Boost Hiring: 5 Top Candidate Relationship Management Tips

As a hiring manager or recruiter, one of your biggest challenges is attracting the best talent for your company.

At Vouch, we are big on building your Employer Brand to achieve this in a highly competitive job market - and reach both active and passive candidates, as more is needed to rely on job postings and traditional recruitment methods. To succeed, you need to implement effective candidate relationship management strategies.

Candidate relationship management is about building and maintaining strong relationships with potential talents throughout the hiring process. By leveraging powerful technology like Video and adopting best practices, you can streamline your talent acquisition efforts, enhance the candidate experience, and ultimately boost your hiring success.

Key Takeaways:

• Effective candidate relationship management can significantly improve your hiring success.
• Your company should also use candidate relationship management to retain the best talent.
• By leveraging recruitment software and technology like Vouch, you can streamline your talent acquisition efforts and reduce your time and cost per hire.
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Understanding Candidate Relationship Management

Suppose you want to improve your recruitment process and attract the best talent. In that case, you need to understand candidate relationship management (CRM), the strategy that focuses on building and nurturing relationships with potential employees throughout the hiring process.

Combined with your Employer Brand, these efforts can significantly improve your hiring success, attract the best talent and reduce your cost per hire significantly.

Effective candidate relationship management involves leveraging technology like Vouch, social media, and other communication channels like LinkedIn groups to reach potential employees and maintain interaction throughout the hiring process. Tracking and analytics are also required to improve the candidate experience continually.
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The Key Benefits of Candidate Relationship Management

The key benefits of candidate relationship management include relationship building, communication, and engagement. While these can sound time-consuming for the HR and hiring team, these benefits are immense:

• Expand your pool of talent and high-value potential employees.
• Attract and retain the best talent for your company.
• Streamlining your hiring process and reducing time-to-hire
• Improving your employer's brand and reputation among job seekers
• Strengthening your talent pool and reducing hiring costs over time

5 Ways To Improve Your Candidate Relationship Management

Building a strong candidate relationship management (CRM) strategy is essential for attracting and retaining top talent. Here are some best practices to help you get started:

1. Communicate regularly

It's essential to keep in touch with your targeted talents throughout the hiring process, even if you don't have any updates for them. Send them personalized emails or messages to show that you value their time and interest in your company.

2. Provide a positive candidate experience

Candidates remember how they were treated, and your recruitment process, so delivering a positive experience at every step is important. Ensure the application process is simple and accessible with modern tools, provide clear instructions, and respect their time.

3. Leverage social media

Social media is excellent for building relationships with potential candidates and showcasing your employer brand. Use platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn (big one with recruitment) and Twitter, to share video testimonials, engage with candidates, share job postings, and provide valuable industry insights.

4. Offer feedback

Be sure to provide feedback to candidates, whether they make it to the next round of interviews or not. This shows that you value their effort and interest in your organization and helps them to improve their skills for future opportunities.

5. Track your candidate data

Use analytics to keep track of candidate data, such as their contact information, resume, and interview notes. This can help you build a more personalized relationship with each candidate and streamline your hiring process.

Effective candidate relationship management is about building genuine relationships with potential candidates. You need to be sincere and authentic at all times.

Candidate relationship management is an ongoing process that requires ongoing attention. By incorporating these best practices into your recruitment strategy, you can attract active and passive candidates and expand your talent pipeline.

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The Role of Relationship Managers in Candidate Relationship Management

Relationship managers usually drive candidate relationship management throughout the hiring process. Relationship managers must possess amazing communication skills, strong interpersonal skills, and the ability to engage with candidates on a deeper level.

One key responsibility is providing timely and relevant information to candidates, answering their questions, and addressing their concerns.

Relationship managers are the go-to people for candidates.

Moreover, relationship managers must work closely with other recruitment stakeholders, such as recruiters, hiring managers, and HR teams, to ensure a seamless and efficient recruitment process—to gather feedback, address candidate issues, and streamline the process.
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Leveraging Customer Relationship Management Technology

Technology has transformed the way businesses approach candidate relationship management. Customer relationship management (CRM) software can help you streamline your hiring process, manage candidate data, and improve your recruitment strategy. Here are some examples of CRM tools you can use:

1. Try Vouch

Vouch is a simple Video tool to improve your candidates' hiring journey. Vouch adds context and builds trust with candidates the right way, helping to onboard in less time. One of the biggest benefits of Vouch is that you can seamlessly transition your customer relationship management into your Employer Brand videos, which is a powerful set of tools.

2. Consider HubSpot

This all-in-one marketing, sales, and service platform allows you to manage candidate relationships from one central location. You can use it to track candidate activity, send personalized emails and messages, and automate tasks. Vouch integrates perfectly with Hubspot, too, so you can include all of the powerful Video tools within Hubspot.

3. Look into Lever

This cloud-based recruitment software offers a range of features to help you manage your hiring process more efficiently. With Lever, you can create customized candidate pipelines, track candidate activity on social media, and send bulk emails to targeted groups. It also integrates with Vouch.

4. Test out TalentLyft

Talentlyft recruitment software offers a range of tools to help you attract and engage candidates. You can create targeted job postings, track candidate applications, and communicate with candidates via email and SMS. Combined with Vouch, this is a powerful set of tools for your candidate relationship management strategy.

