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Successful recruitment depends on detecting the most compatible candidate in a myriad of promising and skilled talents. – But how can you be positive that you are making the right choice when each one of them has traits that could enhance and grow your business? That could explain why 75 percent of large companies use an applicant tracking system to identify the best fit for the job position.
But what is the difference between ATS and CRM? This blog will help you to identify the best match for your organization with the utmost accuracy and detail-oriented approach, discover how recruiting software can improve your hiring goals, and know what’s the difference between an ATS and CRM.
» What Makes ATS and CRM Different?
An Applicant Tracking System or ATS is software recruiters use to speed up the hiring process and reduce manual tasks as the system sorts and manages all the resumes. However, it’s not the only software that can enhance recruitment.
Recruiting Software or Customer Relationship Management (CRM) focuses on more than tracking job applicants. The goal of CRM software is to help candidates connect with clients while also incorporating ATS features into the system.
The essential question for every organization considering leveraging HR technology is whether they need both or if one software is enough to fulfill their needs. These are the differences between ATS and CRM and which one could be a better solution for your company.
› ATS: Candidate Tracking Focus
One of the greatest issues recruiters encounter when discussing these two is wondering whether they are the same software. Many often think that CRM is a modern version of an ATS. That might be causing more problems than one would assume.
Nevertheless, ATS is responsible for storing data that the recruiting managers still need to input themselves. Recruiters have to collect all their job applicant records, leaving many status fields blank for them to fill. Thus, the selection aligns with the type of work candidates are doing at the moment, disregarding their aspirations and potential. That means that the recruiters and ATS can overlook candidate engagement.
Undoubtedly, ATS also has countless benefits, and it can, indeed, ease the hiring process. ATS allows you to sort job applicants and manage job openings. With this system, you can publish available job positions on job board websites or social media. Besides, you can organize all the incoming applications and align them with your desired criteria. With all of this, the system can help you select the most suitable candidate and invite them for an interview. Quality ATS software will also send updates and notifications to all the candidates about their job application stage.
To add the candidates to your ATS, you need to import it into the software after receiving resumes from the applicants. Therefore, you avoid having a stack of paper resumes waiting on your desk, making numerous folders on the computer, or hectic CV email attachments. There is no hassle with resume selection and management once you place them into ATS. Its smart algorithm will also save you from duplicate resumes. That way, you get rid of time-consuming administrative processes and your recruiting becomes more organized and accessible.
But how exactly does an ATS analyze and evaluate resumes? While the software can only analyze resumes in their original format, having another tool will highlight crucial data. With a parsing feature, ATS extracts necessary information such as skills, education, and experience, allowing you to compare the qualifications of each candidate.
For example, if your organization is seeking a social media manager with three years of experience and a master's degree, ATS will detect all resumes that contain such information. It will also help you disregard those who don’t fulfill your requirements, saving you hours of work.
As its name alone implies, ATS can track multiple applicants for a job position, allowing you to see their position in the pipeline and whether are they fit for that job. Therefore, you can select the candidate you are interested in and mark if you are considering offering him the position. That’s also the focus of this software – to track job applicants, which is why many organizations opt for pairing it with CRM software.
› APPLICANT TRACKING SYSTEM BENEFITS
It provides you with a platform that addresses every step of a candidate's application. The software provides you with a place to store all your job descriptions and integrate them with job boards and social media. Thus, it tracks your candidates through each stage and ensures their engagement with regular updates, emails, and notifications. Each resume will be connected with the right candidate. The result is a fast recruiting process, reducing bias, and enhancing accuracy.
› CRM: Software That Goes Beyond Candidate Tracking
Those who seek a solution with more abilities prefer choosing CRM software because it has ATS features, but it also accommodates candidate-client relations. Those who decide to use CRM will be able to use it for scheduling, Boolean search, and email marketing while keeping all ATS capacities and making it available for multiple users.
The goal of Customer Relationship Management software is to nurture your relationship with customers by continuously keeping you updated and helping you understand which actions you need to take and when. Hence, you will find it easy to comprehend whether a customer communicating with the hiring manager is a client, candidate, or both. That makes it useful as one candidate can become a client or vice versa.
Recruiting CRM Software goes beyond what an ATS can do for you. With its thorough algorithm, it won’t just recognize the current activity. The software will detect if a candidate is actively seeking, but also if other jobs could interest them. That’s the charm of using this system– it will allow you to dig deeper and discover which skills a candidate can develop by analyzing their working pattern. On the other side, it can read your client’s hiring scheme to get a better understanding of what kind of employee they seek.
Compared with the market’s high-demand skills, CRM can measure and evaluate resumes to provide you with the most relevant match. Thus, it can attract passive candidates from the talent pool, as well as those who are already in your system.
› RECRUITING CRM SOFTWARE BENEFITS
As a comprehensive software, it includes most of the ATS features, but it also understands and takes care of all your customers equally. Besides, it can manage and send email newsletters, allows multiple users, and leaves more time to focus on other elements of recruitment, such as creating an employee integration strategy.
› Should You Use Both or Opt for One?
Whichever you choose, you can only enhance your recruitment and relieve it from unnecessary tasks and manual work. However, if you are a small business owner, an agency, or an HR recruiter, an ATS will be enough to cover all your needs. It will help you release yourself from organizing and managing all the incoming resumes one by one, and leave you more time for preparing the onboarding strategy.
An online recruiting software or CRM will be a better solution if you are a large enterprise or a full-time hiring manager who requires a fast and efficient hiring process. That way, you can fulfill all the needs of your client and detect compelling candidates with more speed.
Using Recruiting CRM Software, you get all ATS features. But you can also integrate CRM with ATS. That way, you can provide both your clients and candidates with the best experience, which is crucial for the employee journey and lifecycle. Integration means that both systems will work on one platform. If you choose to don’t take risks and get the best of both worlds, you will have a large talent pool, data-driven software, and an engaging candidate experience.