How common is it for you to text a candidate verses sending them an e-mail? Is it normal for you to send a text or does it seem out of place?  If you aren’t regularly texting candidates, you may be missing out on a big opportunity to streamline your recruitment process!  95% of texts are read within 3 minutes of being sent.¹ And texting is the most used form of communication for American adults under 50.² These are important statistics to consider when communicating with candidates and it opens up opportunity for recruiters to use texting as a source of communication verses sending an e-mail or calling.  Texting candidates will help you recruit more efficiently and make every recruiter’s life easier!

Speeding Up Your Recruitment Process 

Think about your typical communication with a candidate.  Are you often waiting for a response?  The average e-mail response time is 90 minutes, but only 90 seconds for a text message.³ E-mails aren’t seen right away and they often get lost in the hundreds of other e-mails received every day.  For every hour that goes by where you don’t receive an e-mail response, the chances of getting a reply drop quickly. 4 Most everyone has their phones at arm’s reach so why wouldn’t you send a text message for a quick response verses e-mail?  Eliminate the waiting game. 

Let’s paint a picture.  Let’s say you have a new job order to fill and want to know if one of your top candidates would be interested in the position.  You can send them a text and hopefully receive a response in minutes.  This allows you to know right away if they are interested in the position or if you should continue your search for another candidate. Same goes if you are trying to schedule your appointments for the week.  Sending quick texts to candidates can allow you to schedule your appointments more quickly and spend more time recruiting! 

Recruiters can also send short and easy screening questions via text message before a phone interview.  This will lessen interview time over the phone and allows you to receive answers to screening questions in advanced if need be. 

Eliminate Phone Tagging 

Research from Gallup indicates that half of U.S. employees are actively searching for a new job.5 This means 50% of your candidates can’t respond to your call during work hours. Texting gives the candidate a better opportunity to respond to your message and you completely skip over phone tagging issues.  If a recruiter calls during work, a candidate may try calling back at lunch and then miss you while you are at lunch.  Then, the recruiter calls back after lunch, but the candidate is at work and they can’t answer. These are typical phone tagging issues you have when your candidate currently has a job.  Sending a quick text about a job opportunity or checking availability for an interview, will make a recruiter’s life that much easier!  Skip the unnecessary back and forths. 

Help Eliminate Ghosting

Additionally, texting is a great way to send reminders about meetings or interviews.  If you have a phone interview scheduled for the next day, consider sending a text message to that candidate confirming their availability and asking them to respond by a certain time. If they don’t respond confirming, then you can plan your time on another candidate. 

It also eliminates awkwardness between you and a client if a candidate doesn’t show up for an interview.  You can warn the client ahead of time that you didn’t receive a confirmation, instead of the client being ghosted by your candidate. 

Setup Text Templates and Timesheet Reminders

Business text messaging technologies allow for you to setup texting templates.  This eliminates taking the time to type out redundant text’s day after day.  Instead, templates allow you to quickly select the type of text you want to send in seconds, further speeding up your recruitment process. Standard templates can be made to send texts about availability, interview confirmations, inquiring about interest in a position, etc. A template can be made for anything!

Additionally, once a candidate is placed, text templates can be made to send out reminders about filling in their timesheets!  A quick text reminder can help get more timesheets filled out on time.

Improve Candidates Experience with Your Organization 

Texting will help improve the overall impression you make on a candidate as well.  Think about the above points and how texting will help a recruiter’s life.  The same points are applicable from a candidate’s perspective.  It will quicken their job search process, eliminate phone tagging issues, and allows them to receive confirmation that interviews are still being held.  From a candidate’s perspective, all of this streamlines their job search and eliminates frustrations.  

Additionally, it is a more personal way of communicating.  Millennials and Gen X’ers often prefer texting to calling and it is more natural for them. Companies can be viewed more positively if they use easier and preferred methods of communication. 

Overall, texting candidates is the new way of communication for staffing and recruiting. It must be embraced. The sooner you implement texting, the more streamline your recruitment process will be. 

1. SinglePoint Study
2. Gallup Study 
3. CTIA.org 
4. PonyMail Study 
5. Gallup Study