bulk, automated email sends
- Real-time analytics to measure the success of recruiting efforts
- Integration with other recruitment tools (applicant tracking systems, job boards, etc.)
How a CRM Benefits Government Recruiters
Let’s say you source 30 applicants. Five might be qualified for the job and another five might be qualified for a different job that’s not open yet. You can only hire one person for the role, which means you have to reject nine qualified candidates. When you begin hiring for another open position in three months, you have to start the sourcing process all over.
With candidate relationship management, you don’t have to start over from zero.
Some HR teams may have a manual process, like an Excel or Google spreadsheet, for tracking candidates you want to stay in touch with. But it takes a lot of time to review a spreadsheet, copy/paste email addresses, hope contact info is still accurate, manually send emails to each candidate, and respond to anyone interested. When you multiply this across every new job and every past candidate, the time adds up.
In contrast, candidate relationship management software automates these tedious tasks so you can focus your attention elsewhere. It saves you time, letting you do more with less resources. Let’s explore a few of these time-saving benefits.
Reach More Candidates
With the right CRM software, you never have to start sourcing from scratch. Every solution should provide a database of past applicants with automated tools for connecting with them.
Some solutions even integrate with job boards. For example, NEOGOV Attract integrates with GovernmentJobs.com, giving you access to 2.4 million public sector job seekers.
Fill Positions Faster
As seen in the features listed above, candidate relationship management systems should let you tag and organize candidates in your database. That way, when you post a new job, it automatically sends emails to every candidate with matching skills and preferences.
This saves time and effort while delivering a better result. With a single click, you can send candidates personalized emails in bulk. Thanks to automated post-event outreach emails, you can encourage candidates to apply to an open role without lifting a finger.
Increase Candidate Quality
In the competitive landscape of public sector recruiting, employer branding matters. No matter how good your agency’s culture, pay, or benefits, it means nothing to a candidate if you don’t know how to promote yourself.
Candidate relationship management software makes marketing the benefits of working at your agency a breeze. Build branded landing pages tailored for specific departments, events, and more. Create articles that give candidates an inside view of your team, benefits, and more. And do it all without IT support.
Make Data-Driven Decisions
Data should drive recruiting strategy. Otherwise, you’re just throwing things against the wall, hoping something sticks. More often than not, HR ends up repeating the same tactics that simply don’t work.
CRM technology lets you measure how many views and conversions you’re getting for each job or overall. You can even track email campaign metrics like opens, clicks, applications, qualified candidates and hires. With this recruiting data at your fingertips, you can make strategic decisions to get ahead of the competition (and source better candidates) because you know what works and what doesn’t.
The Best CRM Software
Do you need help finding qualified candidates for hard-to-fill jobs? It starts by building relationships with candidates.
You can only hire one candidate for one job, but candidate relationship management software lets you leverage relationships with past applicants to hire the right person for every new job posting. It also helps you market your agency more effectively, so you can beat out the competition for top talent.
But not all CRM tools are created equal. NEOGOV’s candidate management software, Attract, comes with all the features and benefits listed above. It’s the ultimate recruitment hack for public sector HR. Schedule a no-obligation demo now to learn how Attract can help you source more qualified candidates, faster and easier than you thought possible.
