Amplify Your Candidate Experience & Make Magic
Candidate experience and candidate ghosting are the latest buzzwords in the HR world, but that doesn’t mean they don’t represent real problems that our TA teams are facing.
When it comes to creating rave-worthy experiences that engage candidates and prevent ghosting, many TA teams are left scratching their heads. TA leaders recognize that some of the problems their teams face regarding ghosting and poor experiences stem from slow-moving and confusing processes.
Sure, it’s easy to say “Our time-to-fill is too long,” or “We have too many steps in our process,” but what can you actually do to remove some of the tricky parts and create a quick and efficient operation for your applicants?
We have a few ideas to help you kiss ghosting goodbye, improve your processes, and increase engagement, all of which will amplify your candidate experience. 🚀
Embrace Texting
There’s a great chance that when you ask candidates for their phone numbers, you also ask them for their preferred method of communication… But are you using that information in your hiring processes and beyond to meet your candidates on a platform that is convenient for them?
47% of candidates say they prefer texting as the main channel of communication for the hiring process.
Turns out, people aren’t only open to texting during the hiring process, but it also provides some impressive results.
“From the time of the first text to the phone screen was less than 30 minutes. I love it.”
- Kirstin, Dick's Sporting Goods
So, how do we scale results like this to create a remarkable candidate experience across the board?
Automate When You Can
When it comes to keeping candidates and employees engaged at scale, learning to humanize automation helps you keep tabs on all the most important checkpoints without burning out your recruiters and HR managers.
As teams get comfortable with new communication standards and policies, they incorporate automations as a way to increase recruiter bandwidth while taking some of the most burdensome tasks off their plates.
For example, teams use automations to send messages on the recruiters’ behalf as candidates move through stages in the ATS or as they onboard.
These automated messages work to keep you at the forefront of your applicants’ attention!
Common use cases for automations include stage change information regarding next steps, reminders of upcoming tasks or events, and proactively setting expectations for timelines around things like background checks, drug tests, or other skills assessments out of your control.
Consequently, automation can be the game-changer for your team’s mental health and workload management, along with moving the needle on your candidate experience goals.
Close All the Loops
While automations work well to engage candidates actively pursuing the process, we have a secret weapon to help you reengage distracted talent. We call them Nudges.
Nudges work like your own personal Jarvis (for my Iron Man fans), AI bot, or second brain when it comes to staying on top of candidates 24/7.
What if you could simultaneously send someone a text, and schedule a reminder for tomorrow, and another reminder for three days later? Well, you can!
In addition to firing off these messages, when a candidate replies, Nudges automatically shut off. 🤯
For instance, you can send your initial message and a follow-up reminding them about it, and a few days later, a final message lets them know you won’t be reaching out again, but you are wishing them well and hoping they were hired elsewhere!
When you proactively close the loop in every conversation with candidates on the fringe, they are likely to take quick action if they are still interested. At the least, they will think highly of your company for your graceful exit.
Gone are the days of your recruiters carrying the mental burden of trying to remember who they need to follow up with, when, and how! They can set it, forget it, and sleep soundly every single night knowing their candidates are getting a personalized and tailored experience.
Encourage Team-Wide Adoption and Practices
One way to help boost candidate experience is to ensure that every single candidate is getting the same service throughout the process, no matter the department, recruiter, or team.
Standardization is key to elevating the experience as a whole!
Naturally, you want your recruiters to sound like the lovely, personable humans they are in real life! Your teams are built with individuals who are smart and capable of acting with integrity. Chances are they are working round-the-clock to create memorable experiences for the candidates they are serving.
Instead of having each team member reinvent the wheel, what if you found your secret sauce of templates and best practices that drive results and gave them the cheat codes they need for success?
When you template initial messages, it can feel like you’re boxing your recruiters out of being their personable selves. What really happens is that candidates get a level and consistent experience, which is elevated by the 1-on-1 conversations they will have with your recruiting team.
Looking to take your candidate experience to the next level? I’ve got your back! 👇
![[Blog Post] Your Guide to Getting Started With SMS](https://grayscaleapp.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Your-Guide-to-Getting-Started-with-SMS.jpeg)
![[Blog Post] The Ultimate Guide To Eliminating Candidate Ghosting](https://grayscaleapp.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/The-Ultimate-Guide-to-Eliminating-Candidate-Ghosting-v2.jpeg)
![[Blog Post] How To Text at Work & Avoid HR Nightmares](https://grayscaleapp.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/How-to-Text-at-Work-Avoid-HR-Nightmares.jpeg)
Your Guide to Getting Started with SMS
With a tight labor market, many are asking how they can make a quick impression and create an efficient process to hire faster. With email being a channel of the past, it’s time to embrace the communication standards we have in 2022.
No, we’re not talking about phone calls, snail mail, or even social media. We’re talking about bringing texting into your recruiting pipeline to help stay in touch with your hard-to-reach candidates.
