As recruiting and hiring become increasingly competitive, talent acquisition professionals are always on the lookout for new and effective ways to reach candidates. One channel that has gained immense popularity in recent years is text messaging. It has emerged as a powerful tool for recruiters to connect with candidates directly on their mobile phones. And—with 5 billion people globally sending and receiving texts—it has become one of the most powerful ways to reach talent.
Let’s explore the advantages of using texting in hiring and how you can unlock its potential to streamline your recruitment process, reach more candidates, and improve the talent experience.
Text recruiting involves engaging candidates on their phones at each stage of the hiring process—from sourcing through onboarding. Recruiters can collect application details via text-to-apply (candidates apply by texting a dedicated phone number) or by sharing an opportunity with a group of qualified candidates through mass texting campaigns. Applicants are then instantly screened against role requirements and, if they’re qualified, will have an interview scheduled within minutes of learning about the opportunity—all through text message.
As the interview approaches, the candidate will receive automated text message reminders and can reply to confirm details, ask questions, or reschedule should their availability change. And after they’re hired, they’ll receive first-day reminders and polite nudges to complete their onboarding paperwork (again, all through text).
And the best part—many of these text communications are automated and require little to effort from recruiters. Sound too good to be true? Read on and learn all the benefits text messaging can bring to your recruiting and hiring process.
Email, phone, and other traditional methods of candidate communication during the recruiting process are becoming less and less effective. With Millenials and Generation Z now accounting for more than half of the workforce, recruiting must evolve to align with their preferences.
A survey conducted by Adobe found that 84% of Gen Zers and 73% of Millennials prefer text messaging as their main mode of communication. And even 63% of Gen Xers and 43% of Baby Boomers are avid texters.
As the world becomes more mobile and connected, text messaging is quickly taking over as the preferred method of communication for people of all ages. Currently, about 65% of the world's population and 80% of people in North America text—and these figures are expected to trend upward as 77% of the global population is projected to own a smartphone by 2025.
From a strictly recruiting perspective, today’s job seekers are demanding better communication from recruiters. Sense surveyed more than 1,000 candidates and found that a lack of updates and slow response times from recruiters was their biggest frustration during the job search process. Texting enables recruiting teams to overcome both those challenges, helping them improve the candidate experience, reduce drop-off, and meet their hiring goals.
Using mass texting campaigns, recruiters can reach out to entire groups of passive candidates at once to share relevant opportunities. Texts are personalized so they feel as if they were written specifically for each individual recipient. When candidates respond and express interest, the recruiter can then engage them in a one-on-one conversation.
Talent acquisition professionals who refuse to adapt their recruiting strategies to incorporate new and emerging technologies will be left behind. The traditional methods of sending emails and calling candidates are time-consuming and becoming less impactful. Let’s face it, people are answering their phones less frequently and will flat-out ignore calls from numbers they don’t recognize. And our inboxes are now overflowing with emails, causing messages from recruiters to go unnoticed.
Recruiters who have been early to adopt texting are successfully getting candidates’ attention at critical times in the recruiting process—and bringing multiple benefits to their hiring efforts (more on that soon).
Text messaging allows recruiters to reach candidates instantly, without the need for lengthy phone calls or email exchanges. And it delivers the benefits of both phone and email without the downsides of either channel:
Texting is especially effective when it comes to scheduling interviews, as it can be difficult to coordinate everyone’s availability via email or phone. With texting powered by an AI chatbot, recruiting teams can instantly schedule interviews, reducing the time it takes to get candidates in front of the hiring manager.
Text messaging is a two-way street—it provides several benefits to recruiters and candidates alike.
For recruiters, it can boost response rates, reduce interview no-shows, and accelerate the recruiting process. For candidates, texting is a modern way to apply for an open role, get an interview scheduled, and receive updates about their hiring status – without needing to navigate clunky forms or wait for an email response or return call from a recruiter.
Text messages have a higher response rate than emails and phone calls, making it the top candidate communication channel. In fact, Sense partnered with Talent Board to survey 350+ talent leaders about their experiences engaging and communicating with job seekers. We learned that phone and email are still the most relied upon modes of communication but texting is the channel that is driving the highest levels of success. That means that candidates want recruiters and hiring companies to text message them, since it’s the mode of communication they’re most likely to respond to.
Currently, making texting part of your recruiting strategy offers a competitive advantage. But in the not-too-distance-future, it will become a must-have tool for talent acquisition professionals looking to attract and engage top talent. By adapting to the preferences of today’s candidates, recruiters can stay ahead of the curve, meet their hiring goals, and streamline the end-to-end recruiting process.
Texting enables recruiters to quickly and easily send updates and reminders to candidates. Research shows that candidates are applying for up to 12 jobs at once, and many will drop out of the hiring process or no-show an interview if they stop hearing from the recruiter. By sending a quick text message update or interview reminder, you can keep candidates invested in the opportunity and prevent ghosting.
Be The Match had a simple yet ambitious goal—to be a best-in-class talent acquisition organization. But in order to do that they knew they needed to better engage talent and turned to text messaging to help them do so.
Since making the transition to candidate texting, they’ve experienced a 73% response rate, 0 candidate opt-outs, and have had 226 unique conversations over a 90-day period. Check out their full story here.
Now that you understand the importance of candidate text messaging, it's time to integrate it into your recruiting and hiring strategy. Let’s explore all the ways you can engage candidates at different stages of the recruitment process:
Miller Brother Staffing (MBS) found that reaching out to candidates by phone had become far too time-consuming and less effective. Using mass texting, they reach nearly 500 people per day which is about three times more than they used to engage with by phone.
