How One E-commerce Employee Made TextUs Her First Recommendation at a New Job

Lost in the shuffle: The talent acquisition phone tag dance

“Just leaving a voicemail to follow up on the email I sent you to see if you’re still interested in the job opportunity?”

That’s a common phrase and day-to-day task for many recruiters and talent acquisition teams. Finding the right cadence of email to phone call and voicemail ratio to discover which candidates are going to move on in the process has become part of the territory.

Once you get a candidate into the interview process, you need to juggle schedules, interviews, paperwork, and training. And so the cycle begins again…

“Just leaving a voicemail to follow up and make sure you saw my last email about the paperwork due to complete the hiring process.”

Finding the right talent and building company culture takes time– how do you know when to stop communicating with an applicant?

When balancing becomes a problem

An e-commerce fulfillment center applied a three-strikes and you’re out rule to contacting. If they were ignored after three attempts, they would close the application.

The fulfillment center knows hiring seasonal talent spikes from the months of August through November. During this period, they hire around 600 people that require orientation.

That means each person needs to be individually called or contacted to schedule. Trying to track down people three times during the busy season is two times too many.

In addition to finding the balance of how to contact candidates, the talent acquisition team had to balance their own schedules and office environment when making calls.

Recruiters share a working space with the IT department, so the open area is often loud while trying to make phone calls.

Times that work for recruiters may not work for candidates, and the talent acquisition team noticed that emails were not increasing replies either.

You cannot control the game of phone tag. The e-commerce fulfillment center did choose to control how they contacted candidates.

TextUs loyalty

When a member of the talent acquisition team first came to the e-commerce fulfillment center, she observed processes and looked for areas of improvement.

The first thing that stood out was the lack of a streamlined method for moving candidates through the recruitment funnel.

At a previous employer, the team member used TextUs and remembered how much easier it was to schedule candidates and remove the ones who weren’t interested.

“Everyone texts and candidates are used to that being normal. Not using texting made us behind the times.”

The talent acquisition team found that texting improved communication on multiple levels. For interested candidates who were busy, she discovered that candidates were not necessarily ghosting her but were busy and not able to talk on the phone at any given minute.

Maybe they were at work and not able to discuss a new job, or at a personal appointment. While they couldn’t talk, they could send a simple text confirming interest and scheduling a better time to discuss over the phone.

Texting eliminated the phone tag game

For candidates who were no longer interested in being considered, the talent acquisition team discovered that they were more willing to say that via text than on a phone call, explaining the ignored voicemails.

Effectively attract candidates with texting

During non-peak seasons, the talent acquisition team may need to talk to 30-40 people a day.

Instead of spending four hours trying to call and track people down, they now spend 30 minutes texting.

TextUs allowed the e-commerce fulfillment center to recognize quality candidates sooner and shorten the interview process timeline.

With the additional time saved, the talent acquisition team focused on implementing new HR activities to build a culture for the teams they’ve recruited. They invested in lunch and learns and optimizing the department.

The talent acquisition team also found a quieter workplace. Texting limited unplanned phone calls and the shared space no longer resembles a call center.

Candidates also became more engaged with TextUs. The e-commerce fulfillment center saw that more candidates responded within one business day; moreover, of these candidates, they responded within ~1 hour on average.

Getting responses within a 24-hour business block instead of being ignored and trying three times helped the center find the right candidates quicker.

Seeing the ROI during this non-peak time, the team is excited for the busy season to streamline their hiring process and onboard people faster.

TextUs is the product that you will want to take with you to a new job.

“We love the platform. It’s been a game-changer. I’ve definitely reduced the amount of time I spend on the phone. I don’t feel like a call center agent anymore!”

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