29% of applicants come directly from talent pools built into the applicant tracking system. That’s right — almost one-third of candidates flow into the hiring process directly from an existing database.
But this is not the only reason why a candidate management system plays a crucial role for talent acquisition pros. Regardless of their maturity, recruiters go around the clock to fill all open positions, drowning in too many tasks along the way.
Another struggle involves wading through piles of low-profile resumes and having very few high-quality candidates. Can you relate?
But it doesn’t have to be this way! In this article, you will learn how to:
- create and manage your talent pool
- build relationships with candidates
- upgrade candidate experience
- automate communication with your job seekers
What is a Candidate Management System (CMS)
A Candidate Management System, also known as an Applicant Tracking System (ATS), is a software solution engineered to efficiently turn top talent into a new employee. This technology helps hiring team members and other HR professionals to organize, track, and manage the entire recruitment process.
The baseline of this kind of software comes down to the following:
- posting on the most popular job boards
- parsing and sorting resumes
- evaluating candidates
- scheduling interviews
- and taking care of the communication with candidates and hiring managers.
But, in essence, a candidate management system is a database that keeps track of all candidate information. Having that web app at your fingertips, you can not only access the historical data of their applications and communication. But you can also get the whole hiring process under control and manage hundreds of applications without losing efficiency.
Why CMS can move the needle for your business
According to our research, the average time to hire takes 27 days, and if you work in an IT recruiting agency, it can go up to 42 days. And that’s the average. So, in many cases, finding that perfect match can consume even more time.
Why does it matter? Because time is the most valuable and scarce currency. The pace of our current world is insane. Brands are after the highest quality workforce to drive growth, spark innovation, and maintain a competitive edge.
And — let’s face it — manual administrative tasks don’t come together with hiring qualified candidates fast. The good news is — that a CMS brings automation, advanced search options, and collaborative features to the hiring table.
There are two realities:
- Without a candidate management system — where slow or inefficient hiring translates into vacant positions remaining open for too long, delays in projects, increased workload for existing team members, and potentially lost opportunities for your company. But, unfortunately, that’s not the end of trouble — the old-school way of recruiting means losing elite candidates, who may opt for companies offering a smoother, faster hiring process.
- With a candidate management system — where a streamlined hiring process converts to a higher candidate experience, better hiring decisions, increased quality of candidates, reduced time-to-hire, and improved overall business performance. Let’s say it out loud: a well-oiled recruitment process equals hiring A-players and making it faster. And that directly impacts the company’s bottom line.
- How to select the right candidate management systemSince we’re on the same page regarding the “why”, it’s time to break down the “how”. With so many vendors out there, it can be challenging to shortlist the best candidate management systems.
- That’s why, you should start with:Identifying your recruitment goalsEach business has a set of unique recruitment needs. So, it’s crucial to nail those in your organization or for your clients if you work for a recruiting agency.Meeting with your recruiters should have an agenda including the complexity of your recruiting process, the hiring volume, and any specific problems that raise cortisol levels in your recruiters and hiring managers.Ideally, it would be best if you walked through those questions:
- On average, how many job openings do you typically have to fill in a year?
- On average, how many job applications do you receive per job posting?
- What difficulties are you encountering in your recruitment process right now? Do you need help with time management, unorganized candidate information, or ineffective communication with candidates?
- What specific features are you seeking in a CMS that can solve your challenges?
Got the answers? Great! That will help you develop a clear picture of your recruitment needs and guide you in your search for a suitable CMS.
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- like in TRAFFIT:List your key featuresIn the recruiting reality, you will come across multiple features presented by different candidate management systems. Vendors will try to dazzle you with many tools, some disguised by eye-catchy names but ultimately referring to the same benefits.So, when jumping from one website to another, pay attention to below features:
- User-friendly interface:All applicant tracking software vendors say they have one, but it’s up to you to verify it. Ensure your potential CMS has a free trial option so that you and every recruiter in your team can check if the system is intuitive. Or not.
