More recruiters now see it as a cost effective way to reach potential talent. More companies are using text-messaging to arrange interviews, to reconnect with former applicants and to send out initial questions to screen candidates before going through the more timely and costly route of a phone call or in-person interview.
"More and more people get spammed by job offers via email," says Brian Kropp, group vice president for Gartner's human resource practices. Text messages are "another tool companies can use in a very tight labor market to try to get traction."
A major advantage cited for going with text messaging for recruiting or early candidate screenings is that the recipients are more likely to respond versus email. Gartner has found that job candidates open and read about 20% of emails that recruiters send through LinkedIn. Texting, by comparison, anecdotally has a 60% to 70% response rate, Kropp notes.
Texting is also seen as preferable to millennials as a good way to engage initially. "Can you imagine a [dating] app like Bumble or Match.com, and the first interaction was a screen conversation over the phone?" says Aman Brar, CEO of Canvas.