Recruitment Marketing Public

Overview

Text Engage, which is an add-on product to our Recruitment Marketing module, allows you to engage with potential candidates via a simple text-based interaction. This simple interaction, which is initiated by the candidate when they interact with your brand, provides an opportunity to increase the flow of candidates to the top of the recruitment funnel.

The product has several built-in functions that are configurable to an organisation. Whilst the functionality is primarily intended to be utilised via an SMS-based text message interaction, it is also available via a web-based career site setting. 

Text Engage currently has two built-in scenarios (also known as Intents) which can all be used to kick off unique candidate nurture campaigns and workflows:

• Join your talent network.
• Apply for a job or expression of interest via a custom short code.

Note: This article assumes that customers have already set up an SMS configuration and that it has been enabled within the Recruitment Marketing module. If that’s not the case, and you are interested in utilising Text Engage, please raise a request with PageUp.

Enabling Text Engage

To enable Text Engage you will need to navigate to company settings. Under the Miscellaneous section, you will see an option for Chatbots.

An account manager can supply you with the values required for the identifier and alias identifier fields to start using the bot.

Creating a Text Engage telephone number

If not already provisioned, a new unique SMS-enabled phone number should be obtained specifically for the chatbot service. SMS should be enabled within the Recruitment Marketing module.

Add a welcome message

If you intend to use Text Engage via a chatbot on your careers site, it is recommended you enable and set a welcome message. This is a greeting message that will be populated the first time a candidate visits your site and can be used to provide a hint of what to do next (e.g. search for jobs near the candidate, or register interest in a role).

Text Engage scenarios (Intents)

As mentioned above, we have created several scenarios (or “Intents”) that can be configured.

To add an Intent, click the New button on the top right of the chatbot settings.

All Intents require these three fields:

• Name: this can be anything you wish.
• Intent: select from the drop-down list.
• Success Message: the message the candidate receives at the end of the interaction.

Additionally, the following fields can be included:

• Failure Message: the message the candidate receives if the interaction fails.

Each Intent is essentially a predefined dialog or script designed to take some key information from a candidate to perform an action. The Intent or dialog is then either fulfilled or will return an error.  If the Intent is fulfilled, the success message is the last message the candidate will receive in the dialog. If for some reason the dialog or Intent fails the last message the candidate will see is the failure message.

In addition to the two scenarios listed above, it is recommended that a Cancel intent is also created, which allows the candidate to end the interaction.

Adding Slots to an Intent

When you have configured an Intent the next thing you can tweak are the slots for that Intent. Slots are the pieces of information you are trying to elicit from the candidate during the conversation. For example, if Text Engage asks “What is your first name?”, then the slot it is trying to fill is first_name.

An Intent is considered fulfilled when all the slots have been filled in. A typical interaction would consist of 4 or 5 slots.

Once a slot has been elicited from a candidate those values can also be used during the conversation as you are configuring the dialog. In the example above we received first_name from the candidate so we can use their first_name to further personalize the next prompt by interpolating first_name into the prompt using the syntax %{first_name}.

It creates the potential for a personalised dialog with the candidate that looks like this:

To configure a slot, navigate to the list of configured Intents, and you will see a link that shows either; the number of already configured slots for the Intent or; a link to add your first slot for the Intent.

Here you can add a new slot (from the allowed slots for that Intent) or edit/remove them. When adding a new slot you can add 2 required fields and one optional one:

• Identifier (required): Select from the drop-down list. Supported types are: first_name, last_name, email, phone_number, multi_choice and short_code (only available on "Apply with Short Code" intents). More information on the available options is provided below.
• Name (required): This is the friendly name of the slot, which will be shown within the Recruitment Marketing module.
• Prompt (required): The prompt is the question or instruction issued to the candidate.
• The chatbot should validate submissions to the slot: Indicates whether the system should validate the candidate's response. Only currently supported for the short_code and email.
• Failed Validation Prompt (optional): This is the prompt the user receives should the slot fail validation for any reason. This may be an invalid job short code or an invalid email address.
• Show slot in workflow (optional): Indicates whether this field should be made available within the workflow functionality. If enabled, workflows can be defined based on the responses to this slot.

Slots also have a position in a dialog - for example, we always ask for a first name before a surname. There is, however, the choice to move the position of slots for your dialog - it’s fully configurable.  Below when describing each Intent we will give a recommended position for each available slot in a dialog.

Available Merge fields

The following merge fields can be used in either the slot prompt or the overall success message for an intent.

Merge field value	Description	Notes
%{first_name}	The candidate's first name	Should only be used in a slot that sequentially follows the collection of the candidate's first name.
%{last_name}	The candidate's last name	Should only be used in a slot that sequentially follows the collection of the candidate's last name.
%{url}	The apply URL for the job the candidate is applying to.	Should only be used in the "Apply with Short Code" scenario.

Supported Scenarios (Intents)

Join Talent Network Scenario

The JoinTalentNetwork intent is the most generic of the intents. It is designed to capture the information of candidates who are interested in your company but may not have found an open position they are interested in. It will be triggered when the candidate sends a message to Text Engage like:

• Join talent network
• Keep me informed about opportunities
• I would like to receive updates
• I would like to know about jobs

Note: The AI technology will learn variations of the triggers above over time.