- Automation tools:Resume screening, parsing, email communication, and other repetitive tasks are a significant time-suck when done manually. Check the scope of automated workflows and activities for which you can use your CMS.
- Advanced search and filtering:Imagine looking for a senior software developer skilled in JavaScript with experience in sustainable energy. And now, imagine finding that candidate profiles in seconds!
- Integration capabilities:Every company runs on a set of software solutions. Make sure your CMS seamlessly integrates with your existing HR tech stack, job boards, social sites, and email providers.
- Analytics and reporting:Spreadsheets are super lame. Whether you want to present your hiring performance to your boss or a client, you need a clean and comprehensive reporting toolkit. Shameless plug — here’s how analytical data
Once you cover this part, you are ready to:
Analyze costs vs benefits
A real-life story of a TRAFFIT client — after implementing changes in their hiring programs, they saved as much as $60k! OK, having any management system costs monthly, but if using software translates into incremental changes, then it’s totally worth it!
But you need to cover this part of the homework before investing. Calculate the cost of using your future software. Some solutions are not transparent regarding pricing, but those who play open cards make it easy for you. You can enter the number of employees using the platform, and the pricing page will calculate it for you.
Fun fact — in TRAFFIT, you don’t have to pay for hiring managers’ seats!
OK, now, set your costs side by side with potential benefits. Calculate the number of hours saved, and think of the higher quality of new employees. It’s also important to note the possible cost savings of reducing employee turnover and shortening time-to-hire.
How to manage your talent pool
Our recent research proves that hiring directly from a talent pool wins the race!
OK, posting job openings on job boards and social media still play a significant role. Still, it’s way faster, cheaper, and more efficient to land new employees from your candidate database. Here’s why:
- You minimize the cost of paid ads and job boards.
- With advanced filters, you can spot your unicorn in minutes.
- You can capitalize on your previous relationships with candidates. Some job seekers had all the energy and flow you liked, but they weren’t fit for an earlier job opening, but they can be perfect for the upcoming one!
This is a sneak peek of how the talent pool in TRAFFIT looks like. The simple buttons above the list of candidates are simple filtering options.
With just one click, you can display candidates according to:
- Job seekers you like (see the little red heart icon? ❤️)
- Professionals that are currently available — as in, they are between jobs and not engaged in other recruitment processes.
- A resume is attached or not.
- What recruitment activities were taken before (consents, email communication, evaluation or interview stage, and other relevant information)
- Candidate details (first name, last name, email, mobile number)
- Candidate source
- Responsible recruiter
But that’s not all! Thanks to advanced filtering and boolean search, you can spot a perfect candidate with the OR, AND, and NOT operators.
Here’s a short instruction on how to put it into action.
Once you select candidates with specific qualifications and — possibly a history of positive prior communications — you can easily assign them to new vacant positions, email or text them, or take more actions within seconds.
And finally, you can constantly build up your talent pool by simply adding new candidates:
How to source candidates
Having a fine-tuned software solution in place should guarantee you candidate management options and hiring directly from a talent pool.
But to coordinate all recruitment activities within your system, you need to play offense first. In other words, you will not catch any fish in a pond that is not stocked. 🐟
So, how to fill your pond with plenty of fish? Here are X primary ways:
LinkedIn sourcing
As a platform that was fundamentally engineered for job seekers and career moves, LinkedIn is the first go-to for every recruiter and hiring manager.
How can you easily transition from browsing professionals on LinkedIn to having them in one system for candidate management and following recruitment steps?
This is where our Talent Sourcing Chrome extension comes in handy! Once installed, you can add a promising candidate directly to TRAFFIT with just one click!
And, if you bump into a candidate that is already in your applicant tracking system, you will see that from the extension level. For existing ones, you can check notes and recruiting processes, if that potential was already after the interview.
Here’s an example of how it looks like:
Application forms and job sites
Building application forms on your website and spreading the word about your vacant positions on various job directories is paramount.
With TRAFFIT applicant tracking software, you can make it a breeze. Your starting point will be creating a new recruitment. Head over to the “Post a job” subtab and hit that shiny red “Post a job” button in the bottom right corner.
