With the insanely high read & response rates of texting, it’s no wonder why the vast majority of recruiters are texting with their candidates today. In 2020, StaffingHub reported that 69% of recruiters were using SMS texting extensively with their candidates – and you can bet that this statistic has increased significantly since then.
Unfortunately, many recruiters still resort to using their personal cell phones to text their candidates because they don’t have access to a better alternative. The fact is that many recruiting leaders simply aren’t aware of the hidden risks and dangers associated with allowing their team to text with candidates from their personal devices, so we’ve taken the time to outline them below:
Staff personal safety risks
Staff safety should be the #1 priority for all recruitment leaders. Don’t forget: candidates are strangers and can sometimes be abusive or just plain creepy – so allowing your recruiting team to share their personal contact details with the public job market puts their safety at risk.
Legal compliance & obligations
Texting for recruitment purposes falls under ‘commercial use’ in the eyes of the TCPA and CAN-SPAM regulatory bodies. This means that recruiters must give a clear and easy way for every candidate to opt-out of text messages which is something that is not possible with cell phones.
Productivity losses
Texting from cell phones can be slow and tedious which is a real drain on productivity for recruiters. Because recruiters are often sending dozens (sometimes hundreds) of text messages each day, manually inputting each candidate and using thumbs to type out each message can be a real time-suck. Additionally, mobile app social media notifications are a big distraction everytime a recruiter picks up their phone to send a text to a candidate.
Data retention with Comeet
Text message conversations between recruiters and their candidates contain an abundance of useful and important information that should be stored in your Comeet ATS (and not in your recruiters’ pockets!).
Respect for staff privacy & work-life balance
We don’t expect recruiters to use their personal email addresses to communicate with candidates, so why do we think it’s ok for them to use their personal cell phones to text with them? A recruiter should be given the choice to ‘turn off’ work during their personal & family time which is near-impossible to do if they get bombarded with texts from candidates to their phone.
Fast, two way, asynchronous communication between a candidate and a recruiter is critical to reducing time-to-hire, improving candidate experience, and reducing ghosting. Rectxt is specialized texting software designed for recruiters that integrates with Comeet in a couple of mouse clicks. With Rectxt all text message conversations between recruiters and their candidates are automatically stored in Comeet’s candidate activity feed.
We are excited to be Comeet’s premium texting partner in the US & Canada. Book a demo and learn more about how recruiters can launch text messages instantly from Comeet in a fast, easy, compliant, and safe way here: Learn More about Rectxt
