SI Review - Recruiters (and Staffing) Text Messaging

Recruiters (and Staffing) Text Messaging

Dane Taylor, a senior executive recruiter with SFN Group's professional services division, The Mergis Group, takes a three-step approach to reaching candidates. First, he leaves a voicemail, then he shoots off an email, and finally, he sends a text message.

Texting may be the last method he uses to reach out to candidates, but it happens to be the most effective, he points out. When he sends a text, he typically hears back in "two or three minutes at the most," whereas when he leaves a voicemail or email, the turnaround time is longer, he says.

Catching On

"The reason why text messaging is so popular is the immediacy," says Roger Entner, head of telecom research for The Nielsen Company, a global marketing and consumer information firm that tracks text messaging usage.

Tracy Qamou, director of recruiting operations, Manpower Business Solutions, has noticed an increase in text messaging at her company, especially recently. "Honestly, I feel like text messaging has picked up as a tool for us in the last six months," she says. "It gives us increased efficiency. We're able to get faster turnaround time with candidates." Concludes Qamou: "The ease of use makes it available to the general public. Moving forward, it's only going to increase."

Kathy Dawson, president of southern California-based boutique staffing firm Dawson & Dawson, Inc. says: "We use it a lot. I use it with my clients. I use it with my candidates. I would say that 50%
of our communication involves text messaging."

Christa Delk, senior VP for the sales and marketing division of firstPRO, who oversees a group of recruiters that focus on sales and marketing placements, says: "I know in our group we've definitely started using it more in conjunction with social media tools [such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter]. We use it on the candidate side. We haven't really started using it with our clients yet. We send out opportunities."

Delk estimates her team members send and receive anywhere from 50 to 100 text messages a week, and she expects that number to continue to increase. "For the most part, people are excited about it and open to it," she says. "I think we'll see a lot more companies do this. There's a lot of initiative to push this because it's efficient. It's cool stuff. Good technology."

Benefits

One of the benefits of text messaging is that most people have a cell phone and carry it with them all the time. So when recruiters text candidates, colleagues and clients, they're likely to receive a quick response, a good thing in an industry where often time is of the essence.

By comparison, when recruiters email, it typically takes longer to hear back. That's because not everyone checks email frequently. Also, people need to be at a computer to check their email, unless they happen to have email capability on their phone, which many people don't. There's also a chance with email that the message can be filtered, that it can be perceived as "spam" and wind up in a candidate's junk folder, whereas that doesn't happen with text messages, points out Mike FitzGibbon, president of 3Cinteractive (3Ci), a Boca Raton FL-based company that helps companies develop and deploy mobile strategies and increase the effectiveness of initiatives already in progress.

Another benefit of texting is that, like email, it is possible to send out mass text messages to let many candidates know about a job at one time. "Instead of an email blast it's a text blast," says firstPRO's Delk. "People like it. It's a better way to communicate. It's a little less intrusive for them. You can reach a lot more folks more efficiently. We have gotten good response and feedback from it."

Delk says that when she sends a text blast, she receives a response in a few minutes, whereas when she sends an email blast she'll get one or two responses the first day, and then they'll continue to trickle in throughout the week. "With a text blast, I'm getting a higher rate of response in a shorter amount of time," she says. Dawson & Dawson's Kathy Dawson says her company doesn't currently do text blasts yet but is considering it. "I think it's a good idea," she says.

The Mergis Group's Taylor points out that texting is a good way of reaching candidates who are currently employed. He deals with a lot of candidates who are at a current job, which makes it difficult for them to take personal calls, when he contacts them. If they respond to a text message, not only is it private but also they can get back to him without their current employer knowing.

Texting also can be good for multitasking, points out Erik Davids, a senior technical recruiter with MATRIX Resources. He can be on the phone with a candidate and if he or she happens to have a question to which he doesn't know the answer, he can text an account manager and get the answer right away for the candidate.

Disadvantages

One of the disadvantages of texting is that, like email, there isn't any personal touch. You're not talking to the person. Some people prefer face-to-face communication or the telephone because they want to personally talk to someone or to hear a voice. "It's a little impersonal," says MATRIX's Davids. "Not everybody is texting. It can't be a strategy. Some people love it; some people hate it."

