Bridging the Communication Gap with Hard-to-Reach Candidates

August 7, 2018

 

iCIMS Staff

3 min read

As recruitment becomes more complex and unemployment rates reach a 17-year low, establishing and maintaining candidate communication is key. This is especially true for hard-to-reach candidates, who are often inaccessible during business hours and are not sitting at a desk or in front of a computer – whether driving, working on job sites or constantly on their feet. In addition to the various recruiting challenges associated with filling open positions, recruiters must also identify the most effective method of communication to reach deskless candidates and increase candidate engagement. Failure to do so could be costly, with unfilled jobs costing businesses an average of $500 per day, per position.

With overcrowded, spammed inboxes and the option to reject phone calls from unknown numbers, the way candidates want to communicate with employers is changing. For many organizations trying to engage with hard-to-reach talent, mobile engagement has alleviated the pain associated with more traditional communication methods, such as phone calls and emails.

In iCIMS’ Candidate Experience Report, 73 percent of U.S. employed adults surveyed said texting is the most direct mode of communication to reach working people during a busy day and 57 percent prefer text messaging over the standard email arrangements when scheduling interviews. With hard-to-reach candidates, the quality and frequency of communications can be greatly improved through text messaging. Mobile convenience has become a top priority to job seekers and mobile recruiting has provided recruiters with the opportunity to reach candidates who were typically more difficult to get in touch with before.

TextRecruit, an iCIMS company, is a mobile engagement solution that offers modern and personalized communication to regularly engage candidates – especially those who are difficult to get ahold of. Mobile engagement makes candidate communication convenient and TextRecruit internal research has found that organizations receive 40 percent higher response rates when text messaging candidates.

Two iCIMS and TextRecruit customers, OHL and Allan Myers, have been able to successfully maintain contact with hard-to-reach candidates after integrating the two solutions:

• OHL invested in TextRecruit to help combat a very low candidate response rate. Integrating the solution within the iCIMS platform has resulted in a significant improvement in both candidate response time and rate. Recruiters are getting responses from candidates in an hour or less, while seeing a 93 percent aggregate text messaging response rate. The integration between iCIMS and TextRecruit also allows recruiters to text message candidates from their iCIMS dashboards to easily and simultaneously confirm interview dates and times. Communication with all parties involved in the recruiting process has improved greatly through iCIMS and TextRecruit.
• The recruiting team at Allan Myers found themselves constantly playing phone tag – carefully trying to avoid interrupting candidates while they’re out working on the job site. After receiving dramatically low response rates to phone calls and emails from the hourly craft- professionals they typically hire, the decision was made to integrate TextRecruit within their iCIMS platform. By implementing TextRecruit and incorporating text messaging into their recruiting strategy, Allan Myers has benefited from a 15-fold increase in completed applications and 10-fold increase in the candidate talent pool. With the ability to easily text message previously unreachable candidates, the recruiting team is not only less disruptive while candidates are working, but also able to quickly and easily maintain strong lines of communication with candidates.

Finding the right method of communication can make all the difference when trying to connect with hard-to-reach candidates. As recruiters continue to tackle online recruitment problems and navigate changing trends, they can rely on mobile engagement to bridge the communication gap that previously existed with ignored phone calls and unanswered emails. With 83 percent of millennials saying they open text messages within 90 seconds of receiving them and 86 percent of people agreeing that it would be beneficial to receive text messages during the job application process, text messaging has proven itself as an effective communication tool that will continue to shape future interactions between candidates and recruiters.