In the US today, SMS remains a staple mode of communication and is preferred by many over phone calls, social media messaging, or email. Research found that 51% of responders reply to a text message within 1 or 2 minutes. We’ve all been there, right? The FOMO is real!
Naturally, SMS makes for a lucrative medium for several businesses to expand their reach and keep in touch with their customers. Recruiting is not far behind. Recruiters are finding it easy to reach candidates and get faster responses via SMS.
There are several SMS platforms that can help you achieve your hiring goals. This article will give you an in-depth overview of how you can choose the best SMS platform for your business, a checklist of all things you should look for in an SMS recruitment tool, and real-life use cases of SMS recruitment.
Recruiters are BUSY. Automated SMS platforms can make their lives easier and drive powerful results. SMS has shown significantly higher response rates (5X in our experience) and you can meet your candidates where they are: on their phones.
Therefore, choosing the best SMS recruitment platform for your business is a critical step in improving your hiring efficiency. With all that’s on the plates of your talent acquisition team, you may fear that adding another tool to the arsenal will be overwhelming. On the contrary, investing in a well-integrated SMS platform actually frees the time to focus on more mission-critical tasks (the human element of recruiting) and maximize the ROI from your existing tech investments.
SMS recruiting platforms empower recruiters to send and respond to personalized text messages in real-time and automate those messages based on data found in the ATS. Recruiters that leverage SMS platforms achieve the following benefits:
Personalized SMS communications at timely intervals during the hiring process have proven to improve candidate engagement and reduce drop-offs.
In a hiring landscape where candidates apply to 12 jobs at the same time, moving fast is crucial. According to our research, SMS is 3X faster than traditional communication methods and this significantly enhances hiring efficiency.
Recruiters are spending their days texting potentially thousands of candidates. With SMS recruiting, a lot of these redundant manual tasks are eliminated, enhancing recruiter productivity.
SMS recruiting allows recruiters to build deeper relationships with candidates, understand their motivations, design offers better suited to their aspirations, and stay available to them throughout the process - resulting in improved acceptance rates.
When you are hiring: Send out dynamic broadcasts to let your database know about open roles and hiring events. Be sure to target specific segments based on their function or location.
During the hiring process: SMS is a great way to keep candidates in the pipeline updated about their application status. Let them know the timelines and next steps. Even ‘no update’ updates make candidates feel better than thinking their application has gone into a black box.
After extending an offer: This is a crucial period, especially if the candidate is evaluating multiple job offers. Use SMS to stay in touch with casual check-ins and make the candidate feel welcome and valued and persuade the best talent to work with you.
When running referral programs: Use broadcast SMS to let your employees and alumni know about open roles so that they can refer people from their network.
Even when you’re not hiring: Most importantly, keep your talent engaged through casual text check-ins even if you aren’t currently hiring. Staying in touch and building a positive impression will ensure that you have connected, qualified talent whenever you are ready to hire.
To utilize SMS in recruitment in full capacity as mentioned above, businesses need a robust, well-integrated SMS platform. There are several good players out there, but here are the top 5 SMS recruiting platforms to watch out for.
Sense Messaging is a two-way text messaging software integrated with your ATS that allows recruiters to send and manage text message conversations. With Sense Messaging you can start personal conversations at scale without losing the full picture of your candidate relationship. Recruiters can also manage and prioritize 1:1 SMS conversations with a shared inbox. It helps increase productivity with 1:many broadcast texting. Sense supports the highly popular global messaging platform, WhatsApp. Additionally, Sense enables text-to-apply recruiting by letting candidates text in and apply for jobs via SMS. Recruiters can access conversations anywhere through the Chrome extension with the Sense mobile app. Sense messaging also provides detailed messaging analytics for you to get the best out of your SMS campaigns.
Sense integrates with several ATS solutions so recruiters can keep track of all conversations with an automated ATS sync. Sense is well-rated on Capterra (4.8) and G2 (4.5) with 470+ reviews.
TextUs is a general-purpose SMS platform that serves as an SMS solution for your basic and advanced messaging needs. It offers two-way SMS as well as an option to send broadcast messages option, which allows you to send text announcements to multiple candidates simultaneously. Additionally, it also provides SMS analytics such as reports on candidate response, recruiter performance, etc.
TextUs is rated 4.8 on Capterra and 4.7 on G2.
TextRecruit was one of the early solutions in this market and was eventually acquired by ICIMS, a talent cloud company, in 2018. TextRecruit supports messaging across multiple platforms, including SMS, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp. The platform also features the text-to-apply option. Another feature of TextRecruit is its virtual career fairs, which allow recruiters to meet multiple candidates at once through chat. Additionally, TextRecruit's automation feature schedules broadcast message campaigns to candidates and employees. It also offers internal texting, which connects recruiters with HR representatives and hiring managers.
TextRecruit has been reviewed on Capterra and G2 with the ratings 4.3 and 4.1 out of 5 respectively.
Jobvite entered the SMS recruiting platform market in 2018 with the launch of Jobvite Text. It supports two-way text messaging as well as broadcasts. Another feature of Jobvite Text is its textbots, which automate the initial screening process with candidates. The platform also supports text-to-apply capability. Jobvite Text also offers audit features, including clear audit trails, text recruiting templates, and shared documents.
While Jobvite has a rating of 4.1 out of 5 on Capterra and 4 out of 5 on G2, most of the reviews are for their Applicant Tracking System (ATS) rather than their SMS recruiting platform.
Brazen is a virtual career fair and events company and its offerings include live chat and recruiting chatbots that provide real-time functionality to recruiters. One of the features of Brazen is its control mechanism, which allows recruiters to keep live chat open only for specific positions using customizable job rules. Additionally, the "Shift-to-SMS" feature enables the app to automatically shift the conversation to SMS if a recruiter is offline. The analytics capabilities include tracking candidate quality and recruiter performance.
Brazen is rated 4.6 out of 5 on Capterra and 4.6 out of 5 on G2, although most reviews are about virtual events.
Choosing the right SMS recruitment platform is a big decision and while the list above should give you a head start, it's important to keep the following factors in mind when evaluating SMS platforms:
The one-size-fits-all approach simply won’t cut it! An SMS platform that is specifically designed for recruiting will offer features and capabilities based on nuances of hiring and focus on streamlining the SMS recruitment process.
Automation can greatly reduce the manual effort required to run SMS campaigns. Consider SMS recruiting platforms that offer automated texting campaigns and scheduling, as well as chatbots that can handle initial candidate screening.
Look for platforms that offer both types of messaging and the ability to personalize SMS at scale.
Choose a platform that provides detailed analytics and reporting on candidate response rates, recruiter performance, and more, so you can understand how the SMS campaigns are performing.
With the right filters and search capabilities, you can target candidates precisely and reach the right audience. Look for SMS platforms that offer robust search and filtering options to help you find and engage with the right candidates.
Regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) must be taken into consideration when choosing an SMS recruitment platform. Ensure that the platform you choose is compliant with all relevant regulations.
Consider platforms that offer seamless integration with other HR tools and systems you use, such as your ATS or Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform. It’s important that all the candidate information from your SMS campaigns is updated in your ATS.
The lists provided above should serve as a valuable resource for selecting the best SMS platform for your recruitment efforts. Carefully consider the various features and capabilities of each platform to determine which ones best meet your needs.
With the right platform in place, you can streamline your recruitment processes and more effectively engage with candidates. If you're interested in learning more about Sense Messaging and how it can benefit your organization, schedule a demo with our team today!