Dawson says when she's meeting with clients she asks them what method of communication they prefer. If they say they prefer email, she'll ask if they are open to text messaging as well.

Another disadvantage is that some people don't have unlimited text messaging plans on their phones and would prefer not to be texted because they get charged for each message they send and receive. Most candidates, though, are likely to shrug off a few-pennies charge on their cell phone bill, especially if it gets them a job.

Also, texting by its very nature is meant to be short and sweet and therefore is not a good method to use if you have a lot to say. "We don't really have full-on conversations," says Dawson, noting that most texts sent by people at her company simply say things like, "How did it go?" or "Call me."

Additionally, texting involves using an informal tool for formal communication, which leaves opportunity for misunderstanding, The Nielsen Company's Entner says.

And finally, when someone is using texting for business purposes, that person knows they're being productive, but their employer might not. Recruiters can be quite productive by sending numerous text messages to candidates, but their staffing company might not know. That's because an employer can legally look at an employee's email but, for now at least, an employer doesn't have the right to look at or track an employee's text messages, even if the messages are sent on a company-issued phone. "I guess they wouldn't see how productive you were if you were texting," says MATRIX's Davids.

Clark McBride, a senior executive recruiter with Nelson Search, a division of The Nelson Family of Companies, says, "It's hard [for the employer] to quantify productivity -- what level is being done. How productive is it." The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear a case about whether employers have the right to view text messages sent on company-issued phones sometime this year.

Establish a Relationship First

Most recruiters agree that texting should only be used once a rapport has been established. They don't think it's good idea to send a text message to someone they have never met or spoken to. "I would never send a blind text message to a candidate that I had never spoken with before," says Bethany Hess, senior recruiter/team lead for Chicago-based Instant Technology, who estimates she sends between 1,800 and 2,000 personal and work-related messages a month, of which about 400 are work-related. "It's about establishing a relationship first."

Concludes Hess: "I don't think those phone conversations and meetings are going away, but once you have a comfort level established, sending a text I think just will become more and more popular, even just as a means to check in."

"If you are trying to make initial contact with the candidate, our experience is it doesn't work too well," comments Sunil Phatak, director of recruiting for Akraya, a Sunnyvale CA-based information technology firm. "I would not use it for new candidates. It is useful for existing candidates."

An Easy Way to Reach People, Communicate

Nazreen Seecharran, senior technical recruiter and team leader at New York-based technology staffing firm Diversant Inc., texts candidates on a daily basis. "If there's a candidate I'm trying to reach out to, and I'm not able [to get a hold of that person via the phone or email], I definitely resort to text," she says. "Nine out of 10 times I get a response immediately. Basically, people tend to pay attention to their phone. With a text, it's more personal, more private. It's an easier way to communicate. … It's a very effective way for me to work with these IT people. Everyone wants to know who is texting them." Says Seecharran, "People are catching on to it. It's really popular. A lot of people are using it."

Andrea Lambert, a service delivery manager with Diversant, uses text messaging to communicate with clients. She also uses it to communicate with the recruiters she oversees, half of whom are in New York and half of whom are in North Carolina.

Lambert -- who estimates she sends between 50 and 100 texts per day -- says it's a convenient way to communicate when she's traveling. "It's only going to get stronger," she says. "Text messaging, I believe, will be the one that stands out. When I was on the recruiting side, I used it daily. It's a good follow-up."

Kelly Jenkinson, a staffing consultant with Express Employment Professionals' Tyler TX office, estimates she sends 200 texts a week to candidates on the industrial side. "Industrial people are more likely to have a cell phone than a home phone," she explains. "If they're out of minutes, they can still get text messages."

MATRIX's Davids estimates he sends about five texts a day to both candidates and co-workers. "It's not a huge number right now," he says. "It's only people I truly trust and know we can help one another. It's just much easier. You're not stuck on the phone. I just think people are moving that way. I'd rather do more stuff with text messaging. Some people have text messaging capability on their
phone but not email."

