Professionals in the market for a new job want speedy, effective communication from recruiters. Whether they work with an in-house human resources professional for a specific opening or a professional recruiter at a staffing agency, constant contact is essential to keeping leads alive. Many job hunters hesitate to overburden recruiters with questions, follow-up emails and enthusiastic check-ins. These efforts can seem needy but necessary when the recruiting point-of-contact drops the ball on communication.

SMS can lay the foundation for better, more engaged staffing experiences. When recruiters and human resources professionals have the ability to reach applicants immediately, both sides of the relationship benefit. Job-seekers get the news they need as soon as it breaks and HR professionals can arrange next steps as soon as possible. A powerful, secure SMS gateway is critical for these types of correspondence so that recruiters aren't sending business-related texts on personal devices. It also provides a degree of automation so that they can manage a volume of prospects and openings through a streamlined platform.

The most important benefit of leveraging SMS for human resources is turnaround. According to a report by Dialogue Communications, almost 90 percent of recruiters use SMS to reach candidates, and texting yields a response from applicants in under three minutes, on average.

"If your recruitment vertical does not offer text communication between hiring manager or recruiter and job candidate, you're failing to offer a highly-responsive tool that is in high demand by recruiters," explains a study by the AIM Group.

An effective SMS gateway can help you leverage the engagement power of your applicant pool. Whether it's sending them need-to-know hiring updates or telling them about a new opening, HR professionals can rely on text messaging to keep their contacts informed.