How to keep engagement humming during the holidays

The holidays are HERE 🦃🕎🎄

For many of us, that means cooking, traveling, decorating, shopping (online and -- we wish you luck -- Black Friday)…

The list is long and exhausting. And it comes around every year. 

You know what’s probably not on your list as you think about EVERYTHING you have to do this holiday season? 

Candidate engagement. 👩‍💻

We forgive you. It’s a hectic time for everyone! But, dropping the ball on engagement now can really set you back—not only in Q4, but to kick off 2020. After all, it’s always a good start to the year when you’re making placements right off the bat. 

Get your to-do list done, and still prioritize engagement

No beating around the bush here — we’re going to let you know exactly how you can balance the chaos of the holidays while continuing to prioritize candidate engagement. 

Drumroll, please...

Automation!

Need an introduction on automation? Check out this post. But here it is in a nutshell:

Using systems and technology to perform set tasks at predetermined (or triggered) times. 

For the staffing industry, automation saves time, but more importantly, it keeps your talent engaged, leading to more placements, higher retention and redeployment, and ultimately, more business growth. 

Chances are, your staffing firm isn’t automating as much as it could be (if at all). Research shows that about 2/3 of staffing firms don’t automate a majority of their tasks.

And since your recruiters are already slammed, and now have a full plate of holiday tasks to deal with, automation can REALLY come in handy.

Many staffing firms just accept that early Q1 is a “slow time.” But once you lose contact with the contractors you hired to support your seasonal clients, it can be hard to get them back again. What you do now during the holidays can have a huge impact on starting the year off on the right foot for you, your clients, and candidates. It’s all about leveraging your resources to help everyone (especially your bottom line!).

Automation in action 🎬

Here’s how you can use automation to bump up engagement (and results) this holiday season and beyond:

Currently deployed talent

You probably have a surplus of contractors who are on assignment right now. But a lot of those assignments are likely wrapping up between now and January. Do you have another assignment lined up? 

We talk a lot about redeployment around here, because the average industry rates are SO low (anywhere from 5% to 25%, depending on the skill type) across the staffing industry. Even a slight uptick in redeployment could dramatically increase your revenue and reduce your candidate acquisition costs. 

So back to that seasonal contractor…

Leveraging your engagement platform, you can set up automated messages for contractors who are on assignments that are scheduled to finish up at the end of the year. At the right time (say 4 or 6 weeks before the end of an assignment, or whatever timeline works for you), your technology can send out a personalized message (using data from your ATS) to lock up candidates for the next assignment well in advance. 

Depending on your contractor preferences, you can choose to send those messages via email or text -- here are some examples:

Email

Hey [NAME],

Wow, your assignment at [COMPANY] has flown by, hasn’t it? It’s hard to believe we’re already closing in on the end of the year. 

With your assignment wrapping up soon, I’m reaching out to see if you’re interested in another [SKILL SET] role to kick off 2020.

Let’s set up some time to talk next week and see what you’re thinking. I’m available all day [DATE] through [DATE], so just let me know what works for you. 

Have a great day,

[RECRUITER]

Text

Hi [NAME] -- is it that time of year already?! ☃️ It’s time to start thinking about your next assignment. Are you open any time on [DAY] to chat? 

With the right platform, you can send an intro email along with text follow ups -- or any combination of messages and delivery options that works best for you and your talent. 

And remember, it’s all automated. The only time your recruiter needs to jump in is when the contractors are ready to talk about finding their next gig (in other words, when it is more likely to generate revenue for your staffing firm 💵). 

Dormant candidates

Just like your team (and all of us), dormant candidates are probably stressed about the holidays. And part of that stress might be coming from their work situation (or lack thereof). People are starting to think about next steps and New Year’s resolutions—what a great time to send a short but sweet message! 

Texts are a very personal way to re-engage dormant candidates. Around the holiday season, texts like these can really be effective:

Hey [NAME] -- I hope you’re having a wonderful holiday season so far! ⛄️🎁 Are you still open to new [SKILL SET] openings? Let me know if you’re looking for something now or to start the New Year!

Happy Holidays, [NAME] 🎄⛄️ Are you still on the hunt for a [SKILL SET] job? If so, let me know and we can get the wheels moving!

And all of these responses write back into your ATS with a platform like Sense (we’ve designed and built Sense to work seamlessly with top ATS providers). This means an extra holiday gift for your recruiters 🎁, who get to start off the year with a nice, updated ATS and candidate pool.

Get rolling with automation this holiday season

Setting up automated workflows with messages like these will ensure your candidates are engaged and excited throughout this holiday season and into the new year. It frees your recruiters up to focus on the most important tasks and helps them reach (and place) more candidates. 

And it’s not too late to take advantage THIS holiday season to help finish off 2019 strong and get off to a GREAT start for 2020. To see Sense in action and learn more about how it can help your staffing firm, schedule a demo with our team today.