Text Recruiting

Text recruiting is a modern talent acquisition practice that is widely used by headhunters to engage highly qualified IT specialists for joining tech teams. It is conducted through text messages to advertise new vacancies, send job application links, pre-screen applicants, sustain communication with candidates, schedule interviews, and provide feedback. 

IT recruiters can engage potential candidates manually or automatically. The first way presupposes actual chatting via messengers or social media. The second one can be done through a text recruiting service or software that provides headhunters with additional benefits, such as AI-powered chatbot, FAQbot, and virtual career fairs. 

Text recruiting has already proven itself as an effective hiring tool that reduces the time to hire and improves candidate experience. But why is it so?

A single message is usually read within 5 minutes, with a response rate of over 80%. Emails, on the other hand, have 8 times lower response rate. It means that text recruiting offers more chances to attract new talents in the engineering team, as these messages are less likely to get lost in the email box, and therefore, more likely to be read and answered. In fact, recent data shows that text messages are preferred by over 73% of job seekers (especially by young applicants), as it allows them to stay informed on each stage of the hiring process and get on-the-spot support concerning any arising issue.   

Text Recruiting Tips

• Get the candidate’s permission to text. Even though you may have some contact information of the potential candidate, it’s not allowed to message them without their permission. Therefore, make sure the candidate is not against getting texts from your company by including an option to receive messages upon submission of an application.

• Craft a text message. When reaching out to a candidate for the first time, make sure your message doesn’t sound like spam. You need to create a well-structured and concise text with necessary details on the job position. To make your text message stand out, try personalizing it by adding a candidate's name or making reference to their skillset. In addition, it’s vital to provide your candidates with an option of opting out of texts by sending a “No” or “Uninterested” message. 
• Keep your messages short, clear, and professional. Instant chatting can easily get quite informal, leading to possible punctuation omissions, slang usage, and even improper grammar. Thus, to keep it “formal yet friendly”, consider creating text message templates or using text recruiting tools that will save you time and help deliver clear and swift answers.

• Text during business hours. Just like business emails, text messages should be sent only during working hours. In this way, you will be able to keep with professional ethics, and show respect to the candidate's work-life balance. 
• Always be available. Everyone likes to get responses asap. If you don’t want your candidate to lose interest in the job, try answering them as soon as possible. To make this process more efficient, turn on notifications in messengers.