We know that, surely, not everyone was Kung Fu fighting. But everyone is, indeed, text messaging. That includes your friends, coworkers, neighbors, your mother, and—yes—your ideal candidates, too.
The trend of using text recruiting to reach job seekers is growing rapidly. That’s partly because it has numerous benefits for employers, many of which can be felt almost immediately. By adding text messaging to your recruiting strategy, your organization can stand out from the competition, get attention faster, and build closer relationships with candidates.
Text messaging is the next logical step in the evolution of conversational recruiting. If you’re still wondering whether it’s right for your talent acquisition strategy, you may be wondering whether it can really make a difference for your candidates and your recruiting goals. The short answer is: it can and it will. Here are 5 key benefits of using text recruiting to connect with your candidates.
More eyeballs and thumbs
All the communication in the world means nothing if nobody sees it, and it still means pretty little if people see it and then ignore it. Text messaging in recruiting is emerging as the #1 way to get candidates’ attention. For some time, talent acquisition leaders have been aware of stagnant email open rates which have been hovering around 20%, according to Gartner research. Some companies using SMS recruiting are reporting open rates five times that amount (yes, that’s virtually 100%!) and text messaging platforms are reporting impressive response rates of up to 70%. One healthcare company even reached an 83% response rate. What’s more, the opt-out rates for text messaging are much lower than it is for email.
Better candidate experience
We write a lot about giving candidates what they want. In a candidate-driven talent market, this is a key differentiator recruiters can leverage to encourage candidates to stay engaged in the recruiting process. Text recruiting offers recruiters another way to deliver the personalized experience candidates want. A majority (two-thirds) of job seekers think favorably about receiving text messages from recruiters, a figure substantial enough to give recruiters the green light to pursue text recruiting. And it’s not just about the messages, either. Text recruiting adds another channel of communication, satisfying candidates’ craving for connection and information. More than half (53%) of job seekers say they trust a company more when recruiters reach out more quickly, so well-timed text messages can help strengthen your employer brand as well.
Cutting costs with text recruiting
In almost every facet of business, when you save time, you also save money. It’s just as true in recruiting as in any other business function. Recruiters can send a single text message to multiple candidates, such as an invitation to an upcoming virtual career fair.
Text messaging can help improve overall efficiency and productivity, too. Since recruiters need to become more efficient to compete for top talent, text messaging can offer a key advantage.
Scalable
One of the beauties of text messaging is its ability to scale as your talent acquisition strategies evolve. Recruiters can use text messaging as little or as much as they need to, according to the needs and attitudes of their candidates. You can use text messages simply to notify job seekers of new positions that match their profile or invite them to virtual career fairs, or leverage it to enhance communication in the middle of your recruiting funnel, by thanking candidates for participating in interviews and sharing information and instructions about the next steps. Text messaging also offers personalization at scale, making it easier than ever to create individual connections with candidates and build trust without spending loads of time setting up customized messages. Plus, most text recruiting platforms now employ many of the same personalization tokens that most email marketing platforms use, making personalization at scale just as seamless.
Racing to the finish line with text recruiting
Reducing the time to fill positions is a major goal for recruiters and text messages help make that possible. Text messaging connects recruiters and candidates instantaneously, and accessibility can make a world of difference when you’re competing for the attention of hard-to-find talent. Text recruiting helps foster the candidate experience top talent is looking for, and increases candidate engagement as a result. By making communication easier, faster, and in a format candidates want, recruiters can speed up the entire recruiting process and get to a ‘yes’ much sooner.
Recruit and reply
With open rates near 100%, text recruiting can be an essential component of a successful conversational recruiting strategy. Text messages help recruiters create connections with ideal candidates, build trust and strengthen the employer brand, and improve the overall recruiting process.
P.S. Can we send you an email with our awesome talent acquisition content every week or so?
We won't overwhelm you and we'll make it easy for you to unsubscribe if you ever choose to do so.
