With the array of hiring tools available in today’s market, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed with choice. But with organizations today still battling a skills shortage, finding the right HR tech to drive productivity and optimal hiring processes is vital. We’re going to break down two of the most common —and most important —hiring tools in today’s tech stack: a Recruitment Marketing CRM, and an Applicant Tracking System.
There is a common misconception that these two tools are interchangeable —or, that if you have an ATS, you don’t need a CRM (or vice versa). But, the key is to use both these tools together: by doing so, recruiting teams can increase their impact, boost their chances of finding quality talent and convert more candidates by streamlining the hiring process, end-to-end.
Let’s unpack each of these tools in more detail and outline how they can be used together to transform your approach to hiring.
What is a recruitment marketing CRM?
A recruitment marketing CRM, or candidate relationship management system, is software that optimizes the pre-apply stage of the hiring process. It can help with sourcing, talent pipelining and maximizing recruiter effort through automation and candidate matching. It’s a powerful segmentation tool that also supports large-scale candidate engagement through automated nurtures and pre-set workflows. CRMs can also integrate with a range of other hiring tools —like your career site or your ATS — to help drive more interest at the top of the recruiting funnel.
What is an ATS?
An ATS supports the hiring process post-application. ATS’s help suggest best-fit candidates through calculated keyword matching, screening questions, and data analysis —as well as supporting compliance and decentralized recruitment by establishing a single source of truth. They help to provide a seamless and engaging experience for applicants through automated communication —removing double handling and speeding up decision-making. Plus, the ATS often integrates with a range of other vendors to encapsulate video interviewing, job posting, background checking and onboarding benefits. It provides a central hub for all hiring activity from application, to offer and beyond.
What’s the difference between a recruitment CRM and an ATS?
The two systems work at different stages of the candidate journey: one before, the other after a candidate hits ‘apply’. Today, an ATS alone is not enough. Without a steady flow of prospective candidates at the top of the recruiting funnel, the ATS cannot function with maximum efficiency. And, without an ATS, the CRM only takes candidates half the way there. To put it simply, both a CRM and ATS are equally important to attract, engage and hire the best talent with less manual input and greater ROI. For a truly seamless approach to recruitment, 2 way integration (where both system integrate and share data) is preferred.
Enhance your ATS with a recruitment marketing CRM
With today’s job market becoming increasingly competitive, successful hiring teams have shifted to a more proactive approach: prioritizing candidate engagement, and taking a streamlined approach to recruitment.
When companies integrate a recruitment marketing CRM with their ATS, it gives talent teams a clear picture of the hiring process, all the way from the candidate sourcing right through to the end hire. Hiring teams can use this data to inform future decisions and future-proof their talent strategy. During peak seasons, CRMs relieve the stress of filling a pipeline —and during slow times, HR teams can focus on lead nurturing to drive applications.
With an overarching view of what’s working and what’s not, recruiting professionals can better evaluate their talent pipelines, sourcing channels and process efficiency to guide decisions and future investments. By taking a long-term strategic approach to talent acquisition, teams see greater ROI and overall better hiring outcomes.
Final thoughts
The Clinch CRM is part of a suite of Recruitment Marketing tools designed to attract, engage and convert the best talent with less effort. It’s an ATS agnostic (it integrates with your existing software), all-in-one tool to mobilize high-quality candidates. From intelligent career sites designed to capture interest and build talent pipelines, to a powerful CRM to sort, filter and tag prospective applicants. Candidates are fed through the CRM and placed into automated workflows to nurture them through to application. The Clinch Suite also includes dashboards, heatmaps and in-depth analytics to help hiring teams fine tune their strategies, and understand their talent pipeline health at-a-glance.
If you’re interested in learning more about how Clinch can supercharge your existing tech stack to help you find the best talent, faster than ever —book a demo today.
