Use Text Messaging to Create Better Candidate Experiences AND Reduce Turnaround Time
Let's face it: We're a texting society. It makes sense for businesses to lean into it, which certainly holds when recruiting candidates. The good news is that you're not merely giving in to a trend—text messaging offers organizations many benefits, including a faster background check process.
Below, we discuss how . . .
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Most people use text messaging.
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People respond faster to texts than to emails or calls.
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Job candidates prefer text messaging.
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Text messaging is more personal—and efficient.
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Text messaging speeds up the background check process.
Most people use text messaging since most people have cell phones.
Consider these stats:
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97% of Americans own a cell phone; 85% own a smartphone. [Source: Pew Research Center]
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The global smartphone penetration rate is 89%. [Source: Oberlo]
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66% of Americans check their phones 160+ times a day. [Source: Small Business Trends]
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80% of the total population of North America (292 million people) use text messaging. [Source: Slick Text]
Quick question: Where's your phone right now? Chances are it's next to you. (Provided you're not already using it to read this blog post!)
⮚ TAKEAWAY: Do you want your business to look antiquated during hiring? Of course not. Texting is reshaping the way businesses hire. Ignore it at your peril.
People respond faster to text messages.
Here are more compelling stats:
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Over 90% of people respond to texts within the first three minutes. [Source: Venture Beat]
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Text messaging has a 98% open rate. [Source: Tech Jury]
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The average response rate is 48.5% [Source: Text Us]
None of this is surprising. Most people have their phones on them or within arm's reach, which makes responding to a text, even one related to work or a new job, much easier than penning an email.
⮚ TAKEAWAY: If you're looking for a simple way to streamline your hiring process, deploying candidate text messaging through critical hiring and onboarding stages—like scheduling interviews and kicking off background checks—is an easy way to shave off precious hours and even days.
Job candidates prefer text messaging.
Consider these compelling stats from Clear Company:
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70% of candidates use their phones in their job search.
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Companies see up to 50% higher response rates from candidates with texts vs. emails.
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89% of candidates prefer texting to phone or email.
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Texting speeds up hiring processes, which, in turn, stops 70% of candidates from "ghosting" recruiters.
An article from iCIMS cites a study that revealed candidates rated their experience 50% higher if they received regular text messages during the job search process.
⮚ TAKEAWAY: Candidate experience matters. And you absolutely can't afford the high cost of negative experiences. An article from Software Advice cautions that 59% of those with a negative candidate experience would tell other people not to apply to the company—and 42% would refuse to buy the company's products or services. Ouch! Read more insightful info like this in our Ultimate Guide to Creating Better Candidate Experiences.
Text messaging is more personal—and highly efficient.
Texting is way more relaxed than email or even a phone call. People expect shorter, more conversational responses with texts and are more forgiving of typos. This can take the pressure off candidates and recruiters alike.
Quick, brief, concise—those synonyms all describe text messaging, with the benefit of having a virtual paper trail of your conversation with a recruiter or background check company.
⮚ TAKEAWAY: Everyone is busy, from recruiters to job applicants. There will be a time and place for people to review longer communications and documents, like employee handbooks and documents about benefits. But to start, use texting to get the ball rolling. People love texting, and it will keep the hiring process moving.
Text messaging makes it easier to kick off the background check process—and faster to complete.
In our experience at Good Egg, background checks initiated via text complete 76% faster than email. It takes a candidate about half a day (on average) to start the background check via text message instead of well over a day via email.
The verification process also goes much smoother when everything is done via text. We've decreased the time it takes to complete verifications by 13%. This is huge, considering some companies have been ditching employment and education verifications (which isn't a good idea). You can't use the excuse of "it takes too long to do" if you're initiating everything via text.
We're also finding that drug tests and health screens complete 14.5% faster when we can communicate with candidates via text. (This is a massive advantage for our parent company, Foley, which facilitates DOT drug testing for trucking companies hiring drivers.)
⮚ TAKEAWAY: If you want immediate improvement in your background check process, embrace candidate text messaging. It's a fast and economical way to enhance candidate experience while reducing turnaround time, which your HR managers and recruiters will appreciate.
Let us show you how we can reduce your hiring time with a background check process that enhances the candidate experience.
There's a reason why we have a rating of 4.8 stars on Trustpilot. Get in touch to experience the Good Egg difference.
