With the growing technology, the recruitment process is also evolving rapidly. It can be tough for us to keep up with the emerging platforms and trends gaining ground every day. Nowadays, the software is efficient enough to deliver expected results. With a single recruitment platform, organizations branch into discrete tools for different recruitment funnel stages.

All from other recruitment tools, two of them are typically taking the central stage, i.e., Applicant Tracking System (ATS) and Candidate Relationship Manager (CRM). These two might seem identical because they both deal with incoming data of candidates. But under the hood, both have a specialized role to play in the recruiting process.

Let us check out the purpose of these tools and see if you can use one without the other.

What Do They Mean: ATS and CRM?

Applicant Tracking System is a workflow automation tool that tracks applicants in their entire recruitment journey. It helps in collecting applicant's data coming from different sources like social media, job boards, etc. Organizations can use this to manage their recruitment records.

On the other hand, CRM helps you in building your talent pool so that you can rely upon in the case of any urgent requirement. Through this platform, you can communicate with candidates quickly.

As we can see from their definitions, each tool offers its distinct advantages.

Why ATS and CRM should be at one platform?

A CRM always fetch its foundational data from ATS. The functionalities of ATS will be limited but can be extended through CRM. Think of this way: if your ATS is the 'party,' then CRM is the 'Invitation' to that party. But the question here is why the combination of ATS with CRM is imperative? The answer is that it will help you acquire the best talents. I am sharing a few points with you to justify the answer.

1. Increase Efficiency with Automation: A comprehensive ATS integrated with CRM is the simplest solution to many problems. It helps you in automating your recruitment process by using software like resume parser. It extracts candidate data from resumes/jobs and saves the information in pre-defined fields like contact details, education, qualification, etc. Finding an ATS/CRM solution will eliminate manual intervention and process tasks quickly.

2. Provide Amazing Candidate Experience: The combination of both ATS and CRM simplifies the talent acquisition process and delivers an excellent candidate experience. Nowadays, recruiters need an advanced CRM system to increase candidate engagement across the different stages of the recruitment process. This will happen only by opting for a recruitment solution that allows the seamless integration of an ATS with CRM; this will facilitate the maintenance of the talent pipeline.  

3. Fast Recruitment Process: With the combination of CRM and ATS, recruiters can speed up the hiring process by leveraging the ATS database. This will help them to shortlist the skilled applicants and thereby making more informed recruiting decisions with ease.

4. Improve Efficiency: The CRM system can provide human resources professionals with a detailed performance report of their marketing efforts. This will help them to spot significant inefficiencies and will help them in improving their recruitment process to approach skilled applicants with minimal efforts. With this advancement now, recruiters can foster long-lasting relations with exceptionally talented candidates.

5. Save Valuable Time: With the fast-rapid advancement in the recruitment process, HR professionals are transforming their talent acquisition strategy to source the quality candidates. Simultaneously, every organization needs to rely on the perfect combination of recruiting technologies to save their valuable time. So, purchasing all-in-one recruitment software will fulfill the organization's unique hiring requirement with the utmost efficiency.

The organization grows, and more employees will enter the ecosystem every month; a bare-bone ATS will find it difficult to keep up. A bolt-on CRM will help HR professionals to maximize the applicant data residing in your ATS. In the end, what matters is the results. An ideal software will not only increase productivity but will also streamline your hiring process.