I get it—texting at work sounds unprofessional and can feel a little weird, but… all the cool kids are doing it! Okay, okay, yes, I know you’re saying, “And if all the cool kids jumped off a bridge, would you?” (I mean… maybe? Exactly how cool are the cool kids we’re talking about? Ya know? 🤣 ) Fortunately, we don’t promote texting as a channel just because it’s trendy.
It actually works.
So, Will My Team Benefit?
Sure, it’s great that some people are seeing success with texting, but how do you know if it’s worth the investment for your team?
If your team…
- Is struggling to keep candidates engaged
- Is actively backfilling roles to stay on track for their req targets
- Is at max capacity managing the talent pools they have
… maybe texting would be a good fit. The thing is, texting not only allows you to get in touch with candidates quickly, but it helps you keep them close and engaged, while allowing your team the opportunity to simplify their workflow and better manage their pipelines.
Ready to see how our customers go about implementing texting to make it a positive and easy addition to their processes?
How The Pros Do It
When it comes to getting your team up and running with SMS, there are a few options. Most of our customers choose to crawl, walk, and then run!
First, We Crawl.
Together, we help you get your notifications set up, integrate with your ATS, and upload some shared templates for your team to use. We also get your team logins set up.
Don’t believe us?
"The implementation plan you gave us just looked way too easy. I told my IT contact that this was going to be a disaster… It was just too easy. I thought something had to be wrong."
Then, We Walk.
Once your team is up and running with templates and notifications, the fun can begin! Any time you would pop over to your email to shoot a candidate a message, try texting them instead.
If you have a group of candidates you want to reach out to collectively, try sending a bulk message instead of individually reaching out to each of them.
Lastly, if you’re ready to go pro with your follow-up game, start scheduling nudges when you send a candidate a message, or set up a bulk message campaign. Grayscale herds your cats for you, so you can sit back, connect with your candidates, and make excellent hires!
Unsure if it makes a difference?
“Our biggest issue was not being able to reach our candidates. We relied heavily on email communication, but having an option to text has increased our response rates and decreased our lag time from application to initial interview.”
Then, We Run!
Once you’re feeling settled and comfortable with SMS in your hiring process, it’s time to give it a little pizazz! By incorporating automations, your messages will be triggered to automatically send when another action happens, i.e., a stage change or an upcoming interview reminder.
Here’s what our users say,
“Communication with candidates via text messaging is at times more efficient and delivers faster results. Bulk messaging saves a ton of time, and automations are a lifesaver!”
Turns Out, People Are So Much More Inclined to Respond to a Text than They Are to an Email.
Believe it or not, we’re all a little fed up with our inboxes! Honestly, can you blame us? Between the amount of work and clutter we accumulate from our jobs and everyone’s favorite—spam—the thought of maintaining our email comms is draining.
Finding a way to get out of the chaos and into a quiet channel can help ensure your important messages are never lost to a spam filter, accidentally deleted, or archived in a purging episode. Plus, you’re more likely to receive a timely reply.
So, yes, texting your candidates is trendy, but it’s also a great way to keep them engaged without overwhelming your recruiters. Ready to give it a try?
Explore:
Your Ghostbusting Guide to Getting Candidates to Day One
Halloween may be right around the corner, but it's “spooky season” every day for recruiters and HR professionals.
Ghosts are hiding inside every great candidate, waiting to make them disappear.
This leaves many recruiters backfilling roles, crossing their fingers and toes, knocking on wood, and absolutely never holding their breath on the off chance that a candidate will show up for work on day one. The more this occurs, the more discouraging it becomes to our hard-working recruiting teams.
So, why are new hires ghosting before day one, and—more importantly—how do we make it stop?
Why are New Hires Ghosting?
Great question! Here's what we know…
With the current generations of the workforce growing up quickly satisfied by TV, microwaves, cell phones, instant pots, drive thrus, and Amazon Prime, it can be hard to keep someone’s attention without providing almost immediate feedback.
Due to the pressing communication expectations awaiting our recruiters, slow and/or unorganized processes are a 🚩 sure to make your best applicants disappear. 👻
When we think about the most frustrating situations in the world, we imagine delayed flights, building Ikea furniture, and instances when we don’t know what’s going on, i.e., situationships, filing taxes, anything involving financial aid, and chaotic hiring processes.
Bottom line: People like to know what is happening, and they would like for it to happen quickly and efficiently.
How Do We Stop the Ghosting?
Putting an end to the Harry Houdini acts of our candidates can feel like fighting a forest fire with a watering can—impossible. But here’s the thing: every little bit helps! Below are a few ideas that lead to positive results in your pipeline. 😉
Stay in Touch Throughout the Process
By adding some touchpoints, you can keep your candidates from slinking off into the abyss. We recommend using technology to enable some of these simple “checking in” messages while maintaining a high level of efficiency for your recruiting team.
