Recruiting has become a highly competitive undertaking. Companies continue to vie for top talent, meaning your competition may also be interviewing your candidate. Providing the best possible candidate experience can be crucial to securing your top pick.

Candidate surveys indicate that effective communication contributes to a quality candidate experience, but the method you use to remain in touch is also important. The fact is, if you’re still reaching out to job candidates strictly by phone or email, you’re missing out on one of the easiest, quickest – and most accepted – ways to engage with potential new hires: Text recruiting.

Here are five good reasons to incorporate texting into your recruitment efforts.

How Can You Build a Texting Recruiting Strategy?

1. It’s a Mobile World

According to Statista, 95% of Americans age 18-49 own a smartphone. And we check them a lot – about every four minutes.

Just as compelling, between two-thirds and three-quarters of job candidates, apply to positions through their mobile devices.

As a recruiter, why not take a cue from your candidates and embrace digital communications? Text recruiting software can improve your efficiency even further.

2. Speed of Response

Consider these statistics from Icims:

• “The average SMS open rate is 98% compared to the average email open rate of 20%.
• 95% of text messages are read within 3 minutes.
• It takes the average person 90 seconds to respond to a text vs. 90 minutes to respond to an email.”

In other words, if you reach out to a candidate by phone or email, you could be left hanging for a response. Recruit by text, however, and candidates are likely to see your message almost immediately — and answer it just as fast.

3. Candidate Convenience

Texting is a natural and preferred form of communication for many of your potential candidates. According to a study by OpenMarket, 75% of millennials would rather receive a text than a phone call. In fact, nearly 20% don’t even check their voicemails. Texting is more convenient and less disruptive because a candidate can view and answer a message at their convenience.

4. Better Engagement

Text recruiting enables you to prescreen candidates and walk them through the hiring process in real-time. Even before a candidate enters your building, you can cultivate them by sending videos highlighting company culture and employee testimonials, as well as interview appointments and appointment reminders. You can even drop a pin to your company’s location to help candidates find your office, notes LinkedIn.

Developing a relationship with your candidates via text message also may help reduce no-show interviews. Texting “is a perfect way to give your candidates a quick heads-up,” says HR Executive. “No one likes tardiness and no-shows. A quick reminder ensures everyone’s on the same page.”

5. Preserves Candidates’ Privacy

Employed candidates who are looking for a new job can’t always get away to take a phone call. Conversely, they can reply to texts on the fly with no danger of being overheard.

In fact, “the main consensus over numerous studies is that people find phone calls obtrusive and less personal, in that as the caller you are valuing your time over the recipient’s,” notes Smart Recruiters.

Plus, by building a relationship through texts, candidates see your company as more approachable and current.

More than six billion texts are sent every day in the U.S. and texting is the highest-rated contact method for customer satisfaction (90%).

With so many advantages – streamlined communications, favorable attitude, increased candidate engagement, and fewer concerns about privacy – it’s worth seeing if a text-to-recruit strategy can improve your candidate experience – and your time to hire.

Need to Hire Quality Candidates?

For additional assistance filling temporary, permanent, and industrial positions, contact the recruitment experts at Pro Resources Staffing Services.