Kathy Gibson is at SAP SuccessConnect in Berlin – Line managers have been promised the concept of manager self-service for at least 20 years, but hasn’t really been successful up until now.

Amy Wilson, global head of product at SAP SuccessFactors, says advanced analytics combined with experience management is now bringing this and other promises close to reality.

The company has launched candidate relationship management capabilities as part of its recruiting solution.

Securing the best talent is critical for any organisation to maintain a competitive edge. The SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting solution, now with embedded candidate relationship management capabilities, helps recruiters attract more-relevant candidates, engage and nurture targeted talent pools and more efficiently manage the application and hiring process.

By adding candidate relationship management capabilities into their workflows, recruiters can manage candidate engagement end to end on a self-service basis across a multitude of channels.

Falling unemployment rates, where there are now more job openings then people looking for jobs, is placing new significance on the recruiting function.

“This means the ability to find quality candidates is increasingly difficult,” says Jeff Mills, part of the candidate relationship management (CRM) product team at SAP SuccessFactors.

“Companies are having to create new ways of contact and nurturing those individuals.

“They also want the analytics based on information provided to organisations to understand what things are resonating with audiences and candidate groups.

“Bottom line is that companies are looking at how they can extend their recruiting dollars.”

SAP SuccessFactors is addressing these concerns with features in the first release of the its Candidate Relationship Management module that embeds these functionalities as part of the recruiting process.

Initial elements of the CRM product will focus on the recruiter experience, with later releases extending to the candidate as well.

Talent pooling – the ability to create talent pools based on search criteria – will help recruiters to add and leverage candidate data.

Consolidating candidate profiles will put all the available information on a candidate into one place, and will include all activities and interactions.

Landing pages and forms will also be supported, with the goal of progressively capturing information about candidates over time, letting recruiters build a picture that accurately reflects the people.

Within the current release, templates for creating email campaigns is supported, with future releases set to include the sending and delivery of email campaigns.

“It’s about building core, standard features that people can use,” says Mills.

One of the main strengths of the CRM system is that it is not standalone: being embedded into the broader human capital management suite means recruiters have access to more data and functionality.

And the system is not just focused on external candidates: recruiters will be able to have visibility of employees as well, and can market to them in the same way as to candidates.

“People like the idea of having one place to do all their HR functions,” Mills says.

“Built on the SAP vision that employees should be a company’s top priority, our new candidate relationship management capabilities help ensure that candidates and recruiters have an exceptional experience from the very first interaction,” says Wilson. “By delivering experiences that are engaging for both recruiters and candidates, our customers can get a leg up on competition and make a lasting impression on top talent and future leaders.”

SAP SuccessFactors solutions help organisations to solve their unique HR needs by tapping into a comprehensive suite of cloud-based human capital management (HCM) solutions, spanning core HR, talent management and workforce analytics. With new innovations like candidate relationship management, businesses can find the right talent, develop future leaders and engage all employees with automated, transparent processes.

There are currently 60 customers in the CRM early adopter programme.