Text messages are a great way to update family and friends quickly, but their usefulness extends to the professional realm too. Hiring managers can use texts to reach candidates and improve the hiring and onboarding process. If you are looking to enhance your recruiting efforts to attract top talent, this guide is for you.
If you worry that job seekers will not be receptive to a text from a recruiter, think again. Many people cannot imagine their days without their smartphone, which means that they are likely to see your message within a short time.
Not only that, but mobile devices are a handy way to look for jobs. Those who are interested in your posted vacancy online can apply anywhere and anytime from their phone or tablet.
Research shows that 28 percent of American adults have used their smartphones as part of their employment search. Young adults in the 18-29-year-old range are more likely to do so (53 percent), and that number decreases, on average, as age increases.
There is more positive news when it comes to how often mobile recruiting texts get read. The open rates on SMS text messages are impressive at 98 percent, as per a recent Forbes article.
They get read quickly too at 4-6 minutes, on average. Plus, more than half (64 percent) would rather receive a text after submitting a job application than an email or phone call (Forbes).
These numbers clearly give HR teams good reasons to implement a mobile approach for reaching top talent. From indicating that you received an applicant’s resume to notifying an individual that they got the job, texts provide a concise way to do so, without multiple paragraphs to read like in an email.
Text messages have many advantages in a hiring campaign, given the statistics described above. Furthermore, a text is easy to send to multiple people at once and provides another way to reach candidates, in addition to in-person, email, and phone efforts.
The ability to reach the person directly on their phone is a huge advantage for hiring departments. Not only can you eliminate being missed in a slew of emails in their Inbox, but you also stand out as being a modern organization for using texting.
The approach is also a more personalized one. Texting is synonymous for many people with friends and family, so a text from an organization has familiar connotations.
Furthermore, when used properly, text messages have the potential to speed up the process and make it easier for all parties involved to communicate with each other. For example, HR teams can send texts using a custom template and analyze campaign data, and create new workflows, using Talcura’s recruiting and onboarding software.
This process can optimize your recruiting strategy, especially since you can import candidate details easily. Increasing engagement is easier than before with the right tools for both recruiters and job candidates.
