Recruitment Tools That Improve the Candidate Experience

This article will explore what recruitment is and the communication tools HR managers can use to create a more positive candidate experience.

80–90% of talent say a positive or negative candidate experience can change their minds about a role or company. While this statistic shows how effective recruiting impacts employee retention, only 12% of employees agree that their organization provides a positive recruiting experience. So, where is the gap between candidate experience and employee retention occurring? It stems from communication during the recruitment process.

This article will explore what recruitment is and the communication tools HR managers can use to create a more positive candidate experience. From there, we’ll dive into the benefits recruitment communication tools provide to both employees and employers so that you can increase candidate retention. After reading this article, you’ll understand how recruitment tools control the narrative of how a candidate perceives your organization.

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What is Recruitment?

Recruitment involves identifying, attracting, interviewing, selecting, hiring, and onboarding employees. Recruitment can vary between two weeks to six months, depending on the organization. Factors like available HR personnel, a company’s recruitment strategy, and an organization’s recruiting tools cause this time variation.

Because recruitment involves many factors, it looks a bit different for each organization. Some organizations have teams of recruiters, while others rely on one or two individuals to get the job done. Some companies might outsource recruiting to a third-party firm, while others utilize HR software to develop an in-house recruiting strategy. Whichever bucket your organization falls into, you must understand the recruitment process from the ground up to create a successful candidate experience.

How Has Recruitment Changed In The Last Decade?

Now that you know what recruitment is, it’s crucial to understand how this process has changed in the last few years. In-office hires, Excel spreadsheet tracking, and in-person interviews have shifted into virtual discussions, cloud-based HR software, and hybrid work models.

While some companies offer both in-person and virtual settings, it’s essential to understand how recruitment is changing so you can create a more modern and impactful candidate experience. We show the changes mentioned above and others in the graphic below.

Then vs. Now

A Decade Ago	Now
Job posts are promoted on a company’s website.	Job posts are promoted on a company’s website, job boards, and other sites (Linkedin, Facebook, Indeed, ZipRecruiter, etc.).
Recruitment scheduling involves in-person interviews.	Recruitment scheduling focuses on virtual interviews and discussions.
Candidate tracking is done manually via Excel spreadsheets.	Cloud-based recruiting and onboarding software automates candidate tracking.
Candidate sourcing focuses on local or regional talent and in-office hires.	Candidate sourcing focuses on local, regional, and global talent. Some positions are in-office, but many are shifting to hybrid and remote models.

How to Communicate Effectively During the Hiring Process

Text Messaging

According to a recent study by the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association, the average response time for an email is 90 minutes compared to the 90-second response time for text messages. Recruitment software with text messaging capabilities keeps your candidates moving through the hiring process.

Texting may seem like another form of recruitment communication to add to your never-ending list of tools and tasks. However, texting recruits is a way to alleviate recruiting burdens, not add to them.

Recruiting platforms integrate texting as a feature into their system, which means you don’t have to use your cell phone to reach out. Simply utilize your existing recruiting platform to connect with a candidate. Some systems even offer notification of new texts to HR admins. These alerts keep admins in the loop without staring at a screen and waiting for responses.

Texting candidates can help revive unresponsive applicants. This approach allows you to identify the most interested individuals and reduce your time to hire.

For more insight into this communication tool, we’ve compiled a list of the most common questions related to recruitment text messaging below:

How Do You Text An Interview Candidate?

When texting an interview candidate, consider utilizing a text message template like the following:

Hi [name], Thanks for applying to the [position] at [company name]. Your background and skills impressed us. We’d like to invite you to interview [via phone/via Zoom, etc.] to tell you a little more about the position and get to know you better.

Interview Scheduling Via Calendar Integrations

Have you ever played phone tag with a doctor trying to schedule an appointment? The back and forth of finding an available time that fits your schedule can be exhausting, especially if the other party has to follow up a day or two later with availability options. This scenario happens all the time during the hiring process. It’s probably why 30% of job seekers rate responsiveness as the most critical factor in their candidate experience.

No one likes being stranded in job-interview limbo; the good news is, no one has to be. HR interview scheduling software with calendar integrations automates this process once and for all. Calendar integrations work with all major calendar apps like Outlook and Google.

Prospective employees can choose a date based on the days and times you have selected on your calendar for interviews. This flexibility makes conducting interviews much more manageable and helps you deliver a better candidate experience.

Whether texting or calendar syncing, these tools eliminate the back and forth that can occur when trying to streamline your hiring process. Furthermore, developing better recruitment communication processes sets the tone for how candidates perceive your company and its culture. Respecting a candidate’s time displays professionalism and creates a positive first impression of your organization.

Communication tools set your organization apart in the recruiting process. Some payroll and HR providers include mobile-optimized applications, applicant tracking systems, reference checks, and other recruiting features to optimize your hiring process further. Leveraging the communication tools above with other system capabilities leaves you with a recruitment marketing strategy sure to attract and retain quality candidates.

How Can Employers Benefit From Recruitment Tools?

