Can SMS Land Job Seekers the Perfect Job?

April 20, 2015

In recruitment it is just as tough to find a job as it is to find the right candidate for the job. The industry is fierce, fast-paced and competitive, whichever side you are sitting. The biggest headaches are often found when ensuring positions are filled on time, which is when methods of contacting candidates can be time consuming, costly and often frustrating.

Being the first agency to find a candidate a job no doubt produces the highest rates of success, so being able to alert a candidate before your competitor keeps risks of losing valuable business at bay.

The methods by which you act to get your client’s vacant position filled fast will often mean the difference between landing or losing the employment contract – it may sound easy, but these are difficult boots to fill.

Of course 300 applications for one job is a mean feat – you may think sending emails do the job when trying to contact candidates but these are easily missed – only 22% of them get opened (Frost & Sullivan), a telephone call may appear the solution but this can be costly in both time and money.

Well 90% of global recruiters seem to have found a solution, claiming that SMS has helped their business grow by enhancing the speed of communication (Software Advice)

But how?

Alerting potential candidates about immediate vacancies
Offering shift work
Scheduling interviews
Confirmation of appointments
Interview follow-up and feedback
Prompting of 2-way communication

Highly responsive and a tool in demand – SMS can help secure quicker placements and improve the overall performance of the recruitment process.

More than 78% of recruiters use SMS to schedule candidate interviews with 90% of candidates responding within three minutes of a message being sent (Dialogue Communications) – perfect if your candidate is a job seeker currently at work and unable to answer your call.

According to a recent survey 43% of job seekers consider a recruiter to be more ‘professional’ when they use SMS in combination with other marketing methods. (Software Advice)

…and with more than 80% of current job seekers using mobile applications to search the job market at home or on the go (Intxt) it seems there is still a huge market still to be explored with SMS marketing in recruitment.

Substantial savings on day-to-day communication can open up doors previously unknown and free-up time to approach new opportunities with new companies and job seekers – so why not harness the power held in that handy little smartphone so many of us own?