Why Texting is Your Recruiting Secret Weapon
| By Jessica Miller-Merrell | HR, Social Media
Why Texting is Your Recruiting Secret Weapon
Mobile is the single most important change in the world since the invention of the internet. Seventy-one percent of adults in the U.S. now own a web-enabled smartphone or other wireless device. Mobile allows for individuals to be connected in real time, on the fly and literally from the palm of their hand. They have the world and its resources at their fingers, making for some of the most empowered buyers and consumers we’ve experienced to date. Mobile users are empowered to learn, engage and research for themselves without having to wait.
Living in the world we do, a large percentage of these mobile users are in the market for a job. These job seekers conduct personal and professional business from their piece of technology that is more important above all others. And that technology comes in the form of their mobile device.
What Mobile Activities Job Seekers Do Most
- Research. We want to be informed. Forty-eight percent of consumers start mobile research with a search engine. Job seekers are no different with increasingly more and more candidates using social networks including LinkedIn, review sites like Glassdoor and visiting company career pages even before they apply and increasingly from their mobile device.
- In App Engagement Keep in mind that 89% of time spent via mobile happens within an app like Facebook, Amazon, or Snapchat. We like using apps because we don’t have to fumble with non-mobile optimized websites. Frankly, I really hate having to pinch and zoom which happens often even with my big iPhone 6+ screen.
- Communication. Whether it’s email, in app messaging or texting, we are using our mobile phones to communicate with each other. A good friend of mine mentioned that her sister in law will only talk to her using Snapchat chat, video and messaging. Personally, I like to respond to email using my mobile phone since I am often multi-tasking between screens and meetings.
How Mobile Can Really Change Recruiting
Mobile allows for instant connection which in the recruiting world can allow for a distinct competitive advantage in engaging top talent first especially in the contingent labor, healthcare and information technology. Text messaging in particular is the most un-obtrusive and effective form of communication from your mobile device. Especially when you consider that ninety-nine percent of text messages are read within 90 seconds compared to in app push notification averaging 50-80% open rates. Email open rates are the least engaging according to eMarketer at 18%.
Mobile allows for instant engagement and connectedness which is especially important in not just the candidate experience but for placing qualified talent quickly and easily.
4 Ways Recruiters & HR Can Use Text Messaging
Recruiters who specialize in an industry that has a small social circle care about not just the candidate experience but relationships and engaging their network. Same holds true for business leaders and HR who is looking at a way to engage their new hires or current employee population. Mobile can do that especially when a candidate is ready to pull the trigger and jump into a red hot job seeker market. Text messaging can be a candidate engagement and recruiting game changer.
- Updating your CRM and Candidate Contact Information. There’s nothing worse that being interrupted by a call from an unknown number or from a recruiter you aren’t quite ready to engage. By texting them, you can check in but more importantly, update your CRM and make sure it’s up to date. With API’s between a texting vendor and your ATS or CRM, this is an absolute possibility.
- Confirming Appointments, Phone Calls, Meetings and Interviews. Texts provide candidates a quick reminder or an opportunity to quickly check their schedule to make sure they are able to attend their interview.
- Quick Check Ins. These are quick non-intrusive ways to check in with your candidate. The messages can be personalized, scheduled and even automated to help your recruiters maintain productivity but still make time for engagement.
- Enhancing Your Current Process. Maybe it’s following up on a candidate who you are eagerly awaiting to complete their new hire paperwork or assessment that is keeping them from moving ahead in the process. Sometimes we all need a little reminder or nudge in their right direction. Texting can be a great way.
All this sounds amazing, am I right, but the question is how do we teach an old dog new tricks especially if I have been recruiting candidates or leading employees for 20 years without this technology?
Answer: It’s Not About You
As a leader or a recruiter when it comes to engagement, communication or reaching your target candidate, you don’t matter. It’s not about you at all. It’s about what the job seekers or your employees want and their preferred method to communicate.