These can look like adding confirmation messages to your already existing workflow. Something simple like “Your background check is clear. You’ll hear about next steps shortly!” goes a long way.
Get Personal!
Take time to update your messages or templates with your candidate’s first name, and create templates that ask the candidate to engage. As you reach out, ask your candidate a question or request a response of some sort.
The goal here is to make your communication go both ways. Instead of hogging the texting thread, this gives candidates the opportunity to weigh in and build a relationship with the recruiter. If they feel personally connected to the team, they will be less likely to disappear without warning.
What Will it Take to Change the System?
Those on the job hunt are looking for employers who value them, are focused on creating manageable workloads, and are interested in investing in their long-term development. While it can be hard to change the culture of an organization, many are on the right track!
Here are a few ideas to help you keep the candidates first in the hiring and onboarding process to attract the best talent.
Personalize Your Communications
I know, I know, I sound like a broken record, but taking time to update your templates so they feel personal makes a lasting impression on your candidates. No one wants to feel like just another number or just another application. By using a candidate’s name, you’re humanizing them and their experience every step of the way.
Use Your Channels Cohesively
Be thoughtful about not overwhelming your candidates with hoards of emails and texts and phone calls. Make sure you’re not sending the same message in three places, and use your discretion as to what is too much when it comes to contacting your candidates.
Send Helpful Messages
Don’t send things just for the sake of it. Sending a “good luck on your first day” text is cute, but sending them instructions on how to get into the building or which door to park near is 700 times more valuable. Give your texts the same energy as your favorite aunt or your best friend; offer your candidates the DL and help them go into their next interview or their first day with confidence!
Sure, candidate ghosting is a common problem, but we don’t have to accept it for what it is. We can take charge, make some changes, and get our candidates in the door on day one. 💪
Explore:
They Say You Can’t Have It All. They're Wrong.
Recently, that adage about quality, time, and cost has been making its way around the internet. If you’re unfamiliar, it goes like this:
- You can have something done good and cheap, but it won’t be fast.
- Or, you can have something done fast and cheap, but it won’t be good.
- Or, you can have something done good and fast, but it won’t be cheap.
The idea is that you can’t have your cake and eat it too. You have to pick an area of your process or final product to compromise on to give your customers what they want in another area.
With the current expectations on TA teams to prioritize cost-effectiveness while also meeting the increased needs for seasonal and growth-based hiring, many people are starting to face a similar problem.
We Know That the Best Hiring Systems Are a Combination of Three Things: Personal Connections, Quick Processes, and Cost-Effectiveness
For the sake of simplicity, let’s make this adage TA friendly and assess our options:
- You can have a hiring process that is relationship-oriented and cost-effective, but it won’t be quick.
- Or, you can have a hiring process that is cost-effective and quick, but it won’t have the same relational development.
- Or, you can have a hiring process that is set up to promote relational connections and move quickly, but it won’t be cost-effective.
But, what if you didn’t have to pick just two? What if you really could have it all.
So, maybe not, like, all of it. We can’t tell you how to eat right and get to the gym, sleep nine hours a night and have a social life, crush it at work and disconnect well, live in a city and spend time in nature, stay up-to-date on trends and not be inundated with the internet… It’s hard!
BUT, what we do know is that you can create your dream hiring process to transform your candidate engagement, reduce ghosting, and hire faster without having to reinvent the wheel.
Here’s the 💡 moment…
You Can Use Technology to Scale a Personalized Recruiting Process and Better Connect with Your Talent Pool
Imagine this: Without hiring another recruiter—or, well, ten you could 10x a single recruiter’s bandwidth…
Or, what if you could deliver white-glove service to all your hourly applicants without hiring a whole new recruiting team?
It’s 2022, and while we’re not living like the Jetsons quite yet, here are a few tricks to help you leverage Grayscale’s technology to create a scalable, personable, and quick recruiting process.
Automate the Monotonous
“Congrats! Randi, you’re moving to the next phase. Please complete your background check at this link and we’ll be in touch with your next steps!”
How many emails/texts/phone calls are you making that say this exact same thing? With stage change automations, you can reach out to your candidates without a second thought as you move them through the pipeline.
Stage change automations make it easy to stay in touch without disrupting your workflow or distracting you with manual, repetitive, and mundane tasks. ⚡
Get to Know Your Candidates
As you connect with your candidates through automations, they can reply directly to you to build a personal connection and ask questions. You become a trusted advisor in their process instead of another Joe Schmo trying to wow them.
With the convenience of one-on-one messages, you can send tailored follow-ups to conversations in an approachable manner to help promote team connection.
The best part? You can access your Grayscale inbox from your browser, in your ATS, or on your phone via our mobile app. Your candidates won’t be stuck waiting to hear from you for long!