Derek Kilby, a technical recruiter with Sapphire Technologies, points out that when he sends a text, he gets a response in seconds or minutes, whereas if he sends an email it can take a few hours or even a day to hear back. "In this day and age, everybody has their cell phone in their pocket or right next to them," he says. He adds that, "It seems like email is a little more lax than a text would be."

Kilby has found texting is a good way to get a hold of college students. "Texting is normally a great way to say, 'hey, can you give me a call as soon as you can,'" he says.

Elizabeth Sias, a delivery specialist with Sapphire Technologies, who does both recruiting and account management, recalls how one candidate mentioned in her voicemail that the quickest way to get ahold of her was through a text message, so that's what Sias did to reach her. The candidate then went on Twitter and mentioned how she texted with a recruiter. Sias estimates she texts candidates a couple of times a week. She texts her colleagues even more, between five to 10 times each day, she says.

Laura Riordan, an account manager with Sapphire Technologies, uses text messaging to communicate with clients. She texts them to set up candidate interviews and obtain feedback from the interviews. Meanwhile, her clients text her to let her know when they'll be out of a meeting, or to let her know that they're in a meeting but interested in a candidate and wondering if that person would be available for an interview. "It's very valuable to be able to connect when otherwise you can't," she says.

Many of her clients have phones but aren't able to access email on their phone. "If it's something important, a text kind of pops up in a different spot," she explains. Riordan, who currently texts her clients a few times a week, expects that to increase to a couple a day over the next year, she says.

Maya Russo, an account executive with MATRIX Resources, texts clients when they're out of the office and on the road. When she needs to retrieve old messages, she has a record. She uses a site called dexrex.com that tracks all of her messages and sorts them. "It's a free Website," she says. "It works for me."

Not Just the Younger Generations

Teenagers and 20-somethings or Millennials are typically thought of as the heavy texters, but today most everyone is doing it. Text messaging reaches across all demographics and is now prevalent among older generations, not just young adults and teenagers.

Eighty-seven percent of people between the ages of 18 and 24 text message, as do 81% of those between the ages of 25 and 34, and 65% of those between the ages of 35 and 54, according to The Nielsen Company.

Fifty-seven percent of the under-35 crowd send more than 30 text messages every week, as do 44% of 35- to 44-year-olds and 14% of those over 45, a survey by mobile messaging company Tekelec reveals.

"Now we can send it to any generation and they know how to respond," says Express' Jenkinson. "Older generations are getting quicker at it than younger ones. We deal with every generation there is. If their cell phone has text message capability, we use it regardless of the candidate's age."

FirstPro's Delk says she's personally found that recent grads and even people in their mid-30s to early 40s are receptive to text messaging, but then she sees a drop off in people being open to it around age 45. "They [the 45 and older crowd] still want to talk live," she says. "They want to have that one-on-one communication."

Instant Technology's Hess says: "It's pretty across the board. My parents are in their 50s, and they text message. My grandparents text message. If you have kids, and your kids do it, you want to learn how to do it."

Says Dawson & Dawson's Kathy Dawson: "I'm 51 and have been texting for five years. I have teenage kids. They're now in college. They taught me."

MATRIX's Davids says his 59-year-old dad got text messaging capability for the first time at the end of 2009. Plus, his 49-year-old father-in-law, and his father-in-law's fiancée, who is in her 30s, both text. "There's a generational gap between them, and they text," he points out.

Expected to Continue to Grow

What does the future hold? Most agree text messaging is only going to become more and more popular in the years to come. "Text messaging is not going anywhere," says Michael Becker, global board chair and North America vice chair for the Mobile Marketing Association.

Currently, at least 40% of Kforce's recruiters text regularly to communicate with candidates and one another, and that number will just continue to go up, according to Glen Cathey, VP of recruiting. "I just think it's going to be a natural method of communication," he says. "It continues to grow organically. The trend is moving that direction. Almost everyone has a text-enabled phone. It's just so easy and convenient, and less intrusive, too."

Express' Jenkinson says: "It will increase significantly as the younger generation comes into the workforce. It's a definite plus. If someone has not used that tool, they need to. They need to get on that train." Adds Dawson & Dawson's Kathy Dawson: "It's a great tool, and I can really see it going places in our industry."