Email communication is an indispensable part of any recruitment work.
It can get tedious to juggle between a recruiting software & email Inbox continuously. Email sync can streamline this back & forth and speed up recruiting.
When we understand the underlying concept, we can choose a better-recruiting software or utilise the capabilities of existing software in a better manner.
The idea is not to replace your email software but to enhance your experience of using recruiting software.
Well, Email sync plays a cardinal role in making the communication process smoother, by centralising all email communication at one place and allowing you to see the complete conversation history. This is a broad level explanation, let us break it down and understand in a deeper note.
So, what exactly is two-way email synchronisation?
One-Way email sync – involves synchronising items only in one direction.
It means that once you send emails to candidates from software, it will be reflected in the “sent items” of your mailbox and the mails may also be stored in the software.
The limitation here is that your software may not render messages sent directly from mailbox & replies.
Two-Way email sync – involves synchronisation in both directions.
Meaning, it goes a step further and organises emails sent from any interface or device including replies. Some implementations may also help you delete emails right from the software.
In effect, you can view all your recent email conversations at a single place without having to navigate between two software applications.
How does it work?
2-way sync typically works by gathering and sharing data from two different systems through their application programming interfaces (APIs).
What is an API? API is the acronym for Application Programming Interface, which is a software intermediary that allows two applications to talk to each other. Each time you use an app like Facebook, send an instant message or check the weather on your phone, you’re using an API.
How, as a user, can I sync my emails?
As a user, you may either have to one-click authorise and allow your software to read emails and make changes. In other cases, you will simply need to select your provider and add your email and password and save the details.
In a few other cases, you may need to enter the SMTP and IMAP information for your email server, which may require a little help from your IT department.
SMTP is the half of the process that sends outgoing emails to a mail server. POP and IMAP are the other half of the process that retrieves email from a mail server.
This will be different across platforms and will entirely depend on the implementation of your current software.
What are the advance features you can expect when it comes to mail sync?
There are some advanced features you can look at, for instance, is your software application updating the email communications real-time, or are you having to synchronise it at regular intervals?
Next, You may also want to look at the scheduling of emails. Does your software application allow you to schedule an email? This is a feature that is great to have, however, not all that necessary.
What are the Benefits?
Think about doing away with having to toggle between two software applications. It will, of course, make anyone’s life easier and but also improve the overall productivity.
You may not realise the amount of time you spend doing these sedentary tasks, it is only a matter of time you realise the effort and time you’ll save by cutting these down.
Having to manage only one interface is a lot easier, productive and time-saving. It will help you make quick edits, track and monitor recent conversations from a single interface.
From one dashboard, recruiters can have a business-oriented view of their inbox, making candidate engagement that much easier.
Limitations
It is not unusual to think of the limitations when it comes to two-way mail sync.
- Provider – Ideally, we should be able to use this feature irrespective of the provider we use at the organisation. So, if you are using Gmail or G Suite, you can check whether support is available for that provider or not.
- Period – The mails that are displayed will most likely be “recent” mails or there may be an upper limit on the number of emails that are displayed. This could also be rendered based on a certain timeframe, in this case, you will have an option to display emails from the last 3 months / 6 months etc. This may also have an impact on the overall cost of the software.
- Bulk Emails v Transactional Emails – It is pertinent to note that if you are sending a lot of bulk emails to candidates, for instance, a new job campaign, 2-way email sync may not prove to be a boon to you. It is only when we are exchanging transactional emails is there a need to track and manage the same.
- Security – When you are syncing your email by inputting your password, you are giving away your credentials and may not be a great way of doing it.
Conclusion:
Two-way Email Sync essentially bridges the gap between communication and data by tracking all communications, heightening recruiter visibility and the overall productivity of the recruiter.
It is a feature you want to look out for, as a recruiter, when you are shifting your process on the cloud.
2-way Gmail sync is available in Klimb recruiting software.