There are two schools of thought when it comes to emojis in professional settings (and more specifically in recruitment.) At Talkpush we’re clearly in the school that’s not like this guy (we feel for you Adam!)

There are definitely times when emojis are not appropriate, but when interacting with candidates on social platforms, it’s the best opportunity for even the most serious of companies to show their personalities a little bit. Especially now, when most hiring operations are taking place online, emojis have become an extra layer of emotion to make up for the lack of handshaking and other valuable interactions that happen when meeting face to face.

You can even develop an “emoji tone”, using 2 or 3 that most relate to your brand on social media and emails. At Talkpush we have two favorites 🤖 🚀 — and we use them all the time. So much so that they’ve become part of our tone and fit into our employer brand.

It’s not unusual for companies to use emojis in their communications, I’d venture to say the craze really started with Chevy and that infamous press release in 2015. What Chevy did was novel, only because it took the personal into the world of corporate. They capitalized on one fact: everyone uses emojis in their daily life and caused quite a stir online. Recruiters have the opportunity to be like Chevy every day.

Another emoji veteran is L’Oreal, who actually used them in recruitment campaigns in 2015.

It’s not only because it’s cute, it works. Using emojis on social media job ads and communications via email, SMS, Facebook Messenger, or WhatsApp are actually proven to increase click and read rates!

Savvy marketers have come up with hiring campaigns that make emojis the center of their appeal — like L’Oreal, or a U.K translation company that advertised a job for “Emoji Translator.” That’s awesome, and we’re here for it (and it proves our point, that emojis definitely belong in recruitment). But, today we don’t want to talk about super creative fancy ad campaigns, rather this article is about ways your Talent Acquisition team can start using emojis right now to attract the best talent and seal the deal.

Whether you’re hiring for a technical role, or need someone with a sunny disposition in customer service, the right emojis on your job post can act as a first filter. Emojis mean different things in different communities, so if you’re fluent in your ideal candidates’ emoji language use it to your advantage. Not only will you attract the right people, but you’ll also weed out the ones that don’t connect with your post (you probably don’t want them anyway 😅)

There are several ways you can go about including emojis in your job post. They could be part of the job title, like “Sr. Copywriter 📝” or they can be part of the job description. At Talkpush we sometimes use the little fire emoji instead of bullet points for the coolness factor.

2. Re-engagement

Which message would you be more inclined to answer?

Option A: Hello, I haven’t heard from you. Would you like to continue your application?

Option B: Hi there, I haven’t heard from you 🥺. Would you like to continue your application? 🚀

Point made.

In all seriousness, messages with emojis have an 80% higher open rate, are proven to increase conversions by 9%, and are actually better than using pictures by 9% as well. Getting your candidates to complete their applications or give them a gentle nudge towards the next step of the process is an excellent opportunity for inserting emojis! Especially if you’ve got a conversational agent you can program to send off these re-engagement messages after a certain amount of time has passed without any interaction. For more info on re-engagement campaigns check out this awesome story about how Teleperformance played on candidates’ emotions with a GIF to get them to complete their application.

3. Follow-up emails

You’ve probably guessed what we’re going to say next… emails with emojis in the subject line get opened more! Although, you need to put some thought into this one. Too many emojis or just plain weird ones will have the opposite effect. If you’re going to pick one type of email to put all your emoji creative power into, we recommend it be follow-ups. When you follow up it usually means you want the candidate to take an action they haven’t yet taken, but you already have some sort of rapport. In this type of communication, emojis work great! You can use them as an emotional manipulation tool to get them to answer you (just kidding). But, definitely appealing to human emotions, even if it is through automated messaging is the most successful strategy to build relationships in any industry. Emojis are a great way to do that.

4. Asking for feedback

One of the most popular ways to ask candidates to rate their experience is with emojis. It’s just easier. They don’t have to type anything out, they can just click on the sad emoji, the neutral emoji, or the happy emoji, case closed. Consider trying this out if you haven’t already, you’re guaranteed to get more responses.

5. Localizing job offers 🇺🇸 🇲🇽 🇵🇭

This one is so easy to do and completely worth it. It takes two seconds to add a little flag to the header in the job description, doesn’t require much thought, and instantly makes your description more visually engaging. It also lets people know right off the bat where you’re looking to hire and seeing their flag on your post could increase goodwill.

Check out how Talkpush customer Alorica Jamaica includes flags to go along with job locations in their chatbot flow 👇

6. Promote diversity and inclusion

Sometimes our language isn’t very gender-neutral. Job positions like “salesman” abound, and even though they’re not looking specifically for a sales-man, many women and non-binary people will feel alienated. Emojis can help you get rid of that problem, by relying less on words and making your copy more visual. It goes beyond gender, emojis are a pretty international language, so you’ll be inherently attracting a larger talent pool that specific words tend to narrow. Gendered and exclusive language is a real problem in recruitment and it usually isn’t as easy as changing “salesman” to “sales associate.” Certain words, attitudes, and emotions are associated with one gender, race, sexual orientation over others. Language is complicated like that — with emojis, you don’t have to think so hard about it.

Emojis are huge on messaging platforms, especially on Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. But, using emojis here does require some strategic thinking — since they can inspire candidates to take action and make a better, visually engaging experience.

It’s important to think about key differences between both platforms when thinking about emoji placement and their purpose. FB Messenger offers a more dynamic experience than WhatsApp with buttons, quick replies, and other features like image carousels. Talkpush CD programs our bots with emojis representative of each option to make it more appealing — and get that click! We’ve got descriptive emojis in almost every button and quick reply. Descriptive means it’s more of a symbol of the option and candidates are able to easily identify what the button is for without reading the text — it’s not so much about creativity, but about creating a more visual experience. Without emojis, our FB Messenger bots could be a little boring: it’s the difference between a list of options and a list of highly descriptive buttons!

Webhelp Morocco is the descriptive emojis master! I don’t speak French, but I can tell what each of those buttons are for, can you?

For WhatsApp, the rules change, but emojis are just as important. To make up for the lack of buttons and interactive cards, CD recommends using descriptive emojis in their place. Use the number emojis to list options, hand pointers to signal important comms, and most of all use them in places you want candidates to take action.

🔥What do you think? Ready to start using emojis in thoughtful and engaging ways? The bottom line is always to build deeper connections with your candidates. As long as you keep that in mind you’ll write authentic messaging. Remember, with great power, comes great responsibility — abusing the use of emojis will get you blacklisted real quick. But, if you do so with care and thinking about who your candidates are, you’ll see all those metrics like engagement, completion rate, and candidate satisfaction go way up.

👉If you want an emoji-savvy chatbot to help you engage with candidates on social media SMS and WhatsApp, don't hesitate to reach out to us or your Customer Success Manager -- let's roll it out! 😎