Most workplaces don’t like it when their employees text or use their smartphones on the job. But if you’re looking for work, Target is hiring holiday employees through text messaging.
Target is starting the hiring process by text message.
Target is testing the pilot program at two stores in Franklin and another in Brentwood. It’s pretty simple. You text the word jobs and your email address to a special number. Then, you get a text, inviting you to apply for a job via your smartphone, or on a computer. The comapny follows up a couple of days later with an email reminder. Joy Yancy is manager of the Brentwood Target.
“You see a lot of the younger crowd using the texts, instead of having to take the time and sitting down at the kiosk and filling the application out right there. It gives them instructions for how to do it online and do it at a more convenient time.”
Yancy says about a third of the employees she’s hired for the holidays used text messaging as their first point of contact.
Other companies are also giving text hiring a try. A cell phone company in the UK did something similar last year. A startup company in Cleveland offers a text hiring service to small businesses.
Nationwide, Target says more than 10,000 people at 170 stores have responded to their text campaign. They say they could roll it out to more stores if it’s successful. Just don’t expect to text on the job if you’re hired.
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