How texting can power up your hiring software

August 9, 2023

 

Rachel Findlay

4 min read

Effective hiring software is the backbone of your organization. Without it, you wouldn’t be able to hire the best talent to build your winning workforce. But even with your existing software, we all know how challenging it can be to move candidates through the hiring process while keeping them engaged at each stage in the journey.

It’s important that recruiters have tools in place to make the early stages of the hiring process simple, efficient and comfortable for candidates to help move them to hire.

In this post, you’ll learn how text recruiting can power up your existing hiring software to streamline communication, improve the candidate experience and hire better quality talent, fast.

How does texting work alongside your hiring software?

Text engagement allows recruiters to send and manage one-to-one and one-to-many text campaigns in one central platform. SMS integrates into your existing hiring software, workflows, ATS, CRM, and HR applications providing a seamless user experience. And it isn’t only specific to SMS. Recruiters can deliver campaigns through Facebook Messenger to meet candidates where they are without using multiple tools. Responses are automatically associated with the candidate’s profile in your ATS, so recruiters can respond from the central platform even if they sent the campaign through multiple channels.

Text recruiting tools, like iCIMS Text Engagement, integrate with most HR systems to avoid disruption to your current experience. That also ensures employee data and communications are easily accessed and tracked in one platform. Seamless integrations make it easy to build candidate pipeline with the flexibility to communicate throughout the talent lifecycle.

Give candidates the control

It’s easy for candidates to feel alienated from the recruiting process. Long waiting times and poor communication are some of the ways candidates become disinterested in your organization, and in some cases, move on to a vacancy with one of your competitors.

Text recruiting allows recruiters to connect with talent anytime, anywhere — on the platform of their choice. By giving the control back to the candidate, you improve their initial experience with your employer brand and make the talent journey a supportive experience. If candidates feel that they are respected from the get-go, they are much more likely to accept a job offer with your organization, and ultimately stick around with your company for the long run.

Plus, texting allows for personalization. This is important to candidates looking for a transparent view of your company culture, and the hiring process as a whole. Companies that use text messaging may appear to be more approachable and communicative, leaving positive connotations for potential new employees.

Take some of the burden off your team

The job market has changed drastically in recent years, and TA teams are feeling the pressure. Leaders are asking you to do more to attract and engage talent with smaller budgets and leaner teams. But how can you cut costs without damaging the quality of applications? By amplifying your hiring software to save manual admin time for recruiters.

Beyond ease of use, text engagement frees up the time it takes to schedule interviews. Automated workflows enable candidates to self-schedule or re-schedule interviews through text. Plus, automated text reminders help keep candidates engaged throughout the hiring journey.

Automating repetitive tasks allows recruiters to focus on high-level, strategic activities and creates greater value to the wider team and business. Text recruiting can save talent acquisition teams hours of their day.

Make applying to jobs easy for your candidates

The way we communicate is changing. And for many, chat platforms like Facebook Messenger are our everyday channels of communication. Studies show that it takes the average person around 90 minutes to respond to an email, whereas it takes them only 90 seconds to respond to a text message.

The truth is, responding to a text message is easier and quicker than crafting an email to a recruiter, or carving out time to speak over the phone – especially when top talent is likely already employed. Less formal communication channels are a low-pressure way for candidates to keep in touch in the early stages of their search and help them juggle the pressures of everyday life alongside the job hunt.

Not only this, text-to-apply campaigns can help remove barriers to apply for under-represented candidates, helping you widen your talent pool and take additional steps to become a more inclusive employer. It’s a win-win.

Speed up hiring processes

According to the iCIMS Class of 2023 Report, 64% of US college seniors expect the entire process, from application to job offer, to take 3 weeks — about half the actual time (6 weeks). This isn’t dissimilar to the UK, with 42% of final-year university students expecting the entire process to last between 3-4 weeks.

When it comes to engaging talent in this era, fast hiring processes are no longer a luxury. Text engagement helps amplify your hiring software and speed up processes by connecting with candidates through the channels they’re most comfortable with. Using iCIMS Text Engagement, Hard Rock International increased response rate to 75%, up from 50% with email and phone.

Recruiters who need quick answers from candidates to move them through the hiring process can more confidently rely on text messaging to get the job done.

More than just text messaging

It sounds simple, right? Texting candidates sounds like a no-brainer. More than just texting, a platform like iCIMS Text Engagement allows you to set up automated workflows, text-to-apply campaigns and connect with candidates anytime, anywhere.

Text recruiting is the key to amplifying your hiring software, integrating into one central, modernized platform.

Read our blog post to learn how you can invest in new TA tech without a loss in ROI.