William Tincup

Communication and the Candidate Experience

It is an interesting time in the employment market. With open positions outnumbering active jobseekers, organizations are looking at ways to stand out as employers of choice. As organizations look to reimagine talent acquisition, candidate experience is emerging as a competitive differentiator. While some may argue that candidate experience has always been key to attracting and hiring talent, the pandemic and resulting changes in candidate behavior have made candidate experience even more important for organizations. Unfortunately, in the quest to automate the recruiting process, the candidate experience is often a casualty. A recent survey found that only one percent of the companies communicated the status of the application to the candidate using email, text, etc. beyond the automated initial email confirming submission. As humans, we crave social connection. It is no secret that candidates want better communication from their recruiters. The challenge is delivering personalized communication at scale. And that’s where text recruiting software comes into the play. Improving the Candidate Experience with Communications: Is Text Recruiting the Answer? The consumerization of technology over this past decade has played a major role in shaping candidate expectations. When candidates have access to instant feedback and communication in their private lives, they expect the same level of personalization and thoughtfulness when applying for jobs. While communication and feedback remain an integral part of the candidate experience, recruiters struggle to respond to each applicant due to a variety of reasons – high applicant volume, understaffed recruitment teams, high-time and effort requirements, etc. Technology solutions like Emmissary.ai offer a powerful solution for talent acquisition teams looking to improve their candidate experience. At its core, text recruiting uses short messaging service (SMS) to inform applicants about open positions, communicate with them, and keep them engaged through the application processes. Text recruiting makes even more sense when you consider the fact that nearly 90% of candidates today use a mobile device to search for jobs. And these people actually read text messages. Research suggests that 90% of the recipients read a text message within the first three minutes of receiving it. Texting is clearly one of the most effective ways to engage with active and passive candidates.[image_with_animation image_url=”9944″ animation=”Fade In” hover_animation=”none” alignment=”” border_radius=”none” box_shadow=”none” image_loading=”default” max_width=”100%” max_width_mobile=”default” img_link=”https://www.bankmycell.com/blog/how-many-phones-are-in-the-world”] 5 Ways Text Recruiting Improves the Candidates Experience Timely feedback: Are you still waiting to hear from that company you applied to in 2019? You’re not alone – nearly 99% of companies fail to communicate with their candidates on the status of their application. Text recruiting software helps recruiters send out automated updates that keep candidates informed about their application status. Omnichannel communication: Candidates land on jobsites or jobs from various platforms – social media, job boards, newsletters, and forwards/shares. Text recruiting tools allow recruiters to connect and engage with candidates wherever they are through direct messaging. Provides better contextual information: Larger recruiting teams often spend a significant amount of time just validating candidate information – multiple recruiters may ask similar questions to the candidate. This leads to a fragmented experience. Text recruiting software has a central record of candidate communications that provides recruiters with all the context they need to have more meaningful conversations with candidates. Drive personalization at scale: Text recruiting platforms offer the best marketing technology has to offer. Recruiters can segment candidates and send out highly personalized and targeted communication to inspire applications or improve engagement. Streamline workflows: The best text recruiting platforms integrate with leading ATS, HCM, and other HR solutions, allowing recruitment teams to streamline their workflows without duplicating efforts and improving team productivity. 3 Best Practices for Candidate Communication Despite the promise of text recruiting, over 65% of companies still don’t have a formal strategy in place to leverage bulk messaging. If you’re looking to add text recruiting to your HR tech stack, you may want to keep these best practices in mind to maximize impact: Keep your messages short and to the point: While mobile phones have done wonders for communication, they are also notorious for shortening our attention spans. Try to keep your messages shorter than or equal to 160 characters. However, we recommend avoiding abbreviations or SMS slang like gr8, ttyl, and brb. Use more characters if you must. Include a CTA: What action do you want your candidate/s to take after they read your message? Include a clear CTA – apply, visit our career site, call me for more details etc. in your text message. Be patient: Text recruiting is asynchronous, and it is very likely that candidates are texting you from work or may be busy. Don’t pressurize your candidates to respond – this might come across as pushy or aggressive. Conclusion Text recruiting addresses a very real pain-point for both candidates and recruiters – instant and accessible feedback. While there is no substitute for in-person communication, text recruiting is the next best thing. You can experiment with use-cases ranging from cold messaging to engagement and nurture campaigns, and even text interviewing. As the world of work transitions to a remote, location agnostic experience, text recruiting is perhaps the most powerful tool at recruiters’ disposal to attract, connect, and engage with candidates wherever they are.