Wink Wink, Nudge Nudge
“Hey there, just wanted to check in and remind you to complete your background check! LMK if you have any questions!”
Are you spending hours each day reminding people to follow through on asks/requests? Well, what if you didn’t have to? What if you could set up a couple of nudges and never think about it again?
With all that time back in your day, you can work at double, triple, or maybe even 10x your previous speed.
Sure, many people want to believe they can’t have it all, but with some small tweaks to your process—and better technology for your team—you can, in fact, have your cake and eat it too. 🍰
Welcome to Hiring in 2022, What Can I Get for You?
With the rise of fast food, made-to-order, and ready-to-eat products, people have become accustomed to getting what they want, when they want it, and exactly how they want it.
Unfortunately, most recruiting teams are struggling to implement processes to capture the attention of their applicants in a quick and efficient manner.
As the expectations of applicants have shifted, it’s harder than ever to create systems that intentionally curate emotional gratification for the applicant without overwhelming and burning out your recruiters.
So What’s the Trick to Creating a Captivating Hiring Process?
We believe you have to make it engaging from the very first point of contact.
If you wait days—or weeks—before reaching out to an applicant, you already lost their attention.
In the meantime, another job, a different recruiter, or a new opportunity has popped up and is pulling them away from you. If you’re tired of losing great talent to poor processes and lack of manpower, this post is just for you. 😉
Before we jump into how you can maximize your initial touch points to draw a candidate in, let’s talk about some behaviors candidates perceive as red flags in the hiring process.
- RED FLAG: Leaving your candidates in the dark for more than 48 hours
- RED FLAG: Sending an automated or obviously templated email and never following up with a personal touch
- RED FLAG: Expecting the candidate to wait for a response before they continue exploring other opportunities
It’s time to stop sending your applicants red flags and get excited about creating a process almost too good to be true. Here are the ingredients for a new secret sauce. ✨
Use Automation to Make a Quick Contact
With the help of automation, you can trigger an immediate action as soon as they click apply. We recommend using this initial message to set expectations around when a recruiter will follow up with a candidate regarding their application.
“Hello! I’m Randalyn with Grayscale. I’ll review your application and be in touch about next steps within 24 hours! If you have questions in the meantime, feel free to reply here. Chat soon!”
This easy win is like your crockpot—set it and forget it. Using automation to help set expectations with your applicants from step one will keep them more engaged and enable you to build a deeper relationship faster.
Leverage Bulk Messages to Decrease Manual Work
With the help of bulk messages, you can reach out to all your candidates at once! Unlike a group message, each candidate receives a single text that looks like it was written just for them. Think BCC—with a little extra piazza.
As you review applications, you can sort your candidates and send a single message to those not moving forward and a single message to those entering the next phase. A few simple clicks later, and your candidates know where they stand in your application process and can get started on their next steps.
You can also use bulk messages to engage people who have gone MIA in your talent pipeline. This is a great way to alert ghosted candidates of upcoming hiring events or new, open positions they should consider.
Include Nudges so Candidates Don’t Slip Through the Cracks
Nudges work like (for all my Spider-Man fans out there) your “man in the chair.” They make it easy for you to do all the things and never miss a beat. Now, you can allow the process to work its magic without lying in bed at night, thinking about all the candidates you need to follow up with.
Our intelligent tech will only send a nudge when the first message wasn’t responded to, making sure you’re only reaching out to the people who need another push.
With TA teams dwindling and recruiter workloads skyrocketing, leveraging technology and automation can be an easy way to cultivate your talent pipeline without burning out your recruiters. We help you personalize, optimize, and drive real results with faster and more efficient processes.
Getting Your Ducks in a Row for Seasonal Volume Hiring
Thanksgiving is just over 100 days away, which means that the holiday season will be upon us quickly. For many of us, this upcoming season means shopping, family time, pretty lights, festive traditions, and the mixed emotions that come with the hustle and bustle.
For those of us involved in the retail industry, we’re gearing up for the event of the year. Many of us are starting to hire, onboard, and train seasonal staff so our stores, warehouses, and support centers are ready to meet the increase in demand needed to make this holiday season a memorable one.
Even if you aren’t heavily involved in hiring in the retail or seasonal space, with the economic climate, the need for high-volume hiring could come at any time! Let’s talk about when the need for high-volume hiring arises.
Your TA team is often tasked with high-volume hiring when you experience: extreme growth, seasonal peaks, or when you open a new office, warehouse, and/or support center.
Most commonly, people think of high-volume hiring as hiring a large number of candidates in a short period of time. This is a great example of high-volume hiring, but it’s not the only source of pain for some of our TA teams.
