Though it may sound new and unusual to the common idea of recruiting, communication via text message with the job candidates has become increasingly popular among HR departments worldwide. If we told you that SMS has open rates of about 98%, compared to 20% of all emails and that, on average, it takes 90 minutes for someone to respond to an email and only 90 seconds to respond to a text, would that change your mind?
If you are not there yet, keep reading the blog and learn all about the benefits that text recruitment has on candidate experience and your employer brand!
With the Millennials becoming the largest generation of the workforce, it’s time to adopt new ways of recruiting. For this generation, two-way communication is imperative no matter if they are applying for a new job or ordering new clothes from an online store. Therefore, while trying to attract the top talent, HR departments are creating as interactive and as immediate recruitment processes as possible. In this attempt, recruiters are leaving nothing to chance and besides using various social media for sourcing and reaching the candidates, are often texting their candidates to improve candidate experience. This goes in line with the previous research that strongly suggests that text messages can provide a high impact, low cost, and a channel through which to galvanize action.
While emails often get lost, ignored, or go by unnoticed, texting entices candidates to interact more with the company which consequently makes them more aware of the job opportunity. Since the research shows that the top candidates stay available on the market for only 10 days, it is important to stay relevant and present among both passive and active candidates.
In addition to attracting candidates who are actively searching for a new job, HR departments are now leveraging the communication with candidates who are passively staying open to new opportunities. These two groups of candidates, while both in recruiter’s focus, have a completely different approach to looking into job opportunities. Unlike active job seekers, passive candidates don't have the patience for browsing the internet and visiting overcrowded job ad portals. When having in mind that 70% of the global workforce are passive candidates and only 30% are searching for a job actively, the main question that arises here is - How to successfully attract those candidates and find perfect ones for your job position?
Nowadays, the job market is filled with a large number of various job opportunities that are popping up from every corner. Recent research showed that the US market has more job openings (6.6 million) than there are unemployed people (6.4 million). This shift created a huge urge for providing a great candidate experience for all talent. It could be said that it’s no longer the case that candidates are at the mercy of the employers but the other way around.
So far, various studies showed a high impact of any type of company communication on candidates' perceptions of the company. Not only that the ones that had a positive candidate experience will be more likely to recommend the company to their friends and colleagues, but they will also form a more positive opinion about their products, services and consider them as an employer who cares about their employees. Consequently, candidates that had a negative experience with an organization will be more likely to spread negative words about their products and services. This leads to a powerful conclusion that a positive candidate experience becomes a prominent competitive differentiator in attracting and acquiring talented individuals.
One of the important factors in providing a positive candidate experience is making sure that you are communicating with the candidates in all stages of their recruitment process. Creating a more human approach and keeping the candidates in the loop about every important step in their journey, while reflecting the company's culture in the messaging, has proven to help build a positive candidate experience. IBM’s survey shows that 85% of job seekers listed consistent communication as the top driver of satisfaction with the recruitment experience.
This brings us back to all the potentials of texting. By introducing text messages as a communication tool in the recruitment process you will enjoy:
Finally, texting your candidates doesn’t make you less professional. By adding a built-in texting app to your regular recruiting pipeline you will be able to plan, forecast, and track your text messages and their performance. With Talentlyft and Chat Your Job all of this becomes easy! Request our free trial and start texting your candidates. :)
