Text Recruiting: Everything You Need to Know

If you've been in recruiting and staffing for a while, you know the joy of finding the perfect candidate. However, traditional recruitment methods often demand substantial time, effort, and resources. 

The hiring process can be expensive, costing businesses around $4,000 to fill one open role, mainly due to advertising the job on different websites. While these online platforms serve a purpose, text messaging offers a more targeted approach to connecting directly with top candidates. 

Using text recruiting software, like a mass messaging service, can simplify the time-consuming recruiting process if done well. Let’s explore how to use text message recruiting effectively and determine if it is the right fit for you. 

Table of Contents

Advantages of Text Messaging for Recruitment

Disadvantages of Text Recruitment

4 Ways to Use SMS for Talent Acquisition

Text Recruiting Best Practices

Is SMS Recruitment Better Than Other Strategies?

How to Use Text Recruiting to Hire

What Are the Advantages of Text Messaging for Recruitment?

You probably already use a variety of ways to recruit, like email, social media, and phone calls. So, why bother with texting? Is it more beneficial or easier to use?

Mass texts can help to make recruiters’ lives easier with the following advantages:

1. Text messages boast a 98% open rate and extraordinarily high response rate compared to most emails.
2. Texting streamlines the process because people are more willing to reply to text messages quickly.
3. SMS recruiting is an incredibly cost-effective method. On average, each text only costs a few cents.
4. SMS recruitment both humanizes and personalizes the candidate outreach process, allowing you to convey information effectively with a personal yet professional tone. 

What Are the Disadvantages of Text Messaging for Recruitment?

While text message recruiting offers numerous advantages, it’s important to consider potential drawbacks—although many can be addressed through proper guidelines and practices, as you have control over how and when you send messages.

1. Choosing the right tool is difficult. Not all texting platforms are a good fit for staffing agencies, as some lack the specific features and functionalities your agency relies on.  Consider your candidate outreach volume, communication preferences, speed requirements, and customization options when choosing your provider. 
   
   In general, most staffing agencies benefit from a service that offers two-way texting, message automation, integration capabilities with other software systems, and the flexibility to scale their efforts up or down as needed. 
2. Some information, especially sensitive or confidential information, is better suited for channels like email.
3. Failing to respond to texts quickly could frustrate candidates or make your firm appear unprofessional. Always follow business text message etiquette to preserve your brand reputation. 
4. There is a learning curve. As with any new processes you introduce to your agency, integrating an SMS platform into your workflow presents a learning curve. Consider appointing a dedicated team member or department to become your internal expert on the platform. 
   
   This measure ensures that you have a knowledgeable resource available for training and assisting other staff members as they adapt to the platform. You can also opt for an inherently user-friendly mass texting service like Text-Em-All.

4 Ways to Use Candidate Texting for Talent Acquisition 

Deciding to use mass messaging for recruitment is a great first step, but figuring out what to send is the next challenge. Here are four ways you can use candidate text messaging for effective talent acquisition: 

Promote Open Positions

Use texting to promote job openings to a wide audience with engaging messages featuring the job title, location, and unique benefits, along with a link to the job application page. By using candidate texting to advertise openings, you can quickly reach a large pool of potential candidates and encourage them to take the next step in the application process.

Pre-screening

Use mass texting to pre-screen job seekers by sending text-based questions about qualifications, availability, and interest. Ask about relevant experience, preferred hours, or willingness to relocate. This due diligence helps filter out candidates who may not be the right fit early on, saving both your and the applicants' time.

Interview Scheduling and Reminders

You can schedule interviews with automated messages by confirming interview details, including dates, times, and locations. You can also share essential information like parking instructions and interviewer contact details, enhancing candidate preparedness and minimizing no-shows.

Feedback and Follow-Up

Engage candidates post-interview by sending a polite follow-up text to thank them for their time, seek feedback on the interview process, and address any questions or concerns. This step demonstrates professionalism, provides valuable insights for process improvement, and keeps candidates interested in your organization, potentially paving the way for future opportunities.

Best Practices for Text Recruiting

While text recruiting is an effective tool for various reasons, if misused, it can result in a blocked text number or even a loss of legitimacy for your company. Here are some best practices to remember when using texting for recruiting.

#1 Avoid Blasting Spam

Unfortunately, text recruiting is often used to spam entire contact lists with open roles. In efforts to crack down on spam, carriers are making it extraordinarily easy for contacts to report spam. And if enough job seekers report you as spam, your number will be blocked.

Although it is possible to unblock your number, it’s a lengthy process, and texting services such as Text-Em-All cannot help you because the FTC has marked the number as spam. It’s possible to acquire another text number, but if you begin sending out the same messages to large groups of people, you will be marked as spam and blocked again.

#2 Keep Your Database Clean and Segment Your Contacts

Clean your contact lists and segment your recipients before sending out a laundry list of random job postings. To clean up your contact list, only use contacts who have responded or signed up in the last year or two. If you don't want to drastically clear your contact list, you can use our Text Surveys feature to more selectively declutter your list.

#3 Include Opt-Out Instructions in Every Mass Message

Including opt-out instructions on each message increases the probability of your contact opting out instead of reporting your number as spam.

Is Text Recruiting Better Than Other Strategies?

Certain recruitment tools will always be necessary. You shouldn’t expect SMS to take those tools away or replace them. Rather, you should use it to enhance the recruitment process by getting information to people quickly and starting conversations.

If you do a lot of mass recruiting, you will still want to use platforms such as:

• Email
• Job posting boards
• Social media
• Job fairs

However, mass texting can be a part of that process. You can view it as a “teaser” for a job posting so you can see who’s interested before you end up investing time and money promoting the job in other ways.

With Text-Em-All’s mass texting software, you can do much more than just recruit potential new hires. You can use it to make your daily HR tasks more manageable, including requesting missing timesheets from employees, confirming schedules, or delivering important announcements.

Adding a personal touch to the way you mass recruit potential employees can help you tap into a new audience. Don’t be afraid to be more relaxed and communicative in the way you recruit. You might find that people are more responsive and comfortable when they get back to you. As a result, you can start positive, effective conversations with interested candidates until you find the perfect person for the job without the traditional hassle and expense.

How To Use Text Recruiting To Hire

Reaching individuals on their personal cell phones used to be a no-go for businesses, but it is now commonly acceptable because it aligns with where most people spend their time. Many consumers prefer texts over phone calls, emails, or social media interactions, so smart marketers have embraced text recruiting platforms.

Here are some tips to help ensure that your text recruiting is successful.

Reconnect with Past Applicants: Companies typically have a list of former applicants who may have picked up skills and buffed their work experience over time. Text recruiting can reignite these connections. To effectively tap into this pool, ensure their qualifications align with the job listing, then consider gauging their interest with a text survey.

Foster New Connections: Text recruiting allows you to establish relationships with new candidates, streamlining the interview process and providing opportunities for engagement, like inviting them to recruiting events or sharing success stories to pique their interest in your company.

Automate the Process: While possible, using a personal cell phone for text recruiting is inefficient when dealing with large candidate numbers. Use a dedicated text recruitment platform with a user-friendly dashboard for efficient messaging and reply management.

Choosing the Right Text Recruiting Solution

There are a variety of text recruiting platforms available, but when deciding on the right SMS solution for your firm, make sure you find a company that will help guide you through how to use their product responsibly and get the most value out of your account.

If you’d like to know more about how to text recruit effectively, set up a Text-Em-All demo or get started right away by signing up for a free account.