So now that you know some communication tools that can impact your recruitment process, let’s discuss how these tools benefit your organization. There are several ways an employer can benefit from practical HR recruiting tools. A few examples include decreased hiring time, increased applicant engagement, and reduced onboarding costs. Let’s look at the benefits of effective recruitment communication and how they impact the hiring process.

Decreased Time to Hire

We stated earlier that an application process could last for as long as six months. That’s a lot of time spent managing candidate applications and interviews. However, this doesn’t have to be the case. An automated HR recruitment process can reduce the time to hire by as much as 50%.

Mobile-optimized job applications allow qualified candidates to apply immediately. From there, text messaging lowers response time between applicants and recruiters, enabling you to communicate with applicants quickly. Finally, scheduling software allows you to book a virtual call promptly based on everyone’s availability. All of these recruitment tools help optimize your time to fill. Improving your candidate relationship management allows you to focus on other initiatives.

Reduced Applicant Abandonment

An astounding 77 percent of job applicants receive no communication from an organization after applying for an advertised position. This statistic represents a lot of missed applicant engagement opportunities. Sending a templated response is better than nothing at all.

When you layer the percentage above with the fact that 50% of job seekers have declined an offer due to poor recruitment experience, you can see the role communication plays in the applicant experience. The good news is recruitment communication tools can increase applicant engagement by as much as 64%. When top candidates are communicated with consistently, they remain engaged throughout the application process.

Increased Employee Retention

Employee retention starts with the recruiting process. It begins with the application, moves to prequalifying potential candidates, and continues after selecting interviewees and preboarding. Recruitment is so crucial to employee retention that 69% of employees are likelier to stay with a company for at least three years if they have a positive recruitment and onboarding experience.

Employers can engage candidates throughout the recruitment process with tools like text message updates and interview scheduling. An engaged applicant is much more likely to become a satisfied employee.

Lower Recruitment Costs

The price of having to replace an employee includes recruitment costs, training, lower productivity, and lower customer satisfaction. This cost can range from one-half to two times the employee’s annual salary. So, a 100-person organization with an average salary of $50,000 could have turnover and replacement costs of approximately $2.6 million to $10 million per year.

These recruiting costs are why finding suitable candidates from the start is imperative. You can leverage texting and interview scheduling software in your hiring journey. When you leverage HR communication tools in your recruitment process, you can save your organization thousands of dollars annually.

How Can Employees Benefit From Recruitment Tools?

Now that you know how employers benefit from recruitment communication tools, it’s essential to understand how these tools specifically impact employees. Understanding recruitment from an employee perspective will help build a beneficial process for everyone involved. So, let’s look at the benefits of recruitment tools to employees and how they impact the hiring process.

Reduced Time Spent Job Searching

57% of job seekers lose interest if the hiring process is lengthy. Delays tend to occur due to high response times with the back-and-forth email communication style. Incorporating other communication tools can reduce the time spent job searching.

Potential candidates receive text messages from hiring managers to know which companies are interested in them and schedule interviews through recruitment calendar integrations. These user-friendly communication tools help candidates keep track of the jobs they have applied to without having to check multiple job sites and emails.

More Positive Applicant Experience

Research shows that most job applications are submitted in the afternoon when business professionals have a late lunch or another break in their schedule. When candidates can quickly view the entire job from their phone without stopping what they are doing to log into a computer, it improves their overall experience.

Likewise, applying from a phone makes job applications easier for working professionals. They can text to schedule interviews and book interviews directly on their calendars. This kind of flexibility caters to top-level working individuals who are likely the candidates you want in the first place.

Increased Chance of Job Satisfaction

Almost 60% of American employees prefer a job they like over a job they don’t like. When you utilize mobile optimization tools, you increase your likelihood of hiring someone whose skill set is best suited for the available role. Someone who is best suited for the job will likely perform well, and performance is an indicator of job satisfaction.

Job satisfaction goes hand in hand with employee happiness. When you keep employees engaged throughout the onboarding process, and after the employee is a part of the team, you set your organization up for success. Text messaging and calendar scheduling don’t have to stop when recruitment ends. You can continue using these practical communication tools throughout your employees’ tenure.

How APS Can Help You Improve Your Candidate Experience

PS is an award recipient of Digital.com’s Best Applicant Tracking Systems. Our recruitment and onboarding software earned top ratings for candidate sourcing and interviewing, hiring and onboarding, and analytics and reporting.

As a payroll and HR provider, we offer the tools necessary to communicate effectively during the hiring process. These include:

Mobile-optimized job applications provide increased exposure and applicant accessibility.
Text messaging software so you can reach candidates without giving out your cell phone number.
Text messaging alerts allow you to reply to conversations promptly.
Online interview scheduling and calendar syncing, so you interview at a time convenient to you and the potential candidate
Hiring process automation that allows you to review and email your new applicants with professional, pre-written email templates in just one click.

Leveraging the power of APS’ unified system enables you to create a hiring process that improves applicant flow and provides an optimal experience. Interested in learning more about our payroll and HR offerings? Schedule a Demo!