If you’re thinking of setting up a Recruitment CRM, you might be wondering, how much CRM storage do you need for your recruitment data?
One of the biggest benefits of a recruitment CRM is having the ability to keep all your data in one place.
The recruitment industry is a fast-paced world.
Whether you’re a freelance recruiter, recruitment consultant, agency owner or internal recruiter, you’re probably moving at the speed of light trying to keep on top of everything which can be difficult.
Usually, when you move at the speed of light, things get lost!
As a recruiter, you might find yourself dealing with important documents like; Contracts, Rights To Work Personality Profiling Tests, etc etc.
Having a recruitment CRM in place will allow you to store your documents safely and make sure you never misplace another important file.
Throughout this blog, I’ll cover:
I’ve titled each section, so you can jump to the part that interests you!
As a recruiter having the ability to store and manage data efficiently is not just a requirement it’s a must for anyone who’s looking to build a business or manage an effective hiring process.
In your role of managing candidates and clients, you will process a variety of documents, from job applications and resumes to interview feedback, background checks and contracts.
Having an effective data storage system in place allows you to organise this information systematically, ensuring that you don’t misplace anything and that all relevant documents are easily accessible.
For example, advanced Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) offers a centralised hub where all candidate data can be stored and filed effectively.
Having an organised ATS makes it simple to filter and search for candidates based on specific criteria such as skills, experience, and qualifications. You will find this not only speeds up the process of finding candidates but also improves accuracy, reducing the likelihood of overlooking a potentially perfect candidate.
On top of this, secure data storage is essential for maintaining the confidentiality and integrity of sensitive information. Recruitment involves handling personal data that must be protected to comply with data protection laws such as GDPR or CCPA.
A robust data storage solution ensures that candidate information is stored securely, with access controls and encryption measures that safeguard against data breaches and unauthorised access.
As a recruiter, there are only a couple of factors you’ll need to consider when it comes to your data storage needs.
Volume of Documents
The biggest factor that will influence the amount of data storage you will need is the volume of documents that you’re looking to store.
This can vary dramatically for different people.
Some recruiters require large data storage capabilities because they keep a large number of documents, whereas you might find that you store less documentation per candidate so require less storage space.
File Types
File types will also impact the amount of data storage you’ll require for your business.
If you’re keeping resumes in the form of Word documents or PDFs you will need significantly less data storage capability than if you’re storing video interview files or candidate portfolios.
Before committing to an ATS platform first check the storage available to you and calculate if it will be enough for you to store all your documents.
File Sizes
The last thing you should check is the size of the files you think you’ll be storing. Different file types will have different sizes and the size of each document can vary dramatically based on how much information is contained within the file.
Again, before committing to an ATS/CRM you should cross-check the average size of your files to understand how much space you will be granted.
Before diving in and committing to a platform it’s worthwhile spending some time to estimate your storage needs.
This process is fairly simple to do and there are only a couple of things you need to consider/action.
A really simple thing you can do is assess your current data volume. If you already have a recruitment ATS, it should be possible for you to understand how much data you’re currently storing.
This figure will then give you a benchmark, so you know how much storage capability you will need in the next platform you switch to.
If you don’t have an ATS in place but are keeping your documents in a file on your desktop you can check the total file size of all the files in the folder to get a benchmark of the storage capability you need.
2. Project Data Growth
To make a decision on how much data you need, you ideally need to predict how much you think your data set will grow.
Once you’ve taken the time to assess your current data volume, it’s important to spend some time projecting how you think that data set might grow.
By forecasting the growth of your data, it will allow you to pick a product that gives you the room you need to grow.
3. Consider Data Retention Policies
The final piece in estimating your storage needs is considering how long you will retain/store the data.
With the new GDPR laws coming in, it’s important that you understand how long you can hold onto candidate data.
Ensuring you have a purge process in place to remove any data that you’re no longer entitled to hold.
Again, this will help you to forecast how much data storage you will need as you will also be able to calculate how much data you will be removing from your ATS each month.
After briefly touching on some of the reasons why you need a data retention policy in place here are 7 things to consider when it comes to managing your recruitment data.
Keeping your data in one place is pivotal if you’re going to manage your data correctly.
If you’re running a recruitment agency and have multiple people in the team, you need to make sure you have a centralised hub to store your documents. Allowing your consultants to manage and store documents on separate platforms will lead to documents getting misplaced and lost.
2. Ensure Data Security & Compliance
Alongside having a centralised hub for your data it’s important that you protect candidate data with strong security measures.
Encryption — Make sure you encrypt candidate data at all times, including when it’s being processed and when it’s at rest.
Access Controls — It’s important to implement role-based access to data so that only authorised personnel can view sensitive data.
Regular Audits — Run regular audits to ensure you pick up on any vulnerabilities in your data storage process.
3. Maintain Data Accuracy & Quality — To recruit successfully it’s important you maintain the accuracy and quality of the data you store.
When searching for candidates you need to be sure the searches you are running are accurate.
To help make sure your data is accurate you can use tools like CV parsing to effectively extract data from CVs and upload it to your system.
4. Backup & Disaster Recovery — Making sure your data is backed up is important. Sometimes things can go wrong which can lead to your systems going down. If your ATS goes down this could result in a loss of data and negatively impact your business.
It would help if you spoke to your ATS/CRM provider to understand their backup and disaster recovery process.
5. Training & Support — By providing training and support to your team, you will ensure that data is stored correctly and managed in the right way.
6. Document Retention Policies — Having a data retention policy in place will help to ensure that the training and procedures are followed correctly.
By having a data retention policy in place, your team will be able to refer back to it when they are unsure or questioned by candidates.
If a candidate contacts one of your team to question how your data is managed, the data retention policy can support your team to manage that query effectively.
7. Candidate Consent & Transparency — As a processor of candidate data, you must put the candidate front and centre regarding consent and transparency.
Putting the candidate first and being open and honest will give you the best chance of building a long-lasting relationship.
Now that you have a basic understanding of the concepts of effective data storage, you might be wondering where’s the best place to start tracking and storing your data?
If you’re a recruiter who has a large dataset of candidate documents and CVs the Giig Hire platform might be a Recruitment ATS that’s worth reviewing.
The Giig Hire platform has 3 different versions you can make use of:
The Free Forever version of Giig allows you to store unlimited CVs and candidates, allowing you to get started for free.
If you’re someone who needs a place to store extra documents alongside your records Giig’s paid packages (Giig Starter & Giig Plus+) both come with storage capabilities to help you manage your extra files.
You can see the pricing page HERE
If you have a large dataset ready to go, you might be concerned about the time you will spend inputting the data into the recruitment ATS you decide to use.
In a previous blog, I’ve covered how you can use our Mass CV Parsing Tool and CSV upload to bulk import datasets into the platform.
You can read more about those features HERE
