4 Ways to Achieve Success with Conversational Recruiting
Email. SMS messaging. Chatbots. The list of ways to communicate with one another is endless and ever-changing. As a recruiter who builds relationships with candidates to grow your company, keeping up with the trends is no longer something to plan for — it’s a must if you’re going to win the war for talent. One way you can rise above the competition? Conversational recruiting. This candidate-centric strategy embraces two-way communication via a variety of online communication channels, in order to help you find and hire top talent faster. In our eBook, The Modern Conversational Recruiting Guide, we took a deeper dive into this new landscape, addressing how recruiters and talent acquisition leaders can adopt this approach to improve communication with candidates and reduce time-to-hire. Chatbots, Chatbots, Chatbots... In the world of conversational recruiting, chatbots are taking the lead in technology recruiters are investing in. Why? Because they help automate recruiting tasks like sourcing and create a stellar candidate experience. Plus, they work: Organizations that use bots to communicate with talent saw the time to fill metric improve 90% of the time. Interested in learning more about chatbots? Check out our blog post about the 5 critical functions of a high-performing chatbot! As you embark on your conversational recruiting journey, here are four tips to help you achieve success: You know what they say about people who make assumptions… and this isn’t a time for exceptions! Before inundating candidates with texts, emails, or messages over WhatsApp, ask them how they prefer to communicate with you. While embracing a variety of communication channels is important when approaching a diverse talent pool, they might only want to talk to you over one or two mediums. The best way to find out? Ask them during your first 1:1 contact. Or, consider setting up a communication preference center where candidates can let you know in advance how they want to keep in touch. In addition to how candidates want to communicate, get a sense for how often they want to hear from you. Is it okay to contact them anytime throughout the day, or do evenings work better? Remember, convenience is key to making candidates feel valued and an important part of the process. This will also help you understand when’s a good time for them to communicate with you. Whether you need to coordinate an interview or ask a follow-up question, you’ll have an expectation around when you’ll hear from them. Conversational recruiting means being more accessible to candidates. But it also means creating a more personalized and enjoyable experience during the application process. While your interactions should always be professional, consider maintaining a conversational tone when writing emails and text messages. This helps your communication appear friendlier to readers, which can create a warm, positive sentiment towards your company. Another way to keep things interesting: share relevant information. If a candidate signs up to receive email alerts when new positions open up in your company, be sure to deliver ones that are related to their skills and experience. Whether it’s specific job recommendations or upcoming events with team members of their desired departments, keep candidates engaged with content they care about. While this may not be scalable for 1:1 candidate communication, consider sending mass emails to segments within your database. This allows you to reach more people without having to sacrifice relevance. As you communicate with candidates, keep track of performance to identify what is and isn’t working. A robust Candidate Relationship Management (CRM) platform that offers email, SMS messaging, and chatbot functionality, for example, will store this information for you and present it in easy-to-consume dashboards. Consider investing in one to simplify tracking the ROI of your efforts. Access to data like email open rates, chatbot interactions, completed applications allows you to see what is and isn’t working. If certain data points aren’t up to par, consider ways to optimize your campaigns to improve metrics. Be mindful of how you’re capturing, managing, and storing candidates’ data. Not only is it in their best interest, but in many cases, it’s the law. Regulations like the CAN-SPAM Act for email and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) — one of the most recent and important changes to data privacy regulation in decades — exist to protect consumers and their information. Make sure you’re familiar with the communication regulations in your state and/or country to ensure you’re compliant. Conversational recruiting is just one of the answers to keeping candidates engaged and reducing time to hire. If you’re not sure where to start, try testing one or two new communication channels at a time. Investing in a platform like Phenom People makes it easier to do just that — and as you grow more comfortable with new tactics, you can continue scaling what works and embracing even more means of communication. At the end of the day, it’s all about creating a phenomenal candidate experience — so what are you waiting for? For more information on conversational recruiting, be sure to download our eBook, The Modern Conversational Recruiting Guide! Interested in learning specifically about chatbots, and the five must-have functions they should have? Watch our webinar on-demand: "5 Key Chatbot Features that Boost Recruiter Performance".
1. Give the People What They Want
2. Avoid a Snoozefest — Bring Energy and Relevance!
3. Make "Track & Optimize" Your Daily Mantra
4. Pay Attention to Regulations
Embracing New Ways to Engage Candidates
Get the latest talent experience insights delivered to your inbox.
Sign up to the Phenom email list for weekly updates!
