3 Things to Consider Before Text Recruiting

The Recruiting Intelligence Blog

Learn More

3 Things to Consider Before Text Recruiting

Kristine Le
Apr 28, 2021 1:25:31 AM

If you’re looking to adopt text message recruiting into your talent acquisition strategy, you may have a lot of questions — especially if you’re new to the recruiting software space. It’s important to break down your company’s needs and hiring goals to ensure that you’re getting the most out of Text Recruiting.

Let’s take a look at some components to consider before adopting Text Recruiting for your business.

1. What are the pros and cons of texting?

While the benefits definitely outweigh the negatives, your team should still consider both pros and cons of using text in your recruiting strategy.

Pros of texting

A. It speeds up your hiring process

Text Recruiting uses automation at stages that don’t require a job candidate to recruiter interaction. This means screening, interview scheduling, follow-ups, and more can be handled by a chatbot in lieu of a recruiter — resulting in a lot of saved time that your team can use for more important touchpoints.

B. It improves the candidate experience with faster communication

Texting is known to provide higher open rates and lower response times. Instead of making a phone call or sending an email — both of which candidates can miss or overlook — texting provides a fast and easy to stay in touch with candidates. As a result, you’re creating a positive candidate experience and showing that you respect job seekers’ time.

C. It makes a good impression on your organization

With SMS Recruiting, your organization will appear more approachable and communicative, which leaves a great first impression on top talent.

Even if you don’t end up hiring a particular candidate, they can still speak positively about their experience interacting with your brand. In the future, it may be easier to re-engage these candidates if they know how efficient your recruiting process is.

Cons of texting

A. Email is still important

Text Recruiting can make your recruitment process more efficient, but it can’t and won’t entirely replace email.

Email is still necessary for exchanging important data, such as legal documents or other sensitive data that may not be appropriate or secure over text.

B. Not everyone texts

While most Americans do own a mobile device and text on a daily basis, there is still a minority that is unfamiliar with texting.

This could affect your response rates, as these potential candidates don’t check their messages as often. Therefore, it’s important to be mindful of your audience and tailor your recruitment strategy based on whom you’re trying to reach.

C. It’s another channel to manage

Depending on your other current communication channels, adding in an additional SMS channel may affect your team’s ability to organize and stay on top of every candidate profile.

If this is of concern, discuss how you should go about using text recruiting software in an efficient and effective way. Many recruiting software companies integrate with your current applicant tracking system, so you don’t have to manually create or update your candidates’ profiles.

2. What is the most popular text recruiting software?

When selecting a recruiting software for your team, it’s important to do your research and decide on which platform best fits your hiring needs. Below are the top 3 text recruiting software platforms that you can consider:

XOR

XOR’s Text Recruiting is an all-encompassing platform that allows recruiters to create text message campaigns, pre-screen and schedule candidates, follow-up, and track performance. Not only that, but teams can also utilize these solutions for internal HR purposes, such as employee engagement, pulse surveys, and more.

Recruiters can choose from a large variety of different text messaging platforms including SMS, Facebook Messenger, Linkedin, WhatsApp, Viber, and Telegram.

With their leading AI chatbots, recruiting teams can choose to automate any stage of recruiting process, including screening, scheduling, and asking for feedback. Recruiters can jump in at any time to speak with candidates or answer questions, ensuring that human interaction is still at the forefront of the candidate experience.

If a candidate is qualified to proceed onto the next steps of the hiring process, recruiters can easily transition from SMS to a phone call within seconds. Once the candidate receives a job offer, follow-up and onboarding can take place immediately — ensuring that there are no gaps nor long wait time between responses.

XOR also integrates with plenty of applicant tracking systems (ATS), CRM, and job boards, including but not limited to Avature, Beamery, Bullhorn, CareerHarmony, Zoho, Taleo, and more. View the rest of their integrations list here.

XOR’s clients have achieved an average of 33% faster time-to-hire, 50% lower hiring costs, and a 90% net promotor score from candidates.

You can request a demo of XOR’s Text Recruiting platforms here.

iCIMS / TextRecruit

Text recruiting is part of the mobile-first communication platform, which also includes live chat and an AI-powered chatbot. TextRecruit also includes an internal texting tool for employees to communicate with HR and for teams to collaborate. However, their reporting feature is still lacking the complexity and analytics recruiting teams need to analyze their text recruiting performance in-depth. Clients have also commented on the bland design of their platform.