By leveraging recruitment technology, you can provide a better candidate experience and improve your chances of attracting and retaining top talent. Whether you're a small business or a large corporation, these tools can help you achieve hiring success.

5. Check out Beamery

Beamery is a powerful tool designed to streamline the recruitment process by assisting recruiters in identifying, sourcing, and engaging candidates with the necessary skills and potential for success within an organization.

By leveraging Beamery, recruiters can expedite the talent acquisition process, locate qualified candidates efficiently, and ultimately reduce hiring times significantly.

Additionally, Beamery enables recruiters to swiftly build relationships with engaged talent, fostering a positive candidate experience and enhancing the overall recruitment strategy. Its innovative features and user-friendly interface make it an indispensable asset for modern recruitment teams looking to optimize their hiring efforts.
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FAQs

Q. What is candidate relationship management?

Candidate relationship management refers to the strategies and processes used to build and maintain strong relationships with potential candidates throughout the hiring process. It involves effectively engaging and communicating with candidates to attract and retain the best talent for an organization.

Q. Why is candidate relationship management important?

Like your Employer Brand and Employee Value Propositions (EVPs), candidate relationship management is important because it allows your company to attract and retain top talent effectively. By nurturing relationships with candidates, you can create a positive candidate experience, improve your employer brand, and streamline your hiring process.

Q. How does candidate relationship management on LinkedIn improve employer branding in hiring and recruitment?

Candidate Relationship Management (CRM) on LinkedIn enhances employer branding in hiring and recruitment by maintaining a continuous and positive engagement with potential candidates. By utilizing LinkedIn’s CRM tools, companies can build and nurture relationships with candidates, ensuring they stay informed and interested in the company's culture and opportunities.

This consistent engagement helps create a positive perception of the employer brand, making it more attractive to top talent. Effective CRM strategies on LinkedIn contribute to a smoother recruitment process, increased candidate satisfaction, and a stronger overall employer brand.

Q. How can email analytics improve recruiting efficiency?

Email analytics through a CRM system can significantly enhance recruiting efficiency by providing insights into the effectiveness of your email communications with candidates. By analyzing metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, and response times, recruiters can identify which email strategies most successfully engage the right people.

This data allows talent management to optimize recruiting emails, ensuring they are more targeted and impactful. Effective use of email analytics helps streamline the recruitment process, improve candidate engagement, and ultimately lead to better hiring outcomes and positive talent experience.

Q. What is the role of relationship managers in candidate relationship management?

Relationship managers are crucial in candidate relationship management, especially in the realms of social media recruiting, employee experience, and inclusion. They play a key role in building and maintaining relationships with applicants, ensuring effective communication and engagement. Relationship managers also provide support and information, acting as a liaison between candidates and the organization's hiring team. They focus on personalization and inclusivity to enhance the overall workforce.

Q. What popular customer relationship management (CRM) tools are used in candidate relationship management?

Some popular customer relationship management (CRM) tools used in recruitment marketing for candidate relationship management by talent acquisition teams include Vouch Video, Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho CRM, Bullhorn, and Greenhouse. These tools offer candidate tracking, communication management, automation, and reporting functionalities to improve the recruitment and hiring process, engaging with both current open positions and future candidates.

Q. How can AI-driven SMS tools assist recruiters in talent acquisition (TA) for enhanced CRM?

AI-driven SMS tools can greatly assist recruiters in Talent Acquisition (TA) by automating and optimizing communication with candidates. These tools leverage AI to personalize messages, schedule follow-ups, and analyze responses, ensuring timely and relevant interactions. Recruiters can use AI to manage large volumes of candidates efficiently, reducing the time spent on manual tasks. This enhances the overall candidate experience and improves the effectiveness of TA strategies, leading to more successful hires and a streamlined recruitment process.

Q. How can effective sourcing and nurture strategies enhance candidate relationship management?

Effective sourcing and nurture strategies are crucial components of candidate relationship management. Sourcing involves proactively identifying and engaging with top talent while nurturing focuses on maintaining and building relationships with these candidates over time.

By combining these approaches, recruiters can create a robust talent pool of engaged candidates and this continuous relationship management ensures candidates feel valued and connected, improving their likelihood of accepting job offers and contributing to a positive employer brand. Enhanced candidate relationship management leads to more efficient recruitment processes and higher-quality hires.
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Conclusion

Candidate relationship management is all about building remarkable, personal relationships with potential candidates.

Whether you run a small or large business, effective candidate relationship management can significantly enhance your recruitment and hiring efforts, and investing in candidate relationship management can help you build your talent pool, improve your candidate experience, and ultimately drive business growth.

For larger companies, your candidate relationship management can help you automate your hiring process and reduce recruitment costs when you hire at scale. Remember, the goal is to attract and retain top talent, and by implementing effective strategies and technologies, you can boost your hiring process to drive your growth and success.
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Like to try Vouch?

Loved by companies like Canva, Nike, Cisco, Stryker, HubSpot, and Amazon, tools like Vouch make leveraging video in your business remarkably easy.

Be sure to book a Vouch demo today and chat with a video content expert.