How to Use Text Recruiting to Engage More Candidates

When you think about this difference between how we experience texts compared to email, you can see why text messaging is such an important part of recruitment. SMS helps us cut through the noise so we can reach candidates fast and move them swiftly through the hiring process.

So it’s funny how little thought or strategy goes into how we handle text recruiting compared to other forms of communication. SMS is just a matter of firing out a few messages to candidates when they don’t reply to your emails, right?

Here’s why text messages should be a priority of every recruiter’s candidate communication strategy and how to embed SMS into your recruitment process to get the best results.

Why use text messaging in recruitment?

Let’s cut straight to the facts: SMS boasts open and response rates that totally dwarf the numbers we currently see through email.

While email open rates hover around the 21% mark, SMS open rates are as high as 98%. Response rates to text messages are also significantly higher, with 45% of candidates replying compared to just 8% of emails.

The real-time communication element of SMS is so useful when you’re running a fast-paced hiring process where some stages will be time-sensitive. Getting a quick response from a candidate can mean the difference between a hire and the job being offered to someone else. Texts are usually read within minutes of receiving them, whereas it can take hours, or even days before a candidate picks up your email.  

And lastly, using SMS in your recruitment strategy is good for candidate experience too. Studies have shown that Gen Z and millennial candidates prefer mobile communication, and are more comfortable engaging via SMS than through phone calls.

5 key use cases for text messaging in recruiting

When we talk about ‘text recruiting’ we don’t just mean mass texting potential candidates about your open positions when a role comes up.

Bringing SMS into your recruitment workflow effectively involves thinking strategically about how and where in the recruitment process you can start using automated text messaging to streamline the whole process from click to hire.

Here are a few use cases to think about:

1. Initial candidate outreach: Send automated but personalized SMS messages out to passive candidates in your talent pool, or to new job applicants, to share information about new job opportunities. This will capture their attention much faster than email, and you can include a link that takes them directly to the job advert where they can apply.
2. Prescreening: Use SMS to quickly ask candidates a few initial screening questions (e.g., their availability, salary expectations, and if they’re still interested in the role). This helps you cover the non-negotiables so you can determine whether you can move forward with a phone or in-person interview, potentially saving time for both parties. You can automate these SMS screening questions to go out through your applicant tracking system (ATS) and move them through the hiring pipeline automatically based on their answers without any human input.
3. Interview reminders and confirmations: How many times have you had a situation where a candidate has missed an interview because they got the date wrong or mixed it up with another interview? Automating SMS reminders to go out to candidates throughout the interview process can reduce no-shows massively. It gives candidates the opportunity to easily confirm or reschedule if necessary so no one is left waiting around for a candidate who isn’t going to appear (AKA a recruiter’s worst nightmare!).
4. Status updates: Keeping candidates informed about their application progress is good recruitment practice that doesn’t go unnoticed. A short, automated text message to say “Your application has been reviewed” or “You’re moving to the next round” just takes a couple of clicks in your ATS but can have a big impact. This is the kind of progress feedback that candidates look for (and expect) when working with recruiters.
5. Job offers: Of course, we don’t offer candidates jobs over text, but we can speed up the offer acceptance process, and increase acceptance rates, using SMS. Once you’ve given the candidate the good news over the phone, sending a text with the job offer details and a quick link for follow-up will move things along much more quickly than an email.
6. Re-engage past candidates: Do you have candidates in your talent pools who you’ve worked with in the past but they didn’t make it past the final hurdle? Use SMS to reconnect with these applicants when new relevant roles open up. They’ll be happy to see you pop up again in WhatsApp!

How to get started with automated text recruiting

If you’re new to the concept of automated text communication, there are a few initial first steps to think about before you can get started.

Step 1: Choose the right software

Choosing the right technology to support your text message recruiting strategy is half the battle. But luckily, there are a whole load of different options out there to choose from nowadays.

To bring SMS into your recruiting process seamlessly, you’ll need to use a recruiting platform or ATS with a native SMS or WhatsApp integration. Otherwise, you can use a third party integration text recruiting tool like Keeyora or Emissary.ai.

Step 2: Create SMS templates

Write clear, concise message templates for common use cases (e.g., application confirmation, interview scheduling, follow-ups). These can be automatically sent out to candidates as they move to different stages in your hiring pipeline.

You can also use an AI-powered text recruiting software like Emissary.AI to personalize the communication in real-time. The software will use information in the ATS to populate parts of the template, like the job they applied for or who the hiring manager is that they’ll be in touch with.