When we think about high-volume hiring, we include:
- Hiring a large number of candidates in a short window of time
- Any job requisition that gets a large number of applications
- Positions with a high req count
When TA teams fill positions that meet this criteria, they are normally working to support and fill hourly positions. So, if high-volume hiring is impacting over 50% of our workforce, how in the world do we make it quick, painless, and maybe even effortless?!
And no, we’re not just talking about easing the burden for the candidates. We’re talking about improving processes for everyone involved. We want high-volume hiring to feel less like herding cats and more like watching a well-orchestrated circus act.
We believe high-volume hiring can be a fun, inviting, and human process for both the candidates and the recruiters.
Let’s make high-volume hiring human again.✨
High-volume hiring gets painful because we’re asking recruiters to handle way too much. We expect them to screen, interview, and onboard hundreds and sometimes thousands of candidates.
Without the proper tools, one person simply can’t manage req loads that large. You may be asking, “Is it even possible to accomplish high-volume hiring in a way that isn’t draining, detached, and rushed?”
If you’re wondering, “How in the world do we provide a classy candidate experience at scale in our high-volume hiring process?”
I have some good news for you.
While it sounds contradictory, in high-volume hiring, you can rely on technology to create a relationship-forward, human-first experience for your candidates.
Our customers have taught us a few things when it comes to maintaining the balance of human connection and process-enhancing technology.
Here’s how they do it… 👇
Use Technology to Fill the Pipeline
Our customers use programs like Text-for-Jobs to help increase the number of potential applications they are receiving for a job posting. Features like this can help increase your leads by 50%, driving up to 20% more applications in the door to help you find the right candidates for every role.
Text-for-Jobs allows interested job-seekers to text a word (like “jobs”) to a shortcode (like 876543) and be directed to the most interesting job openings for them. that they are most interested in.
Not only can you get contact information from them, but you can also set up your Text-for-Jobs campaign to send them a link to the application so they can apply right from their phones.
Stay in Touch Proactively
When a candidate submits an application, the clock starts ticking. The sooner you can follow up with them, the more likely they are to make it to the next phase, potentially becoming a great hire. While following up in a timely manner is reasonable for roles with smaller application numbers, in the context of high-volume hiring, it feels a lot like you are Hercules battling the hydra.
For every text or email you send out, you have two more added to your to-do list! Performing this task manually becomes overwhelming and frustrating.
We recommend setting up an automation to send a welcome text to each candidate from the recruiter they will be working with for the foreseeable future. Something simple, but sticky. The goal is to use this first touchpoint to be professional and personable.
Luckily, you don’t have to abandon technology after the first interaction. With enhanced automations, nudges, and scheduled messages at your disposal, you can automate intelligently to optimize your candidate journeys at scale.
Re-engage Lost Talent
There are two groups of lost talent you can re-engage in your pipelines.
You can use bulk texts to spread the word about hiring events, job fairs, open interviews, etc., to those who ghosted in the pipeline or didn’t engage with you initially.
Or, you can use bulk texts to revisit the process with your old silver medalists when you’re looking for your next great hire.
Using technology to re-engage and cultivate your talent pool can help fast-track hiring and allow you to stay on pace with your requisition goals.
High-volume hiring can be a daunting process to be involved in, but hopefully, with the help of the hiring tech stack, you can develop a hiring strategy to engage talent, keep your TA teams sane, and increase both your candidate engagement and your recruiter efficiency.
Candidate Experience is the New Office Keg
According to Glassdoor, 86% of employees and job seekers research company reviews and ratings to decide where they should apply for a job.
If they happen to find something they don’t like while researching, say they wouldn’t work for a company with a bad reputation, even if it means they receive a pay increase.
Now more than ever, candidates are looking for pleasant and positive experiences. When they engage in the application and hiring process it’s important to focus on three things:
- Overall communication
- The interview (or interviews if you have a longer process)
- The concluding follow up
These three areas help you promote the health and wellbeing of your brand, increase your Candidate Net Promoter Score (cNPS), and also help create a rave worthy experiences for every applicant.
While some people believe their cNPS is just a silly number and it’s not worth investing in, there’s a good chance they don’t realize that a high cNPS, or a stellar candidate experience, can lead to the exact hiring outcomes you’re hoping for.
When your company has great candidate reviews, you will:
- Attract more quality applicants
- Have your pick of top talent for your organization
- Make exceptional hires
But, why? Well, these three areas are all a piece of the secret sauce. Here’s how they come together to supercharge your hiring efforts.
Overall Communication
Think about the application process like dating. When you communicate, both parties are gauging if there is a shared interest in continuing the relationship. If so, you feel each other out and move toward something more serious.
If you’re slow to respond, or short in your replies, you’re not communicating that you value and appreciate the interest of the other person. Chances are, the other party will move on and find something better.
If you’re communicating about timelines and expectations in a way that demonstrates your personality and the company's values, the right candidates will hang around to see where it goes.