Since implementing texting in their hiring efforts, they’ve connected with 250K candidates, saved 13K recruiter hours, and made 1,000 hires. Check out their full story here.
While texting is the top candidate communication channel, you cannot ask your recruiters to engage candidates from their individual phones. Communicating with hundreds or thousands of candidates from a single mobile device would not only be unmanageable, but those conversations would be siloed in each team member’s phone, preventing collaboration and visibility into the conversations that are happening.
A text recruiting platform is a centralized hub for managing candidate text conversations and comes with multiple features that help talent acquisition teams fully integrate text messaging into their recruitment process, including:
If want to learn more about the features and benefits of a text messaging recruiting platform, contact Sense today.
HealthTrust faced a common recruiting problem: candidates weren’t answering their phones. They introduced text messaging at each stage of their hiring process and saw an immediate improvement in response volume and speed.
By engaging candidates via text, they experience a 98% message delivery rate, 44% response rate, and have sent 905 outbound messages in six months. Check out their full story here.
Texting is a powerful hiring tool when used in conjunction with other recruiting technology. Integrating your text messaging platform with your Applicant Tracking System (ATS) gives recruiters access to the phone numbers they need to engage candidates via text messaging and ensures the recruiting process for every role is always up to date.
For example, Sense integrates with multiple ATS providers and enables recruiters to surface past candidates who are qualified for new roles and automatically pull their phone numbers into mass texting campaigns. When a candidate responds and says they’re interested, they’re entered into the recruiting process for the role in the ATS.
With the right approach, you can seamlessly incorporate texting into your existing recruiting strategy and tech stack, helping you reach a bigger talent pool, provide an outstanding candidate experience, and ultimately drive better hiring outcomes.
Texting is now the #1 channel for engaging talent during the recruiting process but it requires a different approach than phone and email. Text messages that miss the mark can come across as invasive or even spammy to candidates. And in some cases, poor recruiting text messages are never even seen because they don’t make it through the spam filters mobile carriers have in place.
Following these recruiting text best practices will ensure your texts reach every candidate and captures their attention.
Personalization is key when it comes to text messaging in recruiting. Messages should feel as if they’re written specifically for each individual candidate (even if they’re a templated message or sent through a mass texting campaign).
You can avoid making your messages feel generic (and spammy) by including placeholders in hiring text templates that are auto-populated with details like the candidate’s name, the job title, and the location of the role.
After all, texting is a personal mode of communication that we often only engage in with our friends and family members, so including the candidate's name and other relevant details goes a long way in making them feel valued and encouraging them to respond.
Less is more when it comes to crafting effective recruiting texts. Always strive to share information with candidates as concisely as possible so your message never looks like a block of text on their phone screen.
Additionally, recruiters need to maintain professionalism when using text messaging to engage job seekers. Avoid including abbreviations or texting slang, and instead use complete sentences and proper grammar to convey the messaging and tone candidates are accustomed to in their interactions with recruiters. Most importantly, never use emojis, capitalized words, or non-alphanumeric symbols (e.g., #, $, @) as these can cause your recruiting text messages to be interpreted as spam by mobile carriers.
All that said, text messaging is a casual mode of communication, so recruiters should still be friendly and approachable in their candidate texts. This helps you build rapport with them and shows that your company is a great place to work, made up of nice, supportive people.
It is essential to ensure compliance with privacy regulations when making texting part of your recruiting strategy. Only ever contact candidates who have opted-in to receiving texts (you can include a simple “opt-in” check box on your application) and always provide the option for the candidate to opt-out at any time.
It’s also important not to share or request any sensitive or confidential information via text. Given the casual nature of texting, it’s best to ask the candidate to jump on the phone when it comes time to discuss compensation or ask for their personal information.
All in all, talent leaders should familiarize themselves with local, state, and national regulations before introducing texting in their recruiting process. Doing so will ensure you’re set up for success and help you avoid any and all candidate text messaging pitfalls along the way.
A text created in your Talent Engagement Platform may look good on your computer but remember that it’s going to appear smaller on a mobile phone screen. Before sending it to a candidate, take the time to test it on both iOS and Android phones to ensure it will look appealing to the recipient and doesn’t get filtered by mobile carriers.
The testing phase is also a great opportunity to fine-tune your text messages. Play with different CTAs, words, and spacing to ensure that you craft recruiting texts that look as aesthetically pleasing as possible when they land on your candidates’ phones.
As with any component of your hiring strategy, it’s important to measure the success of your recruiting texting efforts. Let’s conclude with some metrics and KPIs worth monitoring as you start communicating with candidates via text:
Once again, using text recruiting platform like Sense provides you access to robust messaging analytics that help you pinpoint how texting contributes to recruiting and hiring success.
The recruiters who were early to adopt text messaging have come out ahead while hiring has gotten increasingly competitive. They’re successfully capturing candidates’ interest, maintaining engagement, and meeting their hiring goals as their competitors continue to struggle by using only phone and email.
But in the near future, texting will go from a nice-to-have to an essential part of every company’s hiring strategy. Talent acquisition professionals are already wising up and realizing they need to leverage a candidate communication channel that aligns with modern technology usage habits.
Don’t get left behind. Check out these resources and learn everything you need to know to accomplish your hiring goals with texting or request a Sense demo today!
