3 Reasons to Adopt Text-Based Recruiting Today
More businesses are hanging up on phone interviews and starting conversations with candidates via text message instead. From Silicon Valley tech businesses recruiting engineers to Midwest construction companies in need of welders, a wide variety of organizations are seeing better results when they trade phone screens for text message interviews.
The switch to text-based recruiting may give some recruiters pause, but the benefits of this approach are numerous, including among them increased recruiter productivity, reduced bias in hiring decisions, and a more effective channel for employer branding efforts, to name only a few.
Whether your recruiting strategy has stagnated and failed to deliver or you are simply interested in getting ahead of the curve when it comes to recruiting technology, text-based recruitment platforms may warrant further consideration.
Meet Your Ideal Candidates Where They Are
Companies must design their recruitment strategies to align with the communication preferences of today’s workforce, and text messaging is far and away the favorite among contemporary talent. In a Pew Research Center survey of US smartphone use, 97 percent of participants used text messaging at least once over the course of the study.
Moreover, people typically read and respond to text messages much faster than they do emails. An email can languish in a candidate’s inbox for days, whereas most people immediately read texts as soon as they receive them. This faster turnaround time helps recruiters ultimately hire the right talent in much less time. In fact, according to our own research at Canvas, it only takes about 4.4 minutes to screen a candidate via text. This allows a team of four recruiters to save as much as 3,689 hours each year by using text-based screening!
Reduce Bias in Screening
Texting helps combat unconscious bias in hiring decisions. Unlike a phone screening, text-based interviewing totally eliminates the candidate’s voice, creating an added level of anonymity that allows the candidate’s qualifications and experiences to speak for themselves.
A second layer of bias prevention is added by certain text-based recruiting softwares that can mask the names of candidates and even gender-specific pronouns. Working to reduce unconscious bias during the interview process promotes diversity and establishes a company as one that hires honestly.
Expedited Interviews and Quicker Connections
Building connections with candidates during the initial stages of the recruiting process is key to keeping them engaged and interested. However, it can be difficult for recruiters to find the time necessary to invest in these connections, especially when they are dealing with high volumes of candidates.
Text-based recruiting can be extremely helpful in these instances. Recruiters can send out the same text messages to multiple recipients. Using templates and question libraries, recruiters can begin interviewing candidates with just a couple of button clicks. In the medium of text message, candidates can also offer more substantive responses to questions than they might on the phone, allowing for more robust conversations to unfold.
Recruiters can also proactively send information about benefits, culture, schedules, and other frequently asked questions, eliminating unnecessary back and forth. Some text-based interviewing platforms even utilize machine learning and natural language processing to generate interview questions, recommend responses, and provide resources to candidates with little effort on the part of the recruiter.
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In today’s highly competitive talent market, business leaders and recruiters alike should be working not only to expedite the hiring process, but also to ensure they market their employer brands effectively and target the right candidates for the job. Text-based interviewing solutions offer an innovative and easy-to-use solution to these challenges. Candidates will also appreciate that your company is embracing cutting-edge technology, which will enhance your reputation among top talent.
Times are changing, and recruiters must keep up by adopting new tools to save time and money. Ultimately, text-based recruiting may be just what your company needs to find the best candidates with less hassle.
Aman Brar is CEO of Canvas.