The war for talent has pushed the focus onto the candidate experience. A big part of candidate experience is candidate messaging.
The “candidate as consumer” mindset combined with the rise of AI and automation has led to a lot of recruiting tech investment for candidate messaging.
Here are 10 stats about candidate messaging that recruiters need to know summarized in an infographic.
Candidate messaging stat #1
Job seekers seem to welcome the development of AI and chatbots.
A recent survey by Allegis found:
- 58% of candidates are comfortable interacting with AI for initial questioning in the application process
- 66% are comfortable interacting with AI and chatbots for interviewing scheduling and preparation
Candidate messaging stat #2
The quest to attract and win over candidates is fundamentally changing the application process to become mobile-first. This has led to the rise in recruiting texts.
A survey by Software Advice found nearly 2/3rds – 66% – of job seekers consider it acceptable to be contacted via text message by a recruiter.
Candidate messaging stat #3
According to Software Advice, 14% of job seekers consider it inappropriate for a recruiter to text them outside of business hours.
Most candidates prefer to be contacted earlier in the day: 29% prefer to be to texted between 8-10am and 29% prefer to be texted between 10am-12pm.
Candidate messaging stat #4 – #6
According to CareerBuilder, there are some generational differences in how candidates prefer to be contacted.
- 57% of Millennials prefer to be contacted by email over phone calls
- 47% of Gen Xers have equal preferences towards email and phone calls
- 58% of Boomers prefer to be contacted by phone over email
Candidate messaging stat #7
While the human touch is important to job seekers, a substantial percentage sees the value of automating parts of the process.
CareerBuilder found 33% of job seekers want to receive an automated email after they apply which outline the next steps in the process.
Candidate messaging stat #8
Candidates like messages from recruiters to be short and sweet.
LinkedIn’s data shows recruiters can increase their response rate by 27% by keeping their InMails shorter than 200 words.
RecruitLoop suggests the optimal recruiting email is between 150–250 words.
Candidate messaging stat #9
Indeed’s survey of candidates asked them, “Once you’ve applied to a job at a company, which of the following actions builds trust?”
The top reply was, “The company views your application promptly and reaches out” with 53% of candidates picking this option.
Candidate messaging stat #10
Borrowing data from our friends in sales, Yesware analyzed over 500,000 emails and found:
- 30% of recipients replied to the first email
- 21% replied to the second email
- 25% replied to a subsequent email
The lesson here: it pays to be persistent and use a recruiting software with an automated email marketing function.