Tag: recruitment marketing

My feelings about the CRM market are complicated. I know I am not alone.

It is a critical element in the modern technology stack. We found that 76% of enterprise companies use or plan to use a CRM to support their recruitment efforts. To remain competitive in talent acquisition across industries, companies understand the importance of engaging and nurturing talent before they apply for a job.

The potential and opportunities offered by a CRM are immense; but the reality is that many companies fail to recognize its value. Only 1 in 4 companies express high satisfaction with their CRM providers, and only 18% would recommend their CRM to another company. This disparity reveals a significant gap between the potential capabilities of a CRM and the actual value it currently delivers.

The Challenges with the CRM Market:

The current state of the CRM market has three fundamental challenges:

Adoption: Companies often find themselves overspending on CRM capabilities that are not adopted. The investment in functionality that is never used contributes to an inefficient allocation of resources. Currently, 61% of companies spend more on their CRM than on their ATS.

Recruiter Experience: A critical challenge lies in the fact that those purchasing the CRM are not the same individuals using it. The traditional CRM is not tailored to support the workflow or enhance the experience of recruiters. This misalignment leads to a disconnect between user expectations and system capabilities.

ROI Measurement: Companies face a critical issue in not effectively measuring the Return on Investment (ROI) of their CRM investments. The lack of robust evaluation metrics hinders organizations from understanding the true impact and value derived from their CRM implementation. Only 1 in 2 companies measure the ROI of their CRM investments.

These challenges have created frustrations for both buyers and traditional providers that are not able to support customer needs. Fortunately, the CRM market is shifting. Today, HireEZ announced its CRM designed by recruiters for recruiters. As traditional players are expanding their capabilities beyond talent acquisition, a new wave of providers with a heritage in sourcing are entering the market with the goal of providing more cost-friendly options that meet the needs of the modern recruiter.

The Benefits of Integrating Sourcing and CRM Capabilities

Having sourcing capabilities in a CRM is important for several reasons, as it significantly enhances the efficiency and effectiveness of the talent acquisition process. Unfortunately, many companies do not integrate the two. We found that

• Only 15% of companies say their CRM seamlessly integrates with sourcing.
• Only 31% of TA leaders and HR leaders want one solution for sourcing and CRM compared to 72% of recruiters that want one provider.

Here are key reasons why sourcing is a crucial component in a CRM system:

Proactive Talent Identification: Sourcing allows recruiters to proactively identify and engage with potential candidates, even before they apply for specific job openings. This proactive approach helps in building a pool of qualified candidates for current and future hiring needs.

Wider Talent Pool: With sourcing capabilities, recruiters can tap into a broader talent pool by searching for candidates through various channels, including social media platforms, professional networks, and external databases. This widens the scope of potential candidates beyond those actively applying for positions.

Building Talent Pipelines: Sourcing is instrumental in building and maintaining talent pipelines. Recruiters can continually identify and engage with potential candidates, categorizing them based on skills, experience, and other criteria. This ensures a steady pool of qualified individuals for various roles, reducing the time and effort required for future hires.

Enhanced Candidate Relationships: Sourcing is not only about finding candidates but also about initiating and nurturing relationships. By proactively engaging with potential candidates, recruiters can establish a positive rapport, making candidates more likely to consider opportunities with the organization.

Rediscover Talent: Companies can rediscover talent in their ATS without having to manually search for candidates by engaging and nurturing talent frequently.

We are finalizing our Aptitude Index report on the CRM market and the shifting landscape is a big focus. We are including providers of these next generation CRMs.

We posted this guest blog with our friends at Relode this week.

The next year will be critical for tech employers looking to attract and hire the skills and talent they need to navigate their changing business needs. With the pandemic, labor shortage, and recent layoffs and hiring freezes, it needs to be clarified to understand where tech hiring stands today and what companies should consider for the future. Many news stories around layoffs and hiring freezes impact some of the largest tech giants. For example, in October, Twitter announced 50% of their workforce was cut at the very end of the month, and Meta and Apply announced layoffs in November. But, the reality of tech hiring is more complicated than what news outlets are highlighting.

According to Appcast’s Recruitonomics, “Information (the BLS category) added a modest 4,000 new jobs in October, despite all the news of layoffs. On the other hand, professional and Business Services (which can also contain tech jobs) added 39,000 new jobs. So overall, the tech sector is a mixed bag.” 

While several large tech giants remain cautious for the next year, many companies continue expanding their workforce in both traditional and non-traditional ways. We found that high-growth tech companies are still increasing their headcount.

A Closer Look at High-Growth Tech Companies

Aptitude Research found that one in two tech companies identify as a high-growth company and most of these companies are tech companies. High-growth companies include any organization performing better or expected to perform better than its industry or the market as a whole. These high-growth companies face unique challenges and opportunities when attracting, engaging, and retaining talent. We found that companies have several business priorities influencing high growth today, including an increase in headcount, global expansion, new market opportunities, and mergers and acquisitions.

