Dive Brief:
- Recruiters who contact candidates are most likely to get a response after three tries, a new Lever study shows. Response rates increased with the number of times recruiters reached out: recruiters had a 50% response rate after the first outreach, 84.7% after the second and nearly 100% after the third.
- The study found that response rates differed by job category. Engineers were the least likely to respond to cold calls, with a 35% rate, followed by sales candidates, at 41%. Design candidates had the highest response rate at 59%.
- Name recognition made little difference in response rates, the study found. The average rate for companies with more than 1,000 workers was 44.7%, while the rate for companies with 50 employees was just two points lower, at 41%.
Dive Insight:
Persistence appears to pay off in recruiting, as does proactive sourcing. Still, that's only part of the equation. Recruiters must be able to communicate employer brand and emphasize the company's best offerings, all while being transparent and authentic — two traits employees value highly.
This all becomes even more important in a job seeker's market, a serious obstacle for employers right now. In response, recruiters have become even more focused on ensuring the human touch isn't lost as employers increasingly rely on data and AI to do some of the heavy lifting. One solution, experts say, is personalizing the process as much as possible.