Employee text messaging means sending work texts to your staff from a business number: shift reminders, schedule changes, open shifts, closures and meeting notices. It reaches hourly and field staff who do not work at a desk or check a work email account, and it keeps those messages off managers' personal phones.
Texting employees goes well when you follow three practices. Get each employee's agreement to receive work texts before you send any. Keep work texts about work, with no marketing. Respect employees' time off. This guide walks through each step in order, with ready-to-copy texts at the end. For texting customers instead, see our text message marketing strategy guide.
Step 1: Decide what you will text employees about
Write down the kinds of texts you plan to send, so you can describe them to employees when you ask for their agreement. The usual kinds are:
- Shift reminders, sent the day before a shift.
- Schedule notices, when next week's schedule is posted.
- Schedule changes, when a shift moves or is cancelled.
- Open shifts, when you need someone to cover.
- Closures and delays, such as a late opening because of weather.
- Meetings and training, with the day, time and place.
- Paperwork reminders, such as a timesheet due date.
Some subjects do not belong in a text at all. Keep pay amounts, discipline, performance reviews, and health or leave details out of texts, and handle them in person or through a private channel.
Keep marketing out of work texts entirely. An employee who agreed to receive shift texts has not agreed to promotions, so never send staff your customer offers, and never add employees to your customer groups.
Step 2: Get each employee's agreement
Ask each employee, in writing, whether they agree to receive work texts at the number they give you, and record the date they agreed. A line on your onboarding form works well. Say which kinds of texts they will receive and how to stop them. The sample below is a starting point.
I agree to receive work text messages from [Business], such as shift reminders and schedule changes, at the number above. Message and data rates may apply. Reply HELP for help. Reply STOP to opt out.
Offer another way to get schedule information, such as a posted schedule or email, for any employee who prefers not to receive texts. Update the number when an employee gets a new phone, and remove departing employees from your staff groups on their last day.
Employment rules, such as rules about contacting employees outside working hours, vary by place. Ask your employment attorney or HR adviser about the rules where you operate. Our post on SMS opt-in requirements explains consent for business texting more generally.
Step 3: Set up staff groups in CampaignCNX+
In CampaignCNX+, texts are sent to groups of contacts, so the setup starts with your groups.
- Add each employee as a contact once they have agreed, and give them a "staff" tag.
- Create groups by location, role or shift, such as "Main Street weekend crew", "Drivers" or "Shift leads". One text then reaches everyone in the group at once. Our page on mass texting explains sending one text to a large group.
- Use custom fields for details such as role, location and the date the employee agreed to texts.
- Use a merge field to fill in each employee's first name, so a group text still reads as personal.
- Keep staff groups apart from customer groups. Give staff groups a clear prefix, such as "Staff:", and check the group name before every send.
Carrier registration applies to every business number. CampaignCNX+ files it for you, and the carrier review of a toll-free number usually takes about three business days.
Step 4: Schedule texts at sensible hours
CampaignCNX+ sends texts only between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. in the recipient's time zone. Plan around that window. For a shift that starts before 8 a.m., send the reminder the evening before, for example at 6 p.m.
Respect employees' time off as well.
- Use a regular time for routine texts. A repeating text, such as every Thursday at 2 p.m., can announce that next week's schedule is posted. Employees learn when to expect it.
- Text on days off only when it matters. A change to tomorrow's shift is worth a text on someone's day off. A general announcement can wait for their next shift.
- Say whether a reply is needed. End informational texts with "No reply is needed", so employees do not feel they must answer during their time off.
- Use scheduled texts for anything known in advance, such as training dates, so the text goes out during working hours instead of whenever a manager remembers.
Step 5: Handle replies
Employees will reply to ask about a shift, offer to cover one or say they cannot make it. Decide which managers answer, and during which hours.
- The shared reply inbox ($12.49 a month, included on Enterprise) collects replies in one place, so you and your managers can answer from the business number instead of your own phones. Staff members see the inbox once you, the account owner, turn that on.
- The keywords add-on ($20 a month) answers common requests automatically. For example, an employee who texts SCHEDULE can receive a reply with the link to the current schedule.
- STOP replies are handled automatically. An employee who replies STOP receives no further texts from your number, including shift texts, so make sure they have another way to see the schedule.
If an employee replies with personal or medical information, thank them and move the conversation to a phone call or an in-person talk.
Employee text templates
Each template is under 160 characters before you fill in the brackets. A longer text is sent in parts, called segments, and each part is billed as one text. The first text each employee receives should name your business and end with "Reply STOP to opt out".
First text to a new employee
[Business]: hi [Name], this is the number we'll use for shift and schedule texts. Reply HELP for help. Reply STOP to opt out.
Shift reminder
[Business]: a reminder that you're scheduled [Day] from [Start] to [End] at [Location]. Reply here if anything has changed.
Schedule posted
[Business]: next week's schedule is posted at [Link]. Please check your shifts and reply here with any questions by [Day].
Schedule change
[Business]: your [Day] shift has changed to [Start] to [End]. Reply OK to confirm, or reply here if this doesn't work for you.
Shift cancelled
[Business]: we're sorry, but your [Day] shift at [Location] is cancelled. Reply here with any questions.
Open shift
[Business]: an extra shift is open [Day], [Start] to [End], at [Location]. Reply here if you'd like it. We'll confirm with the first reply.
Closure or late opening
[Business]: because of [weather], [Location] will open at [Time] on [Day]. We'll text an update by [Time]. No reply is needed.
Meeting or training
[Business]: staff meeting [Day] at [Time] in [Room]. Please plan to attend, and reply here if you can't make it.
Paperwork reminder
[Business]: please submit your timesheet for this week by [Day] at [Time]. Reply here if you need help.
How to tell whether it is working
Use your own scheduling records and the replies you receive.
- Missed or late shifts. Compare the count for a few months before and after you start sending shift reminders.
- Open shifts. Note how long it takes to fill an open shift after the text goes out.
- Repeated questions. If several employees ask the same thing, add that detail to the template or to the schedule itself.
- Opt-outs. If an employee replies STOP, ask them in person whether the texts come too often or at the wrong times, and adjust.
Our overview of business text messaging explains how a business texting account works for customers and staff alike.
Set up your staff texts
Start with the schedule-posted text and the day-before shift reminder, then add open-shift texts once managers are answering replies. Start a CampaignCNX+ business trial. 100 free SMS included. Your number is $5 a month.
