What it means
Candidate communication is every message, notification, reminder, update, and conversation a candidate receives during sourcing, application, interviewing, assessment, offer, rejection, or onboarding handoff. In software, it can include email and SMS templates, recruiter notes, automated reminders, scheduling messages, status updates, campaign outreach, and portal notifications.
Why buyers should care
Communication quality shapes candidate trust and completion rates. A system can be efficient internally while candidates experience silence, duplicate requests, generic messages, or inconsistent instructions. Buyers should evaluate whether communication is timely, relevant, permission-aware, accessible, and connected to the actual candidate stage. Automation should support recruiter accountability rather than hide weak process design.
Evaluation checks
Review template governance, personalization fields, consent and unsubscribe handling, status triggers, audit logs, language support, accessibility, deliverability, and ATS or CRM handoffs. Ask whether users can pause automation, preview messages, prevent duplicate outreach, and see communication history in context. Strong tools make it clear who contacted the candidate, why, and what should happen next.
This glossary entry is buyer-oriented guidance, not legal, compliance, or financial advice.