Next, complete the first and second steps to create your ad using a template and get the necessary consent. Finally, you can pick the perfect application form template in the third step.
When it comes to getting your job ads in front of more eyeballs, job board publishing is your solution. Here’s how to do that in the TRAFFIT system — after you’ve created and saved your job advertisement, head back to the list of adverts and give that “Publish advertisement” button a click for the right ad.
A window will pop up where you can choose where to post your ad, whether on various job boards or your career page. Once you’ve decided, fill in the category and information, then hit that magical “Publish” button.
Email import and CV parser
Other ways to create a path for your ideal candidate to march into your process are integrating your mailbox with our applicant tracking system and resume parsing.
Let’s start with the first one. Tons of applications land in your inbox every day, right? Connecting two systems allows all those messages to flow straight to your candidate management toolset.
As for resume parsing — who likes manual copy-paste from PDFs? That’s why our tool allows you to fill in all candidate details in your talent pool automatically. And yes, without hours of typing!
Huntoo referral program
Our data show that referral programs own the spotlight when it comes to:
- Faster processes — According to the stats, a whopping 67% of recruiters and employers have experienced a shorter time to fill positions. That’s not all! 55% of referred candidates get hired quicker compared to candidates sourced through other methods.
- Efficiency — In the first and second quarters of 2022, a grand total of 2,542 processes from the TRAFFIT system uncovered an impressive statistic: an astonishing 59% of referred candidates were successfully hired.
- Quality applications — a significant 48% of businesses reveal that their top source for finding top-notch candidates is none other than referrals from their own employees
- Higher retention — Research indicates that employees who are referred by existing employees tend to have longer tenures within the company compared to those hired through other channels.
- Cheaper recruitments — A notable 51% of respondents reported reduced costs when utilizing referrals as a recruitment method. The interesting aspect is that platforms like Huntoo offer a success fee model, where employers pay for candidates who have been successfully hired.
Click here
and check how Huntoo works!
How to save time with automation
Automated workflows
have become a must-have for all candidate management systems in the wild. And taking the repetitive and time-sucking tasks off recruiters’ shoulders is our North Star at TRAFFIT.
With our end-to-end applicant tracking software, you can save hundreds of hours for you and your talent acquisition team by letting the automation handle:
- Candidate newsletters
- Sending data to your talent management system
- Email communication with candidates
- Resume import
- Scheduling meetings and adding links to video calls
- Multiposting
Even if each of those activities takes a few minutes in the old model, if you add them up, you will realize how much time is slipping through your fingers.
With automation, you can focus on what’s essential — enhancing candidate experience, making better hiring decisions, and analyzing key metrics.
Keep an eye on the results
Speaking of the metrics, conducting an ongoing analysis of recruitment performance is essential to discover possible bottlenecks and areas of improvement.
And luckily, it doesn’t have to mean becoming a data scientist or waiting months in line for your analytical experts in the IT department.
With our latest version of reporting and recruitment analytics dashboard, you can easily track your:
- Time to hire
- Time to offer
- Time to reject
- Application sources in time
- Application sources breakdown
- Application by jobs
- Application sources efficiency
- Job posts performance
- and other factors that will help you better understand what’s working and what’s not
And the most remarkable thing about those reports is that they look easy, clean, and uncluttered so everyone can understand them, even without an analytical background!
Time for your new candidate management
OK, you know how to choose and use software dedicated to looking after each candidate.
Many applicant tracking systems are in the market, so carefully go through your challenges and features checklist and implement the right one.
If you’re still undecided, try out TRAFFIT for 14 days for free!
Or — let us walk you through our platform and show you how you can increase the ratio of high-quality talents in your pipeline! - like in TRAFFIT:List your key featuresIn the recruiting reality, you will come across multiple features presented by different candidate management systems. Vendors will try to dazzle you with many tools, some disguised by eye-catchy names but ultimately referring to the same benefits.So, when jumping from one website to another, pay attention to below features:
