What Is Candidate Management & How it Improves Recruiting Outcomes

A successful recruitment process is all about the candidate experience. To attract top talent, companies need to have a hiring process that is quick and painless. The best candidates get hired quickly. If your application takes too long or you are too slow to make an offer, these candidates will move on to other opportunities. Using an applicant tracking system can help you develop a candidate management process that engages candidates, gets them to the top of your recruiting funnel, and enables you to keep them moving expeditiously through the hiring process.

What is Candidate Management?

Candidate management is a recruitment strategy that is primarily focused on the candidate experience and building relationships with applicants. Think of it as relationship management. Candidate management builds relationships with applicants from the first job posting through onboarding. Its goal is to improve a company’s recruiting process to enhance its brand.

To attract quality candidates, you need to build your brand reputation. Nothing is more important in this process than creating an ideal candidate experience. Offer a great candidate experience, and your company is seen as a top employer, giving you an edge over the competition. Provide a bad candidate experience and the opposite will occur. A company with a reputation for treating candidates poorly will be looked over or dismissed by serious applicants.

How Does it Affect Talent Acquisition?

Candidate management affects the entire talent acquisition process.

It helps you stay in touch.

Focusing on candidate management means you stay in contact with applicants throughout each step of the hiring process. Nothing is worse for the candidate experience than an applicant who is simply ghosted by their prospective employer. It can be good to give the candidate a few days to call you and follow up but don’t leave them waiting in the dark for much longer. Good applicants may go on to accept another offer. Candidates who are unhappy with their experience will let everyone know about it.

It starts to build a real relationship.

Candidate management processes, like communicating with applicants about where they stand in the hiring process, help companies build rapport with applicants. When candidates get a text from a hiring manager that a decision will be made soon or just to see if the candidate has questions, the candidate starts to feel less like another in a long line of applicants and more like a valued prospect. They are more likely to be engaged in the process and less likely to take another offer.

It frees up extra time.

Take a page out of your customer relationship management book and automate some of the communications with candidates. Staying in contact with candidates is essential but texting and emailing each applicant can be nearly impossible. Using AI as part of your candidate management process makes communicating with candidates more efficient. AI for recruitment can chat with candidates over a variety of platforms, capture and store candidate information, screen potential candidates and even schedule interviews. AI also enhances the candidate experience with quick, knowledgeable interactions. An AI assistant can answer thousands of questions with a personalized touch, 24/7.

What Is Candidate Relationship Management?

Candidate relationship management (CRM) is how you put all the processes and tools together that help you attract, recruit and hire new employees. According to HR Technologist, CRM helps employers build a talent pipeline by engaging and nurturing candidates, guiding them down the recruiting funnel. Software that automates CRM processes, like an Applicant Tracking System (ATS), can help employers build that talent pipeline by automating tasks that keep candidates engaged along the way.

Gathering candidate data.

An ATS collects and stores data from each candidate that applies, including the ones who are rejected. A searchable database of quality candidates allows companies to quickly source new talent. It is easier, faster and less expensive to reach out to past applicants whose qualifications align with the position and ask them to reapply than to repost the job. Not only does this benefit the recruiter but it improves the employer’s online brand; employers who continue to engage candidates, even the rejected ones, provide a better overall candidate experience. Recruiters can also analyze the data to see what types of candidates they’re attracting and from where, i.e., through job boards, social media or their own website’s careers page.

Acquiring specialized talent.

Healthcare, construction, manufacturing, education are all industries that need employees with a specific level of expertise. Finding candidates for positions in these fields means using targeted recruiting tactics to narrow the talent pool. Using talent acquisition strategies allows companies to source candidates through niche job boards and lure them away from the competition by showcasing their company culture and offering unique benefits.

Automating communication.

Once recruiters target the candidates they wish to attract, communication efforts help guide them down the recruiting funnel. An ATS will automatically email candidates with personalized messages thanking them for applying and updating them on their progress. Email messages keep the candidate engaged in the position while hiring decisions are being made.

Scheduling interviews.

The screening process involves using a phone interview to gauge candidate qualifications before a face-to-face interview is considered. An ATS with AI capabilities can automatically schedule these early interviews, saving recruiters from personally checking calendars and rescheduling when conflicts arise. An AI assistant has access to the calendars of everyone involved in the hiring process, eliminating scheduling conflicts. And the AI assistant stays in contact with the candidate the entire time.

Gather feedback.

The last part of the CRM process is gathering feedback from the candidates who applied and current employees. An ATS helps employers gain direct feedback from candidates via surveys.

Importance of Communicating Properly with Talent

Communication is a big part of candidate management. It is intertwined with every step. You can’t build a relationship without communication. How you talk and communicate with candidates will quickly define how they feel about their overall experience. No one wants to feel ignored. There is already so much uncertainty when applying for a new position that leaving candidates in the lurch only creates more fear and frustration. Candidates are already thinking “Will I be hired?” “Will this position be a better fit for me?” and “Will I be happier with this company?” Having to worry about why they’re not getting information will only sour them on the entire experience.

Keep communication consistent throughout the hiring process.

• ​Automate email and/or text communications (Thank you for applying, we’re reviewing your application, a recruiter will connect with you soon, etc.)
• ​Schedule multiple meetings or events to get to know high-quality candidates (Arrange informal meetings with potential team members)
• ​Get feedback from candidates (Do you have any questions or concerns? Do you have any ideas for this position?)

Arcoro offers automated hiring solutions so you can focus on improving the overall candidate experience. Linking your employer brand with cutting-edge HR software can give you the competitive edge you need. You don’t want to fail to attract top candidates because your technology is outdated. Using superior software during applicant tracking, onboarding and recruiting can not only make the process easier for you and your applicants, but it can also make the difference between struggling with a lack of talent and finding the new hires your team needs to reach business goals and increase return on investment.