TextUs

TextUs is primarily focused on staffing firm customers. They offer mass text broadcasting and integration with an ATS, and their platform allows users to quickly and easily add a new number and use pre-created templates for outbound messages. However, they are lacking drip campaigns/sequences capabilities.

3. How much does Text Recruiting cost?

Text Recruiting software can be priced based on the number of text messages sent out or a fixed annual subscription.

Factors typically involved in pricing include:

1) How many text messages are being sent out?

2) How many recruiters are using the platform?

The best way to find out how much Text Recruiting would cost is to request pricing. You can request a quote for text recruiting here.

Here’s Your Video Tour of XOR

The Recruiting Intelligence Blog

Learn More

Here’s Your Video Tour of XOR

Birch Faber
Jul 2, 2020 11:29:25 PM

We’re passionate about creating recruiting software to help teams hire quality candidates, faster. Watch these 3-minute videos to see what we’ve been working on, and learn why leading recruitment teams chose XOR to help them achieve their hiring goals.

Talent Platform

XOR provides an all-in-one recruiting communication platform that recruiters can use for text recruiting, candidate screening, and interview scheduling. These processes can be fully enjoyed on various communication channels like SMS, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and more. Reporting and dashboards are available for teams to track and analyze the performance of their campaigns for future reference and improvements.

Virtual Career Fairs

XOR Virtual Career Fairs enable recruiters and candidates to connect in real-time, from any location and at any time. From creating branded registration pages to setting up booths, recruiters have complete autonomy over their digital hiring event. At any point in time, recruiters can screen, schedule, and even initiate a phone or video call with candidates during the virtual career fair.

Chrome Extension

XOR integrates with a wide variety of ATS using a Chrome extension in your browser, allowing recruiters to create and add multiple candidates to a text campaign within a few clicks. You also directly send texts or WhatsApp messages using the extension.

Tags: Automation

How AI Truly Implements Diversity in Recruiting

The Recruiting Intelligence Blog

Learn More

How AI Truly Implements Diversity in Recruiting

Aida Fazylova
Jun 19, 2018 5:40:17 PM

Diversity recruiting is a hot topic in the HR industry. The overall conversation is progressive as ever, finding strong employees amongst people of all races, sexual orientations, religions, ages and (dis)abilities. Talent comes in all forms, but humans tend to miss amazing candidates due to personal bias. Whether it is subconscious or not, people are flawed in their ability to choose new employees to fill positions. Any decisions based on prejudice are eliminated when the decision is in the hands of AI. Here are some ways AI helps optimize diverse recruiting efforts.

Removing Biased Language with Job Descriptions

There are many ways to dilute the presence of bias in the recruitment process. One of which starts in the job description. Multiple studies have deduced the concept of gendered wording in job advertisements. The idea being that words such as “dominant” and “competitive” are masculine-coded and tend to deter female applicants. Removing the bias from these descriptions can take time and prove rather tedious for a human copywriter. But having an AI rewrite your job description sans any gender bias can be accomplished quickly.

There are many ways to dilute the presence of bias in the recruitment process. One of which starts in the job description.Tweet This!

Removing Bias from Applicant Screening

As the AI combs through applicant demographic information, the intelligence can be programmed to defer from using this info to inform their decisions on the applicant. Removing this type of data can help develop a less biased recruiting strategy for the sake of increasing the diversity in your workforce. On the opposite end of the spectrum, AI sometimes can also learn to include some bias dependent on the history of your company’s recruitment. Or if you have a history of hiring candidates from a specific university that you hold in high regard, AI tends to rank these people higher. Because of this, it is important to keep humans in the equation to realize these biases and remove it from the AI’s decisions. It is important to realize your own biases in your history and adjusting the process to avoid worst-case scenario situations such as a $1.7 million settlement.

Validating True Qualification

AI has a strong advantage over human recruiting efforts in its use of data. Not even mentioning the physical/mental fatigue and unconscious bias of human recruiting that AI avoids, it also can confirm a candidate’s skills based on concrete data points. Often humans see matching qualifications from a job description and a presented resume and form a logical preference for this candidate. But without anything to contest the candidates self description, there is an inherent risk in over-qualifying a candidate. AI has zero bias and has all of the data to ensure the candidate truly is who they say they are.

