How companies are leveraging technology to build candidate relationship

All companies wish to be known for their top notch candidate relationship management (CRM). Building a strong relationship with passive or active candidates and guiding them through the recruitment process is called CRM. Under this, the CRM teams of companies need to be in continuous communication with the candidates who have applied for an opening, give them a feedback and keep track of candidates who have shown some interest in working with them, as they can be their future employees. Nowadays, organisations rarely wait till the time prospective candidates become their employees to establish relations with them.

A good CRM system adds great value to the employer brand of the company and also enhances positive candidate experience, which is very much important these days. People talk to their friends and relatives about their recruitment experiences, which creates an impression of the company in the minds of these people.

Though there are innumerable vendors who can supply some cutting-edge technology to enhance CRM, to what extent are companies using these to enhance their relationship-building activities?

“Sometimes, it is very difficult to understand the role simply on the basis of a job description. Therefore, a role- playing game provision helps the candidates to understand the role perfectly”

HRKatha decided to seek answers, and also wanted to find out in what ways CRM technologies are benefitting companies.

JK Cement has adopted a CRM software a year back. Though the organisation is till to introduce some of its features, it has so far found the new technology to be very helpful.
The software has a provision to store data, which can be used to follow up with candidates who have applied and also with future or prospective candidates. It helps send out follow-up mails and contributes to the feedback process.

“Before implementing this technology it was impossible for us to track and manage candidates manually,” says Vijay Singh, VP-HR, JK Cement.

The software also offers an option for candidates to click on the given link and go through a role-playing game to understand the role that they are applying for. “Sometimes, it is very difficult to understand the role simply on the basis of a job description. Therefore, this role- playing provision helps the candidates to understand the role perfectly,” shares Singh.

Reliance Digital also has a programme, which was started recently, called the ‘Voice of Employees’ (VOE). Under this, certain surveys are conducted through technology interventions. It focuses on calculating the employee experience on the recruitment process, onboarding and exit.

“Whenever new employees walk into the office, they receive a message and are required to answer certain questions. After that, the net experience is calculated by gathering and processing the data on the bad and good experiences of the newly-recruited employees. This can give us insights on how we can improve our processes to give a better employee experience”

“Whenever new employees walk into the office, they receive a message and are required to answer certain questions. After that, the net experience is calculated by gathering and processing the data on the bad and good experiences of the newly-recruited employees. This can give us insights on how we can improve our processes to give a better employee experience,” explains Lalit Kar, SVP & head of HR, Reliance Digital.

Dream 11 uses a combination of human touch and technology for their relationship-building activities with their candidates. According to Kevin Freitas, CHRO, Dream 11, 40 per cent of the hiring is done through referrals. Therefore, the Company has tech solutions where the employee who has referred a particular person for a role in the organisation is notified through a software interface about the stage of recruitment the referred candidate is in. This allows the person to interact with the candidate and walk him through the culture of the organisation and answer queries.

“In our candidate relationship-building process, there is significant human intervention involved because we believe that relationship building and hiring should not be totally driven by technology but should have a human element attached to it”

“It is a great relationship-building exercise for us as the employee who has given a referral knows about the stage of recruitment her/his referred candidate is in. For the candidate, the person who has referred him is the only point of contact in the organisation,” shares Freitas.

“In our candidate relationship-building process, there is significant human intervention involved because we believe that relationship building and hiring should not be totally driven by technology but should have a human element attached to it,” adds Freitas.