The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated an already serious problem in healthcare recruiting. Qualified nursing candidates are greatly needed, and the pool of job seekers is just not large enough to meet demand. The result is a highly competitive hiring environment in which every recruiting advantage makes a difference. Text recruiting is the quickest, easiest way to reach candidates and secure their employment. It’s one piece of a robust hiring strategy that will help you staff your community or home healthcare business with strong, passionate caregivers.
Beat the Competition
With many organizations vying for the same candidates, getting new staff through the door as quickly as possible is absolutely vital. Digital hiring has changed the game for recruiters, with over half of jobseekers naming online job boards as their favorite place to find professional opportunities.
With 68% of Millennials and 54% of Gen Xers using digital tools to evaluate brands before accepting a position, it’s clear the applicant experience is going digital. Digital and social media recruitment are becoming increasingly normalized, but texting is still a way to get ahead of the competition. One study found that while only about 20-30% of emails were opened, SMS had an open rate of 98%. Text recruiting allows you to meet candidates where they are—on their phones.
Reach Diverse Candidates
As an employer, you’re trying to reach as many applicants as possible—and to keep them at your company once they begin. Accomplishing this requires that you consider the diverse backgrounds and circumstances affecting job seekers. Candidates with families, multiple jobs, or academic commitments are more likely to be on their feet when you send an email. They may not be able to respond for hours or days.
Text recruiting allows you to reach more and different candidates, including younger and busier ones. COO of RenAlliance Shoshana Epstein confirms this. “Usually the person I’m looking for is working,” she says. “They can’t pick up the phone. So a text message is easy, they can respond, and then I’ve captured that candidate before somebody else got to them.”
Make a Real Connection
For some, text recruiting is still an unexpected addition to a staffing strategy. The speed and accessibility of texting may make it feel less formal, resulting in comparatively casual language. While this might not appeal to every hiring manager, it has definite benefits from the perspective of company culture. With more informal conversation, there’s a whole new set of opportunities to gauge attitude and personality.
Pay attention to how candidates respond to being contacted through a less common channel. You may be able to detect emotions that would be hidden under the formality of email, giving you the chance to estimate enthusiasm and fit.
How to Pick a Text Recruiting Platform
Deciding to start text recruiting is exciting, but there’s plenty of other questions to answer before you dive in. Selecting the proper software will make your SMS communications with candidates both simpler and safer, no matter how many individuals you’re contacting. Here are some features to review before committing to a text hiring platform.
Security
Send your messages from within a secure applicant tracking system—never from an unprotected personal phone. Keep track of message history, and store all personal information securely to protect against data breaches and potential legal issues.
Scope
How many candidates are you planning to text? How many text messages would you like to be able to send? Is it important that you are able to message candidates in bulk, or are you only concerned with reaching individuals? Some texting platforms, like Apploi, include unlimited text communications, while others cap the number of messages that can be sent or allow you to unlock additional texts for an extra fee.
Onboarding Capabilities
A text recruiting platform doesn’t have to be just that. Consider software that includes texting, but also completes other aspects of onboarding or employee management. While researching SMS candidate outreach, you might review aspects of the onboarding process that could be automated. For healthcare recruiting, this could include services like automatic background checks, vaccination tracking, and license verification.
Apploi is on a mission to help healthcare recruit more successfully. We offer unlimited texting, sent either individually or in bulk, so you can quickly reach top candidates. With automatic job post distribution across 80+ job sites, digitized employee recordkeeping, and automated credential renewal reminders, we help you make sure your workforce is always ready.
Interested in learning more about how you can recruit, hire, and onboard healthcare staff quickly? Contact us today for a free demo of our end-to-end solution.
