Common Sense

Recruitment marketers are only as strong as the data they have at their fingertips. But so often that data is stale, incomplete, or inaccurate, leading to frustrating inefficiencies and high costs of talent acquisition. We commonly hear from our clients that their marketing teams don’t have the candidate data they need to be successful, but that updating their full database is a project that’s simply too big and too time-consuming. 

With growing unemployment rates and millions of people on the hunt for a job, technology has never been more important in helping your recruiters rise to the occasion. Today’s most sophisticated staffing firms are going beyond triggered emails and SMS integration to provide a seamless, polished experience throughout the talent lifecycle. If you want to foster better candidate relationships and max out your return on investment, your next superpower might be a conversational AI assistant — also known as a chatbot. 

As of August 2020, there are nearly 30 million Americans receiving some form of unemployment insurance. While that number certainly signifies opportunity and talent access for staffing firms, it also sheds light on something that’s underrated yet extremely important. 

You’ve probably interacted with a chatbot at some point or another. And maybe you’ve interacted with a conversational assistant. The terms “chatbot” and “conversational assistant” are often used interchangeably (honestly, even here on the Sense blog), but in all truth they’re actually quite different.

As the parent company to three unique staffing brands, Advanced Group fills a wide range of roles from finance to healthcare to creative services. With smart tech at the forefront of their engagement strategy, the firm has been using texting as an important component of their communication plan for years. 

Earlier this month, our friends at Avionte held their annual CONNECT conference, and like all events these days, it was entirely virtual. And truthfully, they nailed it. We were proud to be Platinum Sponsors of this event, and were excited to see what happened with their all online agenda.With a compelling agenda filled with everything from thought leadership presentations to user-centric help sessions, virtual ‘booths’ that attendees visited live to chat with partners, and fun virtual activities like scavenger hunts and video competitions, CONNECT really had it all. 

You’ve spent a lot of time and resources over the years to build up your candidate database. The only problem is, at any given time, most of your database sits dormant. Some may have applied and never interviewed, while others simply applied and never heard back, or even interviewed but didn’t get the job.

The pandemic has presented all sorts of challenges and uniquities that none of us could have foreseen at the beginning of the year. Staffing firms who serve essential industries like home care, healthcare, grocery, retail and construction (to name a few) are seeing massive surges in demand for talent. Other industries may have fewer reqs, but a surge in demand for jobs that is overwhelming their already-stressed recruiters. 

Uncovering a Challenge

As a family of premier staffing and recruiting brands, Staffmark Group has long been at the forefront of industry trends. Before partnering with Sense, though, Staffmark had a familiar problem. Their recruiters were tasked with hiring and placing great candidates, but engagement beyond the hiring phase often fell to the wayside. Little structure was in place to enforce best practices and track follow-up with newly onboarded employees, and Staffmark hadn’t yet found an engagement automation tool that met their needs. 

The firm’s annual NPS survey showed that contractors were feeling abandoned after being placed, noting a lack of communication during and after assignments. Contractor satisfaction was dropping, and the Staffmark team knew it was time to do something about it.

There’s a lot about recruiting in a post-COVID 2020 that is different than it was a year ago. In fact, has recruiting ever changed so much, so quickly before?