Text Recruiting: A How-to Guide for Recruiters

Kristine Le
Apr 8, 2021 8:57:13 PM

Technology plays a huge role in our day-to-day lives, enabling us to watch our favorites shows from anywhere and communicate with our loved ones with just a quick text.

96% of Americans own a smartphone — and the average person reads almost all of their texts, with a nearly 100% open rate — as opposed to email which was only 21.3% in 2020.

Job seekers are no different. 89% of those who are job-hunting believe that mobile devices are a crucial part of the job-seeking process, and 90% of them use their mobile devices to look for that dream job. SMS receives the best response rate with 65% of messages responded to within 10 minutes.

That means there are a lot of opportunities for your team to leverage Text Recruiting as a recruiting tool to attract and hire job candidates. As a recruiting team, you can position yourself to find these candidates by using their preferred platform of communication.

To help you better understand the benefits of Text Recruiting, we created a short how-to guide to get started.

What is Text Recruiting?

Text Recruiting leverages text messages to communicate with candidates before, during, and after the hiring process.

Text message recruiting can be utilized in many different steps of the hiring pipeline. The time these different processes take can be reduced dramatically when you make the switch to text-based hiring, especially when implementing a chatbot.

Why should recruiters use Text Messaging?

1) Texting is fast

Texting is fast and simple — and candidates appreciate that. Not all of your candidates are at their desk all day long, scrolling through endless job listings and checking their email — they have other things to do too! As a recruiter, responding in a timely manner is your way of saying that you value and respect their time.

Make it easier and more convenient for your candidates by providing them with an on-the-go communication platform, where they can find their dream job at the tip of their fingers.

2) Texting is personal, customizable, and versatile

Whether you’re targeting millennials or other generations of candidates, recruiting text messages can easily be tailored to your audience.

Emojis can even be added to your text campaigns to showcase your employer brand and tone.

3) Pre-screen and schedule candidates with ease

Recruiters can pre-screen and schedule interviews with candidates using a text message chatbot — enabling candidates to jumpstart their job application process at any time, and from anywhere. You can also set interview reminders, and answer any questions in real-time.

Automation saves recruiters a massive amount of time, as they will have a fraction of the resumes to look through, and most of them will be viable candidates. Not only that, implementing a chatbot provides constant response times around the clock, enhancing the candidate experience.

4) Onboard new employees quickly

Recruiters can also use SMS to speed up the onboarding process by sending out texts to new hires, reminding and informing them of any important information they may need to know for their new job. This could include your company location, business hours, phone number, or required documents.

5) The results are measurable

Text recruiting is effective because of its quantifiable results. Using SMS software, you can track your text campaign performances and build reports based on the number of successful hires, candidate drop-offs, and other relevant components. The results can be analyzed and used to improve your recruiting strategy for the future.

6) Text Recruiting is scalable

Whether you’re a small or large business, SMS recruitment can help you meet your hiring goals. Recruiters can choose to send out multiple text message workflows promoting either different or the same job listings. They can also create text message campaigns, and reengage passive candidates.
As you continue to grow and develop your talent acquisition strategy, you have a flexible tool that can be adjusted to meet your current business needs.

Read the full article: 6 Benefits of Text Recruiting

Which employers are using Text Recruiting?

Many employers realize the benefit and importance of Text Recruiting and have implemented it into their recruiting strategy. Here are some of XOR’s valued clients:

What are some Text Message Templates I can use?

There are many different ways you can use texting in your recruiting strategy. Whether you’re looking to engage with passive candidates or ask for referrals, you can do it all with SMS. Check out these templates to see the versatility of text message recruiting:

Sourcing Talent Template

Following Up on Referrals Template

Interview Scheduling Template

Candidate Screening Template

Nurturing Template

Interview Reminder Template

Read the full article: 6 Essential Templates for Text Recruiting

What are some Text Recruiting Best Practices?

There are no hard rules when it comes to Text Recruiting as organizations have their own take on the tool according to their individual needs and culture, but there are a few key practices to follow to ensure your text messages are efficient, effective, and respectful.

Don’t use your personal phone

Even if you’re not looking to do high-volume recruiting, it can be hard to organize and distinguish your personal messages from work messages. You don’t want to overlook a candidate’s text and end up not responding. Having a separate business phone or an app specifically made to recruit candidates will help you manage your hires more efficiently.

Keep it short and simple

Text messages are read on a cellphone, which is smaller than a laptop, making the text smaller and hard to read. It’s important not to overdo your messages with paragraphs on paragraphs of text. A short and simple text with the most crucial information will do.

Introduce yourself

Make sure candidates know who they’re talking to by including your company name, background, and your purpose of texting the candidate. While texting is personal, you don’t want to overstep your boundary and assume that your audience already knows who you are. Set a good first impression like you would on any other communication channel.

What are the best Text Recruiting platforms?

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, 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.

More on Text Recruiting software platforms: 3 Things to Consider Before Text Recruiting

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.

Additional Text Recruiting resources

Check out our other Text Recruiting resources to learn more:

Tags: AI, Automation, Recruitment, recruiting automation, AI trends, Virtual Recruiting, Screening

Text Recruiting: A How-to Guide for Recruiters

Text Recruiting: A How-to Guide for Recruiters