According to this study, these companies are two times more likely to increase the number of hires this year. Talent is the most important factor in success. It impacts all other priorities, including their ability to expand globally, enter new markets, and achieve a successful exit. Unfortunately, for many of these companies, the pressure to move quickly makes recruiting and retaining talent challenging, especially in a labor shortage.

As the tech market becomes increasingly more complex and confusing, we identified a few trends influencing tech hiring today:

Invest in More Automation: Companies that want to hire the best tech talent cannot afford to rely on legacy systems and technology. World-class technology is the differentiator and helps tech companies compete for talent. Yet, not all tech companies are making the right investments. 62% of tech companies state that their recruitment activities are too administrative, and only 1 in 2 of these companies are looking outside of their ATS for better options. Tech talent expects solutions that offer a simple and dynamic experience.

Focus on Internal Mobility:  Companies must carefully consider the culture around career development, ensure employees have fair and equitable opportunities and communicate feedback consistently. For tech companies, careful planning and preparation around internal mobility are critical to a talent acquisition strategy. It requires companies to shift how they think about talent and prioritize the individual. Currently, 73% of tech companies are developing a strategy to support internal mobility.

Focus on Speed: It is a common characteristic among all high-growth companies, regardless of their priorities. Companies want to see results, and business success is measured by its ability to adjust to change. As a result, HR and talent acquisition leaders face pressure to adopt new strategies and technology overnight. While this focus on speed has created opportunities, it has also presented challenges with attracting, engaging, and retaining talent. As a result, high-growth companies must carefully balance their focus on speed with their focus on talent.

Embrace the Contingent Workforce: According to Aptitude Research, 82% of tech companies are using contingent or freelance workers, and 1 in 2 companies plan to increase their use of a more flexible workforce next year. Companies must consider talent that will fill critical talent gaps and help companies stay ahead, and talent acquisition strategies must include a complete view of total talent.

Tech hiring remains one of the most misunderstood areas of talent acquisition today. As companies look to another year of unknowns, staying prepared and investing in the right support is critical to effectively attract and retain quality talent and meet changing business goals.

The labor shortage and global pandemic have increased the pressure on recruitment in healthcare with no signs of slowing down. While other industries are preparing for an economic downturn and facing possible layoffs, healthcare remains hyper-focused on growth and competing for talent. We looked at how recruitment is impacting healthcare and published these findings with our friends at Relode.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, “overall employment in healthcare occupations is projected to grow 13 percent from 2021 to 2031, much faster than the average for all occupations; this increase is expected to result in about 2 million new jobs over the decade. In addition to new jobs from growth, opportunities arise from the need to replace workers who leave their occupations permanently. About 1.9 million openings each year, on average, are projected to come from growth and replacement needs.”

Attracting, recruiting, and hiring talent is a critical challenge for healthcare organizations across all job roles, from front-line workers to doctors and nurses to medical technicians. Historically, while other industries have quickly adopted new technology, many healthcare companies have responded slower. But the past two years have forced a new reality for healthcare and increased the interest in TA tech, with 85% of healthcare companies increasing their investment or continuing to invest the same.

Here are some key trends impacting talent acquisition in healthcare based on data collected from Aptitude Research.

• Managing with a Lack of Resources: Many healthcare organizations need more resources or expertise to execute strategic talent acquisition. According to Aptitude Research, 38% of healthcare companies do not have dedicated recruiting and sourcing teams, and 58% of these companies stated that their greatest challenge is a lack of recruiting expertise. The lack of resources is the biggest challenge facing companies today, as 94% of healthcare companies are increasing their hires this year.
• Improving Candidate Experience through Communication: Candidate communication and experience still need improvement for many healthcare organizations. According to Aptitude Research, 1 in 3 candidates have not heard back from an interview for two or more weeks. Additionally, only 22% of candidates are satisfied with the communication they receive before applying, and only 21% are satisfied with the interview process. Companies must address communication to improve the candidate experience and drop-off rates (40% of candidates are dropping off at the apply phase).
• Balancing Efficiency and Quality: Healthcare organizations often struggle to balance efficiency and quality. Patient-centered care is critical for these companies, and finding the right talent and efficiency and speed are important when change is constant.  
• Leveraging Automation: Less than half of healthcare companies are using automation throughout the talent acquisition lifecycle. The top areas where companies are investing in automation are recruitment marketing (37%), screening (44%), interviewing (40%), and onboarding (30%). Surprisingly, only 18% of companies use automation for sourcing when attracting talent is a top priority. Automation can help healthcare organizations lift the administrative burden placed on recruiters and improve candidate communication and engagement.
• Using Contingent Workers: Over 50% of healthcare organizations have increased the number of contingent or contract workers this year. A flexible and extended workforce helps companies fill critical talent gaps, reduce costs, and improve productivity. It also helps companies adapt and adjust to changing business needs – especially during times of uncertainty. Yet, the challenges remain the same even as the demand for and acceptance of contingent workers increased this past year. Most contingent workforce strategies need more visibility, rely on antiquated technology, and erode business leaders’ confidence. Healthcare organizations understand the value, but they only sometimes see the results. This needs to change as companies continue to adopt a more flexible workforce and companies need to invest in the right partners to support them.