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William Tincup

Nov 30, 2021

The 5 Rules of Text Messages for Remote Workplaces

With more people working remotely, communication conventions have also undergone a sea change. Tools like Slack, Teams, and Zoom have become an integral part of most organizations. As organizations look to foster a remote culture the communication tool stack is expanding. From staples like Slack and Zoom, companies are increasingly leveraging text messaging to complement existing solutions. Text messaging has emerged as a crucial solution to fill the gaps left by conventional remote work apps – informal feedback, interview prep, team building and more. Consider the fact that employees spent on average about 56 minutes on their cell phones before the pandemic, and it quickly becomes clear why text messaging is one of the best ways to convey important, time-sensitive information. However, in the era of back-to-back video calls and incessant IM pings, cognitive overload is becoming increasingly common. This risks important communication being swept under a pile of emails, chats, and messages. So, what is the best way to use texting to cut through the clutter and maximize impact? 5 Golden Rules of Texting with Remote Employees One of the reasons why text messages continue to remain the most effective communication tool is that they boast a 98% read rate. At a time when employee attention is elusive (read: digital overload), text messages offer a simple and inexpensive way for organizations to get important communication across. To keep those numbers high, here are our five golden rules for communicating with remote employees via text: 1. Establish Communication Conventions While most organizations have let the unsaid rules of digital communication dictate how employees use emails, IMs, and other collaboration software, texting must be handled with caution. Organizations need to clearly document how and when text messages are to be used. From the organizational/managerial side, text messages should only be used to convey certain types of information – policy updates (with a CTA to read the email), emergencies/alerts, HR updates, rewards and recognition, informal feedback, shift scheduling, expense and accounting, etc. While this is not an exhaustive list of use-cases for texting, you could use these pointers as guidelines to establish communication conventions. 2. Establish and Respect Boundaries Work-life boundaries are hard to discern, particularly with a remote workforce. To succeed with text messages as a communication tool, organizations must recognize the fact that employee cell phone numbers are a private channel to their lives. Which means if you send out an SMS blast just when your employees are sitting down for dinner with their families, you are risking trust erosion. Like most things culture, communication conventions also flow top down. Give your team uninterrupted time away from work. Resist the urge to send out SMS’ at odd hours to avoid making your employees feel like they need to be available around the clock. Remember, healthy boundaries build trust. 3. Avoid Using Texts as a Substitute for Meetings “That meeting could’ve been an email,” is one of the most common workplace sentiments today. However, in the age of remote work, face time is crucial. And overcommunication doesn’t hurt. Avoid using texts as an alternative to meetings. Need to provide feedback? Schedule a video call. While text messages are incredibly effective, they fail to capture the nuances of in-person or face-to-face communication. As humans we’re subconsciously primed to decipher body language, tone, and expressions to fill in the missing bits of communication context. Texting is not a proxy for human relationships at the workplace. 4. Language Keep in mind that for most employees texting is reserved for family and friends, so, texting slang (c u l8r, ttyl, xoxo, etc.) can easily permeate into workplace messaging. It is important that you document the language rules for workplace texting with your employees. Basic best practices like re reading messages before sending should be communicated to all employees. Texting slang could potentially become a compliance/legal nightmare for employers and leaders. 5. Send Consolidated Messages Due to the informal nature of text messaging, many people approach it as spoken conversation in written form. While this practice is perfectly acceptable on IMs, it may deliver a broken and disjointed experience when used in SMS. A series of separate messages can be disorienting and annoying. [image_with_animation image_url=”9947″ animation=”Fade In” hover_animation=”none” alignment=”” border_radius=”none” box_shadow=”none” image_loading=”default” max_width=”100%” max_width_mobile=”default” img_link=”https://www.getapp.com/resources/business-chat-etiquette-rules-for-small-business/”]While the series of messages on the left will likely stress and distract the recipient, the single message on the right is much less likely to cause a disturbance. Unlike IMs, text messages don’t have “typing…” status, so it is likely that the sender may get confused when receiving a string of messages. Next Steps: Use the Right Tools to Perfect Your Text Game The rules listed above can help you create a successful text messaging strategy, and help reduce distractions and digital burnout due to an “always on” remote work environment But knowing what messaging solution meets your business needs is crucial. Check out how Emissary can help. Schedule a demo to learn how to establish and succeed with your messaging strategy.

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William Tincup

Nov 30, 2021