To configure this intent, create an intent (as explained above) with the following details:

• Name: Join Talent Network
• Intent: JoinTalentNetwork

The dialogue of this Intent should contain at least four configurable slots (listed in recommended positions) as shown:

• first_name
• last_name
• email
• phone_number (automatically populated via SMS channel)

Optionally, you can also include the following:

• multiple_choice
• boolean
• yes_no_question_x

The multiple_choice and boolean types are intended to allow you to ask candidates simple questions to elicit more information about them.

For example, you may use this slot type to ask a question about the candidate's work preferences:

You can also set a success and failure message for the Intent as outlined above.

Apply With Short Code Scenario

The Apply With Short Code Intent is a very useful Intent. We have all seen the type of job advertisements that appear on the side of buses or on a poster in a shop window.

• Text REGISTER DRIVER to 0000-000-000
• Scan QR code to start your application

The Apply With Short Code Intent enables you to allow your candidates to commence their applications to these jobs or campaigns via the simple Text Engage interaction.

It will be triggered when the candidate sends a message to Text Engage like:

• apply short_code
• apply for short_code
• register short_code
• apply for short_code

To configure this intent, create an intent as described previously with the following information:

• Name: Apply With Short Code
• Intent: ApplyWithShortCode

The dialogue of this Intent should contain 5 configurable slots (listed in recommended positions):

• short_code
• first_name
• last_name
• email
• phone_number (automatically populated via SMS channel)

Optionally, you can also include the following:

• multiple_choice
• boolean
• yes_no_question_x

The multiple_choice and boolean types are intended to allow customers to ask their candidates simple questions to elicit more information about the candidate. See the example above in the Join Talent Network Intent.

The yes_no_question_x type is intended to allow customers to prescreen the candidates based on their responses to the question. When configuring the slot, you can define whether the question acts as a prescreening question. If the candidate responds to the question with the "correct" response, they will continue to the next step in the interaction. However, if they provide the "incorrect" response, they will be presented with the prescreening exit message, and the interaction will end.

Up to 3 prescreening questions can be configured.

You can also set a success and failure message for the Intent as outlined above.

After successful completion of the Intent, the following options are available:

You can choose to direct the candidate to complete an application form on your Applicant Tracking System (ATS). This intent creates a value called ‘URL’ that links to the job application in your ATS - or wherever the apply URL for the job has been defined. You can include this value in your success messages using the syntax: %{url}

An alternative approach, is to create a workflow that automatically applies the candidate to the job in the ATS. In this scenario, you should omit the "URL" merge field from your success message, simply thank them for their application, and perhaps provide a link back to the application process information page (if you have one) on your career site. This option is available to all PageUp, Workday, and Greenhouse ATS customers with more to be included in the future. 

Other customers have chosen to create workflows backed with email or SMS templates. They may direct the candidate to more information about the role, or direct them to provide more information via their ATS application.

To enable a job or expression of interest campaign to accept registrations via Text Engage, you need to set a short_code to the job. You do this by editing the job in the Recruitment Marketing module and saving a short code against the job. The short code should be unique, and can be up to 10 alphanumeric characters in length:

To trigger this intent, the candidate would send the keyword REGISTER and the short code for the job to the Text Engage SMS number or via the web chatbot.

So for the example above, they would send:

• REGISTER DIVERSITY to 0000-000-000

Note: The message itself is case-insensitive.

A great way of making the candidate experience even easier is to generate a QR code, which pre-fills the telephone number and the initial message for the candidate.

A mockup of a poster containing a QR code:

A website such as QRCode Monkey, can be used to generate the QR code which will automatically launch the candidate's SMS client on their mobile phone.

Cancel

Cancel is an Intent we recommend all Text Engage implementations configure. This Intent captures no slots. It is triggered if a user changes their mind during the dialogue and decides to exit the conversation. It gives you control to configure their exit with a success message.

Trigger phrases:

• ‘Forget it’
• ‘Never mind’
• ‘Cancel’
• ‘Leave me alone’

To configure:

• Name: Cancel
• Intent: Cancel

You can also set a success and failure message for the Intent as outlined above.

Note: The cancel Intent is considered successful if Text Engage recognises the trigger phrase - it is important to have a success message set for this Intent.

Candidate Events

All fulfilled Intents generate a Chatbot Intent Fulfilled Event that is visible on the candidate’s timeline along with details about the conversation they have had with the system.

The fulfilment of the Apply With Short Code Intent Intent triggers the creation of a new job application record within the candidate's profile for that particular job. These will all be visible on the candidate timeline and job applications will be included in reports and funnel information.

These events become even more powerful when used to trigger workflows that can be used. For example, to add candidates to lists, email them the next steps, direct them to complete their job applications, and/or send them information on roles they may be interested in.

Implementation Considerations

The following should be considered when configuring the Text Engage module.

• A single version of each Intent can be configured, therefore, the dialogue within that Intent should be kept as generic as possible. Any job-specific information should be captured later in the process via the ATS application process.
• Slots should be defined to make the interaction as simple as possible for the candidate. Single-word or letter responses should be elicited in preference to multi-word responses.
• The number of slots within an Intent should be kept as small as is practical. This helps to minimise the cost of the interaction for you and makes the experience as simple as possible for the candidate.
• Consider the use of QR codes where possible to simplify the process of initiating the interaction for the candidate.