For staffing firms, the 2 most valuable software tools have traditionally been an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) and a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. An ATS will help manage information about candidates and job-seekers, track notes, search and match jobs, schedule interviews, and ultimately record details of placements. A CRM, on the other hand, will allow you to keep track of your contacts, accounts, opportunities, notes, and every related activity. Whether your agency operates full (360) desk or split desk, combining both sets of functions of CRM and ATS solutions within your organization will drive team collaboration like never before.

 This blog focuses on the most important features you should look for in a CRM for your staffing firm. (Also, read our article on top features of an Applicant Tracking System.)

 Here are the must-have features of a Staffing CRM:

1. Built for the Staffing Sales Model

 As a staffing firm, your sales and recruiting activities need close coordination and cannot operate in silos. If you choose a generic CRM, you will spend months customizing the solution to suit your business processes. Hence, the most important feature for a staffing CRM is that it should be custom-built for staffing. If you have a solution with fully integrated CRM and ATS functions, that obviously has clear benefits.  Your recruiters and sales team can access and share data and intelligence between both platforms, without the need to switch back and forth between different systems in their daily routine.

 2. Automation

Your sales team shouldn’t be doing manual data entry or telling the CRM what they have done. They should be spending time on what they do best; like building relationships and chasing targets. A Staffing CRM should enable the sales team to drive more success with automation. You can rapidly design and automate any business process with a staffing CRM. Automatically send alerts, assign leads, update data, and schedule outbound messages – all is possible from your fingertips.

3. Collaboration

You would expect a staffing CRM to give you a complete view of your leads, opportunities, key contacts, and communications. But internal account discussions are equally important. That is when a collaboration feature within the staffing CRM comes into play. With the collaboration feature embedded inside your CRM, your team can have internal discussions about an account or an opportunity to share knowledge, get updates, and take action accordingly, and keep all that information accessible to all users rather than hidden in private email messages.

4. Great Visualizations

 Standard tables and spreadsheets are difficult to work with and are rarely intuitive. They can make the entire process of reviewing and tracking very monotonous. With a Staffing CRM, you can empower your sales team with great visualizations so they can see the information they need at a glance, or deep dive for more detail. TargetRecruit has a Kanban view that replaces clunky tables with one-page summaries of opportunities or leads or any other object. It also allows users to select records and quickly move them from one column/stage to another, dynamically updating status, running workflows where appropriate and getting an instant update.

5. Analytics

A suite of standard reports for lead and opportunity management is a critical requirement for a Staffing CRM. It should allow you to easily track which deals your sales reps are spending their time on, calculate the conversion rate, and more. A staffing CRM should also have dashboards and the ability to customize reports and dashboards.

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TargetRecruit CRM provides you with a “360 degree” view of your customer and candidate relationships. Our CRM will help you measure the success of your sales and marketing efforts end-to-end (from leads to opportunities to placements)