Case Study: Sodexo achieves 50% candidate response rate and faster hiring with TextRecruit

50% candidate response rate to initial outreach

Sodexo, a global leader in Quality of Life services and one of the world’s largest employers, hires thousands of salaried and leadership positions each year. Heather Thomas’ Talent Acquisition team found email and phone outreach produced poor response rates, but early experiments with texting from a recruiter’s personal phone yielded roughly 50–60% responses—prompting the need to systemize SMS outreach.

Sodexo deployed TextRecruit (with iCIMS integration) to automate templates, sequences and one‑to‑one texting for scheduling, reminders and communications with candidates and hiring managers. The change increased candidate engagement (about a 50% response rate to initial outreach), reduced touches to schedule phone screens from seven to four, and produced overwhelmingly positive reactions from candidates.

Sodexo

Heather Thomas

Recruitment Manager, Strategic Sourcing