Step 3: Ensure your SMS strategy is compliant

While communicating with candidates easily through cell phones is great practice, you still need to do it in a way that’s compliant. It’s crucial that you follow local data protection laws (e.g., GDPR or TCPA) when reaching candidates by SMS.

Did the candidate openly provide you with the phone number you have, for example, or did you gather it from someone else? You need to have gained explicit consent through the candidate’s marketing preferences in your ATS before you can begin sending them texts, and you need to make it easy for them to opt out at any time too.

Common challenges and how to overcome them

Of course, no recruitment strategy is without its challenges, and there are a few obstacles to be aware of when using SMS to reach top talent.

• Avoid spamming candidates: Mass texting entire talent pools every time you have a new job on is not going to lead to good candidate relationships. All this will do is make candidates think you’re a nuisance and even result in you getting blocked. Always use SMS sparingly and in a targeted, personalised way to avoid overwhelming candidates, or worse - p*ssing them off!
• Keep the human touch: While SMS automation is efficient and effective, it’s important to make sure your texts still feel personal. Balance automated messages with manual follow-ups and encourage two-way conversations so candidates know there’s still a human at the other end.
• Stay compliant: We touched on this already, but just to emphasise this point: Your SMS strategy must be in line with communication regulations at all times. If multiple candidates report you for spamming them or using their phone number when they haven’t explicitly provided it, the company could end up with a hefty fine. Stay updated on legal requirements for SMS marketing and communication, and ensure you always have the candidate’s consent to text them.

Best practices for effective recruiting texts

Using technology to send candidates SMS messages are the right time is key, but what about the content of the texts? If your messages aren’t convincing, your response rates will suffer.

• Personalize the message: Always address the candidate by name and mention the specific job or role they're being contacted about. With the right technology, you’ll never have to personalize SMS messages manually - the tool will lift there personalisation tokens from the candidate’s profile in your CRM.
• Be concise but clear: No one likes receiving big blocks of text to their mobile device - the key to cell phone communication is brevity. Limit texts to around 160 characters, focusing on key information or action items (e.g., “Hi [Name], we’d love to invite you to interview for [Role]. Does [Date/Time] work?”).
• Include a call to action: There’s no point in sending texts to candidates if you don’t make it clear what you want them to do with the information. Clearly encourage candidates to take the next step, whether it's replying to confirm an interview, providing feedback, or clicking a link to a job advert.
• Time your messages carefully: No one likes getting work emails outside of work hours, and likewise most candidates prefer to get job communication during business hours too (provided it’s text-based and not phone calls when they’re at work!). Avoid scheduling texts over the weekend unless in very special circumstances.
• Test and refine: Continuously A/B test the message you send, including tone, style, content and schedules to find what works best for your candidate pool.
• Weave in with other communication methods: Text messaging shouldn’t be used in isolation. To make it work well, it needs to be integrated into your existing communication tactics. Use text messaging alongside email, phone calls, and social media to create a comprehensive candidate engagement strategy.

How to measure success of your text recruiting strategy

Bringing SMS into your recruitment strategy is one thing, but how do you know if the texts you’re sending candidates are actually doing anything? This is why tracking and optimising your strategy as you go is such a big part of the process.

Here are some of the main areas to focus on.

• Track open and response rates: Use your ATS’s  analytics, or your text recruiting software’s dashboard, to monitor things like opens, clicks and replies. Response rates are a good metric to keep an eye on as these indicate good engagement. What better indication that you’re doing it right than a candidate texting you back?
• Assess time-to-hire impact: You can also look more broadly at the impact SMS recruiting has had on your recruitment metrics. For example, has it reduced the time taken between an applicant hitting ‘apply’ and onboarding them in their new job? Measure how SMS communication affects time-to-hire metrics compared to traditional methods.
• Monitor candidate satisfaction: Metrics aside, it’s also good to ask candidates directly how they found the whole hiring process once they reach the end of the line. How did they find the experience of communicating with you and receiving feedback? Did they prefer to hear from you via SMS, email or by phone? Was there anything about the SMS communication they didn’t like? These feedback opportunities can be gold for learning about how to improve your text communication strategy over time.

Over to you

Now you have all the background you needed on text recruiting, its benefits and best use cases in the recruitment process, now all you need to do is make it happen!

Start by thinking about where in the hiring process you’d like to send automated texts to candidates, as this might determine which texting software you choose. And the most important thing to remember is that a text recruiting strategy is no static thing - it requires constant monitoring and optimizing to ensure you’re always providing the best candidate experience and getting the best results.