Given the competition for talent and labor shortage still impacting healthcare organizations, incremental improvements to existing processes and systems are not enough. Healthcare companies need to think and act differently – breaking old paradigms and embracing tech in a new way.

The last trend I will share in this countdown to the HR Technology Conference focuses on CRM and recruitment marketing. CRM is one of the core systems of a TA tech stack. It is designed to improve the front-end of the recruiting process and tackles most of what the ATS just doesn’t do…engaging with individuals before they apply for a job. The majority of enterprise companies are buying, replacing, or using a CRM this year. And while 81% of companies stated that recruitment marketing looked different since COVID-19, 66% of companies are unhappy with their efforts today (Aptitude Research).

This market is crowded and confusing. A few years ago, we referred to these systems as recruitment marketing platforms, with CRM being the core. Today, companies often refer to CRM and career sites as two distinct investments with different add-ons. Providers and their capabilities are not apples to apples like the ATS market. Every provider seems to be moving in a different direction, creating an even bigger gap between what customers want and what they get. And a few providers seem to be moving far away from CRM and recruitment marketing altogether.

Full disclosure…I love the CRM market, and I love talking about recruitment marketing. We found that 67% of companies spend more on their CRM than on their ATS, which is the most critical investment for some companies. It includes core capabilities (“must-haves”) and advanced capabilities that may or may not be core to the platform (“nice-to-haves”). The most critical capabilities in these systems include career sites, CRM, analytics, apply, job distribution, talent networks, candidate communication, events management, internal mobility, automated scheduling, and employee referrals. These systems have matured over the past few years with intelligent workflows, personalized content driven by AI, omnichannel communication, and more automation.

We are publishing our next Index report this fall on the CRM market and including extensive profiles of the following leading providers: Avature, Beamery, Clinch, Eightfold, Employ, GR8 People, Phenom, Radancy, and Symphony Talent.

Below are some of the findings:

• Adoption is Low: Adoption is low for many of these systems. A few years ago, we found that only 2% of companies use all the capabilities in their CRM. Not much has changed today. And the fault is not always on the provider. Many companies invest in these systems without considering the resources they need internally, including creative support, administrators, and dedicated recruitment marketing professionals. Companies should consider their target audiences, overall goals and objectives, and key performance indicators before investing in technology. A CRM is not a quick fix. It is a long-term commitment to shifting how companies can engage with talent.
• Partnerships Matter: A CRM won’t solve every recruitment marketing challenge. And companies have to look at additional support in areas such as programmatic job advertising, employer branding, content management, and conversational AI. Most providers are partnering with an ecosystem of providers and will even white-label some of these partnerships. Companies should carefully consider what and who they are buying. But, customers can also work closely with providers to help influence future partnerships.
• Career Sites are a Differentiator: Companies looking to invest or replace a CRM often start with the career site. Career sites are an immediate need, and many companies are losing talent at this stage. Career sites may seem like table stakes in recruitment marketing but not every provider offers personalized, dynamic career sites. Also, not every provider includes creative services and these expenses can add up quickly. Some companies are even going to RFP separately for their career site, and CRM needs. There is even a market for providing more engagement on career sites. Providers like Dalia have emerged to help capture talent leaving a career site and send job alerts to keep them engaged.
• Marketing Automation is a Game Changer: Marketing automation helps companies better engage and nurture talent by automating marketing tasks and letting companies know which candidates are cold, warm, and “ready-now.” It sits at the top of the funnel and manages all interactions with talent, including when they visit a career site, open an email, open a job advertisement, etc. It solves what the ATS, LinkedIn, and CRM cannot do – informing recruiters when someone is ready to be hired and engaging that individual in a meaningful way. Integrating CRM and marketing automation software can increase a company’s recruitment marketing capabilities and improve the experience. Candidate.ID (an iCIMS company) leads the way in recruitment marketing, and they will also be profiled in this report.
• Sourcing is an Area to Watch: Sourcing providers such as HireEZ , Aliro, and Findem are expanding into outbound recruitment, employee referrals, internal mobility, rediscovery, and candidate outreach in a major way this year. In addition, these providers offer sourcing and engagement solutions that may be an alternative to a traditional CRM.

Only one week left until HRTech. Looking forward to seeing everyone!