Having a Chat

Chatbots are the ultimate means of increasing diversity recruiting and averting the unconscious and conscious bias of the human mind. Chatbots can help by subbing in for the human in collecting the data in a way that a resume never could. Often applicants are unsure of what information is truly necessary for each job and there are certainly some companies that aren’t always aware of everything they need either. Having a conversation with an applicant can help solve these issues while sifting through the data provided as efficiently as possible. Chatbots are the cumulation of the benefits listed above and more.

Chatbots can help by subbing in for the human in collecting the data in a way that a resume never could.Tweet This!

XOR is fortunate to have the AI technologies to satisfy all of these concerns. Any solutions that you or your company need to find are here. It’s easy to find out you need more help, but it can be hard to act on that need. We have a love for chatbots and know exactly how its use as a tool that can truly humanize your recruiting strategy. Contact us today for your demo and optimize your recruitment process!

Tags: AI, Recruitment

How To Determine If a Chatbot Is Right For Your Company

The Recruiting Intelligence Blog

Learn More

How To Determine If a Chatbot Is Right For Your Company

Aida Fazylova
Jul 25, 2018 6:03:20 PM

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: AI technology is here to enhance the way you do business. Chatbots, for instance, are automating mindless processes — freeing your employees’ time and, best of all, saving your company some serious cash. We know that these major advancements in tech can be scary…not to mention they may come with a little sticker shock. So, how do you determine if your company would truly benefit from a chatbot? Lucky for you, we’re here to answer that very question. Although we’re confident a chatbot would be a worthwhile addition to any company, there are a few tell tale signs that you truly need to add one to your recruitment mix.

Trying to determine if adding a #chatbot to your #recruiting mix is the right choice? Check out @XOR_ai’s latest blog to see if this tactic is worthwhile for your company!Tweet This!

Are You Performing Mindless Tasks?

Are your employees performing the same, mindless tasks day in and day out? If you answered “yes” or even “sometimes” to that question, stop the madness and automate these tasks already! In this era of ever evolving technology, there is no reason for you to read every resume, screen every candidate or schedule every interview yourself. Remove these daily burdens from your company’s to-do list by having XOR complete these mindless, but important, tasks.

Are You Missing Candidates?

For most companies, the hours of operation are limited to 9am — 5pm. Are you one of them? By adding XOR to your recruitment mix, you are no longer held back by work hour limitations. This world class chatbot operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to allow candidates to complete the hiring process at their convenience. Here’s a bonus: Your candidates will love the accessibility to the company, and will rave about your exceptional candidate experience.

Have You Already Answered That Question?

As a recruiter, you know that candidates have questions. And they should! It shows that they’re taking an interest in the company and the position they’re applying for. With that being said, how often have you answered the question “do you really need 2+ years of experience for the position?” or “is there flexibility in what hours you work each day?” Let me answer that for you: too many! Stop wasting your breath. XOR’s automation can answer these questions and more for your candidates.

Is Scheduling an Interview a Nuisance?

It is astonishing how busy your work days are, isn’t it? You bounce from meeting, to interview, to project and then your day is practically over. Yet somewhere during all of that, you’re expected to set up an interview with a great candidate. Take this stressor off your plate with XOR. Our chatbot integrates with your schedule so that candidates can schedule their own interviews. Relax knowing that you’ll never have to suggest another date or time again.

Your competitors are doing it, so why aren’t you? See how a #chatbot can give you the competitive advantage you need in recruiting talent!Tweet This!

How Many Unqualified Candidates are You Meeting With?

Unqualified candidates apply for jobs all the time. After all, what’s stopping them? With XOR’s interactive chat, you can pre-screen your candidates to make sure that they fit all the hiring criteria set in place. With an interactive pre-screening in place, you’ll never have to sit through an interview just to find out that you overqualified a candidate…again. On top of ensuring qualification, our recruitment assistant chatbot can also spot potentially toxic candidates and predict each employee’s lifetime value. Before hiring, you can decide whether this person will be worth the time and energy.

Are Your Competitors Doing it?

The answer is probably yes. But if they aren’t, they are sure to be shortly. Beat them to it! Secure this competitive advantage before it is adopted as the norm.

After reading this, I’m sure you feel that adding a world class chatbot to your recruitment process is needed. With XOR’s help, you’re sure to eliminate mindless tasks, improve the candidate experience and ultimately save the company money. Secure your competitive advantage when you start with XOR today.