The Interview or Interviews
When you get a candidate to the interview phase, it’s important to remember that they are assessing you as much as you are assessing them.
Treat it like a conversation not an interrogation. Allow them to guide the conversation and make sure you leave with both parties' questions answered.
If you intend to put a candidate through multiple interviews:
- Be upfront and clear about what your process looks like
- Detail out a timeline that includes when you will make your final decision
- Allow space during each interview for the candidate to express any new questions/concerns about the role or company
As you get more facetime with these candidates be sure to treat them like they are members of the team already. Learn a few personal facts and ask about how their days/weeks are going.
Taking time to invest in the people you are meeting before they are officially team members helps build rapport and makes them feel valued.
The Concluding Follow Up
Sometimes, no matter how hard we hope, things just don’t work out. Whenever this happens, your break up communication is as important as your introductory comms.
Here’s some tips to keep the candidate in mind, and leave them without a sour taste.
- Be direct, not mean. Give them a clear answer using kind language.
- Be friendly, not a robot. A real-life human is going to read what you’re writing. Communicate with empathy.
- Be thoughtful, not dry. Offer other solutions if you have them, and provide them any helpful context on why they weren’t chosen for the role.
When you have to break up with a candidate, make every effort possible to end it in a calm and kind manner. Creating a long-term relationship helps promote your overall candidate experience and creates loyal brand advocates.
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Are you looking for some tips to help you create a dynamic and interactive candidate experience? We shared a few tips on how SMS is a tool you can use to create a memorable application process.
Related
How Healthcare Recruiters are Rewriting the Volume Hiring Landscape
Healthcare workers are busy people. With hiring needs skyrocketing, how can you capture the attention of preoccupied candidates? And more importantly, how can you move them through your application process quickly to secure great hires?
Turns out, you aren't the only one looking for answers to these questions!
"We were missing out on great talent even after they were applying. We needed a way to get in front of the right candidates faster than our competitors."
– Kirby Cole, EyeCare Partners
When it comes to finding a creative way to stay in touch with your candidates, many companies are exploring texting as a communication tool.
Why SMS?
It's no surprise; we're much more attached to our phones than we want to be. Why are we all so connected? Aside from its physiology, you know, pretty blue light that stimulates our brains, we're addicted to them because it's convenient. Texts have made staying in contact with people easier than ever.
You send one when you're free, and they get back to you when they are free. It's all written down, so you remember what you're talking about when the conversation shifts to fit your own schedules.
"We are utilizing Grayscale's texting platform all hours of the day to follow up on with our recruited and onboarding staff on interview and documentation status."
– Brandon DuBois, Centria Healthcare
What makes texting worth the investment?
Texting is becoming a prominent communication tool because it’s so advantageous for recruiters and candidates alike.
Our customers love texting because it is a:
- Simple and straightforward way to connect, making it easy for recruiters to manage large req loads and massive pipelines
- Great way to increase your candidate engagement and drastically improve your response times
- Less formal channel, making it an effortless way to showcase your personality and get to know your candidates (hello emojis! 👋)
- Priority for most people. We all go to bed with emails piling up. Not many of us go to sleep with unread text messages.
"We would not be able to keep up with our current pipeline and interview volume without Grayscale."
– Brandon DuBois, Centria Healthcare
With the help of automation, templates, and bulk messages, texting is Healthcare recruiting's new favorite tool.
Where does texting come in handy in Healthcare?
The real question is: where doesn't it? Reaching candidates in the palm of their hand means the benefits and use cases are almost endless! Here are a few of our customer's favorites:
Leveraging SMS to fill their pipeline.
With text-4-jobs, they can get in front of their candidates and help them initiate the process right from their phones. Text-4-jobs makes it easy to apply, get in touch with a recruiter, and move from application to interview in a few simple steps.
Accelerating scheduling and decreasing time-to-fill.
Using automations, our customers keep the stress of herding cats out of what should be a pleasant opportunity to get to know amazing people. They use technology to automate repeatable tasks, like scheduling interviews, to get their candidates in person and on-site faster.
Staying in touch round the clock.
Healthcare workers never stop, with the ability to reply when it's convenient and respond when your recruiters can, SMS helps keep you top of mind while keeping candidates engaged, excited, and interested in the process.
So why isn’t this an industry standard?
Great question! Honestly, we’re not quite sure.
A lot of people assume texting is too informal of a channel. The reality is that we get texts from businesses all the time! They remind us of upcoming events and appointments, sales, important reminders or things we should bring to a meeting, and much more.
Our world is fed up with over-complicated and long-winded emails. We're microwave people who want what we want, when we want it, with the easiest path forward. Naturally, we're inclined to pick a method of communication that is quick and simple.
The nature of emails brings out our anxious brain cells, and we tend to stress about them, overthinking and procrastinating if we can. Meanwhile, texting feels like you're talking to a friend! It's easy to shoot a quick reply back, and it feels approachable if you have a question or are unsure/confused about the next step.
