Texting to Reach a New Generation of Job Candidates

How do you engage tomorrow’s job candidates in a competitive labour market? A clue might be found in the past – texting, or SMS.

Inconvenient application processes

Not too many years ago, many employers made job applicants jump through hoops. Candidates would:

• write basic resumes.
• customize those resumes and write cover letters for specific openings.
• visit an office, where they were often asked to complete forms that asked for the information they had already provided in their resumes and cover letters.
  • And if they were not successful, their applications would go unacknowledged.
  • Recruiters don’t mean to be rude. They frequently don’t have the time to respond to candidates. But after putting in all that work, applicants frequently felt insulted, at best, by the ensuing radio silence.

Recognizing the need for improvement

Employers eventually realized they needed to improve their recruiting practices if they were to find the best available candidates. The search for better processes led them to class-leading tools like the applicant tracking system Njoyn.

• At Njoyn, we help employers be more responsive to candidates who show interest in joining them. That’s how they create a better, more professional impression in the market for talent.
• Meanwhile, we’re always looking for newer, better ways to help businesses interact with applicants.

Texting: the next recruiting channel?

One idea recently came to us from a request for proposal: incorporating text messaging in our ATS.

Texting or simple message service (SMS) is a mature, decades-old technology. It has inspired similar interfaces on websites that organizations use to serve customers in real time. These innovations include chatbots (which we wrote about in a previous blog post).

Increasing numbers of today’s job candidates have been texting for as long as they can remember. In fact, it may seem like they “live” on their phones. And they commonly prefer texting to voice communications.

This cohort of candidates takes their job search on the road. Major job boards report that substantial amounts of traffic come from mobile devices. So ATS developers must enable their customers to interact with applicants.

Text may be the right tool. Unlike custom apps, SMS applications ship with every mobile phone. SMS is practically ubiquitous, it’s convenient, speedy and today’s job applicants know how to use it. Plus, SMS can handle many recruiting process interactions.

Why not cater to these applicants by using channels they already know?

How texting can supplement the recruiting process

Consider how SMS can enable modern applicant-employer interactions:

• Applicants can text documents, like resumes, to an employer.
• At the early stages of the process, like document submission, the employer can have a context-specific A.I., like a chatbot, handle routine transactions and answer frequently asked questions. (Did we mention Njoyn is developing a chatbot?)
• The A.I. can text applicants when their profiles fit current job postings. Candidates would probably want to know this as soon as possible and take the next step towards employment. Imagine the impression that kind of responsiveness can create!
• Once the applicant reaches a certain stage in the recruiting process, the chatbot can forward communications to a human recruiter’s applicant tracking system interface.
• And like candidates, recruiters may want to interact with their ATS using text messaging as well.

For applicants, all this can happen within one interface. They don’t need to visit a mobile website. They don’t need to install a mobile app. They do experience reduced friction in the process. And they’re likely to think more highly of employers who make the process easier for them.
By the way, that same interface can enable internal communications regarding an open position. The recruiter can coordinate with the hiring manager and any other parties using a simple chat interface built into their ATS screen, and on their phones.

Concluding thoughts

• Is it overkill to create another channel for job applicants to use? If candidates already know how to use the channel, the answer is a resounding no.
• When employers compete for the best candidates available, courting them the way they want to be courted creates the best possible impression and improves an employer’s odds of creating the finest team.
• Meanwhile, employers who put candidates through the paper-chase runaround of yesteryear can expect negative consequences like a diminished applicant pool.
• Safeguard customer data, especially for customers who need to comply with Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Make it easier to find and retain the right candidates. Include texting in your hiring workflow.

Want to know more? Drop us a line.