With 4X the read-rate and 10x the response rate of email communication, plus the incredible speed that SMS messages can be sent, texting has quickly become one of the most preferred communication channels for recruiters today. Additionally, candidates are now preferring the discretion and convenience of texting which has lead to a dramatic increase in text recruiting.

We started Rectxt because we noticed that the vast majority of recruiters were using their personal cell phones to text with candidates (which isn’t a good idea for reasons listed below) and we wanted to provide a better alternative for them. In fact, a recent Rectxt survey shows that 70% of recruiters surveyed were using their cell phones to text with candidates. If you’re a recruiter who is currently using your cell phone to text with candidates then you should reconsider your options. Here are 8 reasons why using your personal cell phone to text with candidates is a bad idea:

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1. Cell phones are slow

Manually adding candidate details into your device and then typing out texts with your thumbs is a slow process. Speed is a critical advantage for recruiters today (especially for agency recruiters) so if you’re texting with lots of candidates each day then this inefficient ‘time suck’ really adds up! 

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2. Cell phones aren’t scalable

Cell phones aren't designed for business-scale texting. Instead, they're restricted to personal 1:1 messaging which means you can’t use mass text campaigns to scale-up your candidate engagement and relationship nurturing. 

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3. Cell phones have personal safety risks

Unless you already have a strong relationship with a candidate, most candidates are ‘strangers’ so giving out your personal cell phone number to the public job market can lead to some serious personal safety risks. For example, we’ve heard lots of stories of disgruntled candidates who didn’t get the job sending threatening texts to their recruiter, and female recruiters being sent inappropriate after-hours messages.

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4. Cell phones aren’t secure

A shocking 160,000 cell phones are stolen every day in the US, not to mention the thousands of phones that get lost (we’ve all been there!) so you are putting your candidate's personal information at risk if you’re storing it in your personal cell phone. Additionally, this is likely a breach of your company’s security policies which could also put your employment at risk.

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5. Cell phones aren’t integrated into your recruitment systems

Candidate text message conversations often contain valuable information that should be stored in your ATS or CRM so that other recruiters or anyone in the hiring team can access it quickly. Additionally, searching through the hundreds of mixed personal and professional conversations in your phone to locate an import text message is inefficient and annoying!

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6. Cell phones are distracting

Stopping mid-task to pick up your cell phone to text a candidate is disruptive to your recruitment workflow and concentration. Plus, we all know how tempting it is to check all those social media notifications on your lock screen!

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7. Cell phones aren’t compliant

If you’re using your personal cell phone for business purposes then there are regulations that guide how you should use it. As per TCPA and CAN-SPAM regulations, recruiters need to give candidates a clear and easy way to opt-out of future messages (which is a feature that cell phones don’t natively offer).

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8. Cell phones can lead to embarrassing situations

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Last but not least: mixing your personal and professional contacts in your device’s phone book puts you at risk of accidentally sending a personal text message to an unintended candidate which could lead to some potentially embarrassing and unprofessional situations! 

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How Rectxt solves these problems:

Rectxt is a web-based text recruiting platform that allows recruiters to text with their candidates in an easier, faster, safer, and compliant way. We intentionally built Rectxt to give recruiters a better way to reap the benefits of text recruiting while avoiding the pitfalls of using their personal cell phones. Here’s how we’ve done it:
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Speed

‍Our Chrome extension imports candidates profiles from any website in 1 click and allows recruiters to quickly write and respond to text messages using a full keyboard.‍

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Scalability

‍ The Campaign feature of Rectxt allows recruiters to launch personalized 1:many text campaigns to the candidates with a few clicks.‍

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Safety

Recruiters can choose a new phone number from any area code in North America during the signup process. This means recruiters can keep their personal number private and separate from their professional recruiting life.‍

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Security

All candidate personal information is stored safely and securely in the cloud.‍

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Integration

We’ve purposely built Rectxt to be able to integrate easily into existing recruitment systems such as ATS’s, CRM’s, and sourcing tools.‍

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Seamless

Being recruiters ourselves, we’ve thoughtfully designed Rectxt to work seamlessly with recruiters’ existing recruitment workflow. Our smart Chrome extension means recruiters can effortlessly manage multiple conversations without ever having to pick up their cell phone.‍

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Compliant

‍ Our built-in candidate opt-out functionality helps keep you TCPA compliant for text recruiting regulations.‍

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Professional  

Recruiters avoid mixing personal and professional contacts in their device’s phonebook by using Rectxt.

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Visit www.rectxt.com to try Rectxt for free. 
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