What can this look like in your hiring process?
The thing we love about SMS is that you can get a lot of benefits by adding it to an existing process, or you can use SMS to pioneer a whole new process.
Incorporating text into your volume, hiring can range from basic integrations for one-on-one messaging to more complex and thorough systems to help facilitate your hiring process for you.
No matter how you choose to leverage texting in your healthcare hiring process, your candidates will engage with you faster and more frequently than you ever imagined.
Ready to give it a try?
Lead the Next Wave of Candidate Experience with SMS
As we think about enabling better hiring at scale, it can be overwhelming to create a human-centric process for an abundance of candidates.
- The first solution most people come to is to throw more bodies at the problem. However, it's not always sustainable, it is inconsistent, and the sheer volume can be overwhelming and messy for the recruiters involved.
- Alternatively, you can move towards an entirely automated process. With an almost endless amount of softwares and technology-based products, you can hire without ever actually speaking to your candidates.
Both options will solve the inherent problem, but they also come with a price to your staff or your candidate's experience.
When we think about how to create a better, faster, simpler hiring process, we're seeing most of our customers opt to rewrite the handbook for high-volume hiring completely.
The goal for their new processes? Create hybrid systems to automate the mundane tasks and enable them to get candidates interacting with a member of the team faster.
In the recruiting world, you need to get in touch with candidates fast! The market moves so quickly now. Texting candidates is a useful tool that I love!
- Angie S.
For some teams, texting has become the primary communication channel; however, for others, it's a tool they use to help expedite the logistical tasks and get them into an interview asap.
Where can you use technology as an enhancement not a replacement?
Our friends at Dick's Sporting Goods say they think about technology usage as a way to facilitate a seamless process, similar to how other companies think about simplifying their checkout processes.
"I'm thinking about how I can make the application process as easy as Apple Pay! How do we make our process auto-populate all the important information at checkout? What can we do to make it easier, so we don't lose the sale?"
- Rick Jordan
When it comes to creating a harmonious candidate experience, many people see success with using SMS as the main channel of communication.
How can SMS be used in your high volume recruiting process?
Our customers say leveraging texting helps them:
Showcase team personality and build better relationships
Using automations coupled with intentionally curated templates can allow you to create personalized and professional touch points throughout the process. With texting being less formal than email, this is an opportunity for your team to leverage emojis to create a warm and inviting experience! This can sound like quite the feat, but with the right tools, it's easier than you think!
Stay top of mind and shows your candidates you value them
No matter how hard we try to rewrite our brains, whatever information it can distill first is most likely to create a bias in our brains for that company or product.
When it comes to candidates applying for jobs, the first company they hear back from will naturally be assumed as better.
Finding a way to quickly and effectively meet the needs of the candidates in your pipeline will help you enhance your candidate experience and supercharge your high-volume hiring.
Provide visibility and quickly communicate what’s next
34% of candidates ghost when the interview process is confusing, challenging, or unclear.
By leveraging SMS, you can easily help set expectations and reasonable timelines with an automated text as simple as, "hey there, we got your application, and you can expect to hear back from me in 48 hours or less!"
These ideas seem great in practice, but with our recruiters already stretched thin, without the help of automation, this method simply doesn't scale.
So, what does texting candidates look like in action?
It can be whatever you want it to be! You can use text as an additional communication channel where you follow up as needed, or you can opt to redesign your hiring process to promote a text-based communication style.
Our customers see the greatest impact from texting when they integrate it into their core processes with automations, nudges, and reminders, all sent round the clock to enable a more personalized and communicative experience for your candidates.
When it comes to maximizing your candidate engagement and minimizing ghosting, what's better than engaging with candidates on a platform they already use and love?
DoorDash uses texting to:
Build personalized relationships with their candidates and help them move through the pipeline at a pace that feels right for them.
GardaWorld uses texting to:
Instill respect and dignity into their candidates from day one; they aim to make each applicant feel like a team member from the get-go.
Dick’s Sporting Goods uses texting to:
Quickly and efficiently get applicants into an interview where they can interact with a team member face-to-face to build a personal connection with the team.
Amazon Pharmacy uses texting to:
Automate and expedite their hiring process to shorten their time to fill and make it easier for recruiters to manage larger requisition requests.
Maybe it's time to consider a new approach to picking software for TA teams. What if we decided based on what made it easier for the candidate to engage with the process? Perhaps, it's time we meet them in the middle, where they are, on their phones!
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How GardaWorld Leverages SMS to Humanize Their Volume Hiring
GardaWorld was looking for a way to help humanize and instill dignity into their high volume hiring process.
As one of the top security companies in the world, GardaWorld hires a lot of hourly employees. Hiring in this world can feel highly transactional and can leave candidates feeling like a number. When it was time to revisit their volume hiring process, GardaWorld wanted to create a process unlike any others in the industry.