Ready to learn more? Get the Complete How-To Guide on Recruitment Chatbots Here

Tags: AI, Recruitment

The Chatbot AI Calculator Every Business Needs

The Recruiting Intelligence Blog

Learn More

The Chatbot AI Calculator Every Business Needs

Aida Fazylova
Aug 13, 2018 5:46:17 PM

Chatbots are meant to save your company time and money when it comes to daily tasks and especially the hiring process, but is your current bot as resourceful as you think? By looking into the parameters of your business, you can see if you’re really benefiting from your current technology, or if it’s time for an upgrade. Input your information below in our chatbot AI calculator to see your results!

Use @xor_ai’s #AI #Chatbot calculator and see how much you could save! Tweet This!

Get the Complete How-to Guide on Recruitment Chatbots here.

https://rbm.outgrow.us/5b6061a2ff364c117cedbbc8?sLead=1&hubspotutk=9c54fbc4a5bf734ab2191f0531a79e6b

Tags: AI, Automation, Recruitment

5 Ways Chatbots Attract Passive Candidates

The Recruiting Intelligence Blog

Learn More

5 Ways Chatbots Attract Passive Candidates

Kaya Payseno
Aug 23, 2018 9:32:56 PM

Sometimes the “human touch” is not all it’s cracked up to be. Learn why passive candidates actually prefer to interact with bots, at least at first.

82% of candidates say their ideal recruiting experience is a mixture of recruiter interaction and innovative technology. Humans are great and all, but for a passive candidate who’s curious about, but not actively looking for, a job, talking to a recruiter may seem like too big a leap. Chatbots bridge the gap between interest and application by providing on-demand information.

It’s estimated that 65% of resumes submitted via applicant tracking systems are ignored. Can #Chatbots help employers better manage applications? Tweet This!

The following are five ways your company can demonstrate a value proposition to passive candidates before they even talk to an IRL recruiter.

Be there when they need you: Passive candidates, who are open to a new opportunity – but only a really good one – benefit from the ability to ask questions of your bot anytime. When Deutsche Telekom experimented with a recruiting chatbot for a year, they found that over half the time candidates interacted with their bot outside of working hours. Curious browsers asked questions you’d expect, like “What’s the salary?”, and ones you might not, like “Can I bring my dog to work?”… This kind of information that wouldn’t be on a job advertisement, but may entice a passive candidate to apply.
Show you care about tech: Chatbots are a great way to showcase your employer brand. The mere presence of a bot asserts your company’s commitment to trying new tech. Since 2016, state-of-the-art technology has been more important to employees than even the design of the office or onsite amenities.That means showcasing sleek tech in your hiring process is great for attracting candidates.
Highlight your employer brand: A chatbot character is a great way companies can show some personality early-on in recruiting process. Is your company a sassy Siri or more of an attentive Alexa? Either way, the personality of your tech is a great way to introduce applicants to your particular office vibes.
No question left unanswered: There simply isn’t enough time in the day to respond to everyone. It’s estimated that 65% of resumes submitted via applicant tracking systems are ignored. To combat this, the American armed forces implemented a chatbot known as SGT STAR in 2006. Since that time, this bot has fielded 11 million questions – the equivelant workload of a 55 person recruiting team.
Never Say Goodbye: Chatbots can also work in conjunction with your applicant tracking system (ATS) to re-engage past applicants from your talent pool. This is an especially valuable demographic as you know they are already interested in your business. Checking back in with these former candidates keeps your pipeline engaged, and boosts the applicant experience overall.

When you add AI into the mix, the possibilities for chatbots become even greater. Bots that use machine learning to learn from their interactions with your candidates can act as more of a live chat (which normally an instant message conversation with a human worker) than an interactive FAQ. A fact made more powerful when you realize that 48% of consumers would rather contact a company through live chat over any other medium.

Learn how recruiting chatbots help connect with passive candidates in this post from @kaya_payseno of @SmartRecruiters on the @XOR_ai blog: Tweet This!

Overall the chatbot industry is expected to grow by 35% between 2016 and 2020, by which time it’s predicted that 80% of businesses world wide will use these bots in some form or another. And banks even foresee automating 90% of their customer interactions through using bot assistants in lieu of human customer service reps.

It’s important to acknowledge however, that for recruiting, the point of chatbots isn’t to replace humans, rather to automate mundane tasks so you can focus on building meaningful relationships with the right candidates. So why not take advantage of this tireless assistant? You could do great things together!

Tags: Recruitment