Jennifer Occhiuto manages talent acquisition technology and branding at GoodFood Market Corp., helping make its recruiting smarter and more effective. Here's how texting took candidate response rates from 30–40% to over 70% and cut reply times from days to under an hour.
Response rates up from 30–40% to 70%+. Replies in under an hour instead of days. Onboarding drop-off down 10–20%.
At a glance
Results
Results as reported by GoodFood's talent acquisition team.
THE CHALLENGE
GoodFood's recruiters were doing most of their candidate outreach the old-school way, by email and phone, and weren't getting high response rates for the effort. It often took days to hear back from candidates on an outreach list, which was costly for a company whose business model depends on a reliable supply of delivery workers. GoodFood's goal was to be known not only as a meal kit company but as the number one grocery delivery company in Canada, offering delivery in thirty minutes or less in key cities like Toronto and Montreal. In that kind of growth environment the team needed to hire hundreds of delivery workers every week and move prospects through the process as quickly as possible, without compromising quality of hire. There was a second problem: new hires not showing up for their first shift, mostly because onboarding emails were getting lost or overlooked.
THE SOLUTION
GoodFood first turned to Emissary for its high-volume recruiting needs, and Jennifer found the recruitment team was up and running seamlessly. The team now meets regularly to work out which messages resonate best with candidates and tweaks its texting templates to keep improving results. Candidate experience gets strong emphasis: recruiters use Emissary to hold the candidate's hand through the whole process when needed, and they keep texting with new hires right up to the first day of work, which has made the process more human and personal. GoodFood also often onboards groups of twenty people at a time. Instead of reaching out individually, recruiters send a text campaign that broadcasts the essential information to the whole group, which has increased efficiency and reduced no-shows.
THE RESULTS
The response rate to candidate outreach rose from 30–40% by email and phone to more than 70% by text. Response times fell from a few days to under an hour. And drop-off during onboarding is down 10–20%, with far fewer new hires missing their first shift.
Share
Workday
SAP SuccessFactors
UKG
Dayforce
BambooHR
Greenhouse