Like practically every other industry, the world of talent acquisition has changed drastically over time. From help wanted signs, to job boards, to career sites, to AI technology and virtual assistants – the innovations that we’ve seen are all intended to make it easier for employers to publicize jobs and for prospects to discover and act on those opportunities.
But, despite these advances (or because of, depending on who you talk to), the hiring cycle can sometimes feel more transactional than ever. As organizations funnel candidates through step after step of technology and oftentimes various layers of red tape, prospects can be left wondering where they stand in a hiring process or if they really know the organization at all. In addition, with current employment trends as they stand today (higher unemployment rates and more jobs open per available worker), the candidates within your talent pool are looking for more – more about your company’s values, more understanding about whether a job and your organization are a right fit, and greater, more intuitive connections to your talent acquisition team. To solve these challenges and more, many employers are increasingly turning to Candidate Relationship Management (CRM) as an addition to their current tech stack.
What is CRM and why does it matter?
Like many hiring strategies, this concept got its start in the consumer world. We have all been the recipients of countless relationship marketing campaigns. Turning to your own inbox, you’re sure to see these ongoing branded messages in the form of loyalty programs, custom product recommendations based on past purchases, and requests for feedback to services rendered, etc. We see these methods of marketing so frequently from the brands we interact with because the ROI is clear: consumers who engage with these channels are more likely to make repeat purchases, more likely to give referrals and more likely to think positively toward the companies that use these sorts of communication tactics.
The great thing about these types of campaigns is they’re also very successful when applied to candidate communications (e.g., messaging around active opportunities, initiatives and company value propositions) – and we have the numbers to prove it. As an example, when comparing our own Radancy CRM metrics to standard consumer relationship marketing benchmarks, we see higher interactions across the board. That includes approximately 14% higher open rates, 4% higher clickthrough rates, and 7% higher click-to-open rates. And as for why we’re seeing this delta between candidate vs. consumer marketing, the reasons behind this higher engagement can likely be boiled down to the content – the relevancy and the core purpose behind these sorts of communications. Through the lens of our target audiences, these are not messages about coffee discounts or shoes – this is highly relevant information that can lead to a life-changing new job or career, and candidates are more than interested in receiving these types of tailored communications.
By adding Radancy’s Candidate Relationship Management into your own strategies, your team can realize solutions to multiple hiring challenges. It can help those who:
- Need an easy way to connect with candidates prior to application
- Are interested in tapping into an owned and interested talent pool of prospects
- Want to offer recruiters a way to surface relevant candidates from multiple sources
- Are looking to automate communications and workflows
– CRM is the platform that can do it all.
How to successfully deploy your CRM
The way each organization chooses to activate Candidate Relationship Management is likely to be unique to their own needs and current processes, but there are some things to keep in mind that will help you build a framework to support a plan of action that will work for you.
First, consider how relationship marketing will align back to your organization’s holistic strategy, and how a CRM platform in particular can function as a conduit for your broader initiatives. Think about your team’s end goals – are those to increase headcount, decrease spend on media, hit on targeted diversity goals, or support new business units – whatever your objectives are, relationship marketing can function as a powerful channel to drive results.
Once your goals are identified, you can then begin the process of outlining your communication plan. Define your audience by thinking about who you’ll be targeting and what sort of content you’ll want to deliver. Review how you’re connecting with this audience today and where relationship marketing might fit into this workflow. Once you’ve identified where these communications will fit best for you, consider what your messaging structure will look like as well as the cadence and behavioral triggers you might utilize for any multi-step drip campaigns. And finally, build in time to analyze your results – after a campaign is deployed, review your engagement as well as your internal processes, and consider where improvements may lie for your next send.
Using data to fuel your CRM strategy
In addition to CRM being another useful channel to add to your team’s arsenal, this particular form of communication can be amplified through the use of collected candidate data points. By tapping into a user’s behavioral, contextual and explicitly shared data, a CRM connected to this level of candidate detail can provide incredibly customized experiences.
As an example, when a candidate engages with a Radancy career site, we are capturing and storing their physical location, source, time of visit, content viewed and other behaviors on-site. When they enter a Radancy Talent Community, we’re able to pair even more data to this candidate’s unique profile, such as work history, education, contact information and more. This data is then made available to the CRM platform and can be leveraged in an almost infinite number of ways. That might include delivering triggered email campaigns based on a user’s interests or behavior on site (for example, segmented spotlight content, event invites or dynamic job alerts tailored to a user’s profile). This data may also be used to facilitate more pointed communications by a recruiter, such as using this information to search, or AI match to relevant candidates. And communication isn’t relegated only to candidates who enter your talent community in this way – Radancy’s CRM users are also able to tap into an ATS or other imported records and connect via one-to-one or one-to-many through emails, text messages or even voice over IP calling.
Why clients choose Radancy’s CRM for their needs
A final key differentiator to a well-structured CRM plan is of course which platform you’ll choose to bring strategy and data together. There are several options out there, from ATSs with CRM-like functionality, to consumer-based software like Salesforce or MailChimp, but if you’re serious about activating your talent community, you’ll want to invest in a technology that makes your processes seamless and intuitive for candidates and your internal teams alike.
With Radancy’s Unified Platform and CRM, your teams will be able to deploy multi-channel communications, access the sourcing, segmentation and AI matching you’ll need to connect with the right candidates at the right time, and leverage the data points that are going to be most relevant. In addition, as with other Radancy solutions, our CRM is offered as software with a service – that includes templates designed for your needs, expert product support and strategy provided by our dedicated account-based teams.
At the end of the day, our roles in this unique world of work have always been about building connections to candidates and applicants. As you think about your initiatives, goals and audiences today, I encourage you to consider how the deeper communications made possible by Candidate Relationship Marketing may be able to serve your teams, your organization and your prospects best, bring a bit more humanization to the hiring cycle and deliver the results you deserve.
Radancy’s Unified Platform, augmented by rich data and deep industry expertise, is revolutionizing how employers attract and hire the talent they need. Want to see what we can achieve together? Connect with us today.
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