Their goal was to create an experience that allowed their candidates to feel like part of the family from the get-go. No matter what, they aim to create a process that makes getting from application to paycheck easier than ever.
“Garda has a limited pool of candidates to hire from, so experience matters. Even if a candidate isn’t hired now, they could be a great hire in the future. And they'll remember how you treated them.”
The Set-Up
As GardaWorld aims to cultivate their talent pool, they wanted to create a process that made it easy to funnel in new candidates and stay in touch with older ones. They had their eyes set on finding a way to ensure every applicant had a positive experience.
Their goal was to create a process focused on building and maintaining relationships with their candidates, and they kept their eyes on a few metrics to do this.
Speed to Post
The time from applying to a role, to starting at your assigned post. The goal was to get this stat below two weeks.
90 Day Losses
They wanted to create a process that engages candidates long term, to reduce turnover in the first 90 days.
Overall Attrition
GardaWorld seeks to design a process where every team member is so valued they couldn’t fathom leaving.
The idea was to create a memorable, transferable, and highly personalized experience for every applicant.
With specific intricacies involved for each position or state, they were looking to build a solution that made it easy to manage the specifics so they could focus on humanizing every interaction.
The Solution
When it came to finding a solution, they wanted to create processes to keep a people first approach. They were looking to:
- Cultivate a process where technology was an enhancement, not a replacement
- Instill respect and dignity into the candidates working their way through the application process
As GardaWorld sought out a better process, they were looking to automate reminders and scheduling, prompt their candidates to check their emails when they have action items, simplify the process, and streamline next steps.
The heart of this process improvement was to show their candidates how much they value their work and their service.
In order to develop processes that conveyed those emotions, they chose to focus on simplifying the steps and making it as easy as possible for someone to get from application to paycheck.
As they rolled this process out, they made an effort to balance automation and humanization. Through leveraging texting, they created automated reminders for phone screens, interviews, and other events like their first day!
This technology enhancement helped them increase their interview sit rate, and made it easier for them to quickly advance candidates in the process.
“In our society today, we value information and connection now. We have to meet candidates where they are, and adapt to what the candidates need and want. Texting has become the perfect tool to meet these objectives.”
- Scott
Not only did they see an increase in participation for their in-person interactions, but they also noted an overall increase in their candidate engagement as applicants found it easier to ask or answer questions via text. With open lines of communication to their recruiters, the process had an entirely new and engaging edge to it.
How They Built This
When it came to designing this process, they used data to drive decisions and then let strategy come into play once they had a direction to follow.
It looked like:
- Assessing the hiring process as a whole and pursuing clarity around which areas of the system resulted in the biggest drop off.
- Using strategy to solve the root of the problem once they understood the causation.
Once they reviewed the metrics that matter, they started asking questions such as:
- What is our current applicant to hire ratio?
- How can we increase that?
- Where are our candidates dropping off?
After they had answers to their questions, they knew where to start designing the process.
GardaWorld uses SMS automation to increase candidate engagement, remind applicants of upcoming events and next steps, and prompt them to take action before they become disengaged.
They are opting to create a process with intention. Their goal is to remove as many burdens and jumping off points as possible. They continuously look for ways to make it easier on their candidates to become a member of the family.
As they have rolled these changes out branch by branch, they have reviewed branch specific data to ensure the transition is smooth, seamless, and positive.
This change wasn’t solely on the candidates side, as they rolled these new processes out to their internal teams, they were excited to hear their recruiters loved it!
“Grayscale allows our Talent Acquisition and HR Teams to contact candidates seamlessly without having to leave our Applicant Tracking System.”
With buy-in from the team, and candidate engagement skyrocketing, GardaWorld is well on their way to creating a volume hiring process that’s undeniable.
Takeaways
- GardaWorld learned how you can successfully use tech to keep volume hiring human-oriented
- They leverage data to help to inform and direct strategy efforts for maximum impact
- GardaWorld created a process to showcase how they value their employees by treating candidates with respect from the get go
When it comes to using technology in volume hiring, it’s easy to get caught up in automation. Without having a guiding light like humanizing the process, it’s possible to do more damage than good.
GardaWorld started this journey with a 22 day application to paycheck timeline. Now? That process only takes 17 days. They are on track to continue trimming and polishing the process to reach their goal of 14 days.
With the use of technological enhancements in their process they are on their way to reducing 90 day turnover.
“Employee Engagement and Retention begin in the hiring process. The best TA strategy is to keep our people, and our new uses of texting are helping us on this journey.”
- Scott
Sure, reinventing the system can feel like a lot of work. At what point does it become mission critical to take a serious look at your overall attrition? Only you can answer that, but for GardaWorld they felt it was time to deliver a white glove service to their volume hires.
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