Supercharge Your Engagement Strategy with an Omnichannel Experience
Amidst the global staffing shortage, agencies need to not only attract talent but also amplify the talent experience to maintain engagement. An engaged talent pool – one that is highly receptive, is interested in what you have to say, and is happy to refer you to others – is essential. With the lack of talent in the market and the additional high stakes of multiple agencies targeting the same candidates, you need to maintain an engaged talent pool to compete. A highly engaged talent pool means fewer dropouts in the hiring process, reduced time to fill, more referrals and redeployments, and more placements.
Two Bullhorn experts – Liam Ryan, Product Marketing Manager, Automation and AI, and Jordy Hamilton, Solutions Consultant – provided a deep dive on how you can create a highly engaged talent pool by providing an omnichannel experience. Watch the webinar recording here, featuring a live demo, or read our recap below.
The candidate paradox
The good news about candidates: they want to work with recruiters. Candidates like human interaction and the consultative guidance provided to them as part of their job search. As part of our 2022 Global Recruitment Insights & Data (GRID) Trends Report, we surveyed 2,000+ perm, freelance, and temp workers in North America and the UK. We found that 60% of workers have a favorable opinion of recruiters, and 70% of talent want human interactions during the job search process.
However, candidates are also craving a better experience. 50% have given up on a job because the process took too long, 43% cited poor communication as the primary reason for a poor experience, and 93% of freelance workers say that working with online talent platforms is easier compared to agencies. All of these factors ultimately result in a lack of engagement.
However, these challenges present an opportunity for agencies to provide the experience candidates seek. Those who make the most of this opportunity have the potential for rapid growth; when times are hard, those who react rise to the top and use this as the chance to break into new ground.
Prioritizing the candidate experience
Bullhorn also surveyed 4,000 global recruitment industry professionals as part of our GRID trends report and found that candidate acquisition was the top priority, even above traditional priorities like winning clients. Digital transformation was also high on the list of priorities, showing that agencies realize that technology can be an enabler in helping them create the service required to win in the current market.
The changes in workforce dynamics
For the first time, we have a talent pool made up of four demographics: baby boomers, Gen X, millennials, and Gen Z. Each demographic has its unique preferences, motivations, traits, and perspectives.
The key question is: how can we meet all of these varying expectations? The answer lies in adapting to these communication preferences and maintaining engagement across this broad spectrum.
Reaching out to talent of all generations presents an opportunity to diversify into jobs that are more applicable to certain demographics. It also provides the opportunity to future-proof your business. As time passes, younger generations will become more prominent in the talent pool; for example, millennials already make up 40% of the talent pool. If you’re not including all communication channels, you’re missing out on engaging entire swaths of candidates.
What is omnichannel communication?
An omnichannel experience encompasses each method of engagement: phone, email, SMS, video, and chatbot. This could look like reminders to recruiters to make phone calls, automated emails and SMS to candidates to remind them of interviews, videos to enhance the human experience, and chatbot and instant messages to provide pre-screening questionnaires. The key when utilizing an omnichannel method is to work smarter, not harder – and that means letting Bullhorn Automation do the heavy lifting to keep your communication in sync.
Omnichannel communication is different from multi-channel communication. You’re likely already utilizing multiple engagement channels, but the omnichannel difference is that each method works together. With an omnichannel strategy, Bullhorn automatically sends data back to your ATS, automates basic communication reminders, and helps you avoid unnecessary message duplication. Omnichannel communication also means having information on demand. While SMS and email can’t always be 24/7, using a chatbot – which is always on and ready to provide info and answer questions – can help fill in those gaps. Together, this synchronous communication creates an all-in-one experience.
Engagement best practices
To help make the most of an omnichannel engagement strategy, it’s best to keep a few best practices in mind:
- Tools: Meet the communication preferences of all demographics with omnichannel engagement
- Automate: Ensure an exceptional client and candidate experience by leveraging automation
- Measure: Gauge success and identify opportunities to improve
The impact of an omnichannel experience
Our Bullhorn Automation customers are already creating an omnichannel experience – and they’re engaging more candidates. We’ve found that these customers have seen massive growth in the amount of pre-screening surveys completed by candidates just by implementing an automated communication workflow.
Creating an experience that candidates enjoy fosters engagement, leading candidates to return to working with you again and again. Put simply, an omnichannel experience is essential to meeting modern candidates’ expectations when working with recruitment agencies – and it’s crucial to the growth of your organization.
For a live demo of how you can use Bullhorn tools to create an omnichannel experience, watch our webinar recording here, or join us on July 20th for our introduction to Bullhorn’s chatbot.