Mobile devices have infiltrated every aspect of our lives and job hunting is no exception. According to Indeed, as of 2016, 78% of Millennials searched for jobs using mobile devices while 73% of Gen Xers and 57.2% of Boomers looked for work on a smartphone or tablet. With such staggering statistics, it is imperative for employers to consider how to reach candidates in a mobile world.
Mobile recruiting is defined as a hiring strategy that uses mobile technology to attract, engage, and convert candidates into new employees. In a nutshell, it requires ensuring that your traditional recruiting tactics are tailored to the technical specifications of mobile devices and habits of mobile users.
For example, companies should optimize their website, especially the careers section, so that it displays properly on a cellphone or tablet. Other mobile recruiting tactics include mobile job applications, emailing and texting, and social recruiting. We’ll talk more about these and other ways to reach candidates in a mobile world but first…
What are the benefits of using mobile recruiting?
In today’s smartphone-driven world, mobile recruitment is no longer optional. It’s likely that you are already practising mobile recruiting in some form but perhaps there are additional tactics that can bring your mobile recruitment efforts to the next level and enhance your overall candidate experience.
Targeting candidates in a mobile world is important for a number of reasons:
- First and foremost, candidates think it’s important. In fact, 89% of job seekers consider mobile devices to be a critical part of their search process.
- By targeting mobile users with your recruitment efforts, you expand your talent pool significantly; many top-quality candidates are already employed and tend to use their phones when looking for other opportunities as opposed to their work computers.
- Mobile recruiting makes for more efficient hiring because employers can manage the process on their own mobile devices; tasks such as reviewing applications, scheduling interviews, and gathering internal feedback can all be done on the go.
- Employers can communicate with applicants quicker and in a job market characterized by fierce competition for quality candidates, time is of the essence.
So How Can You Reach Candidates in a Mobile World?
There are a number of tactics that employers can use to reach high-quality candidates in a mobile world:
Optimize your website for mobile viewing
In this day and age, having a mobile-friendly website just makes good business sense given how much potential customers search the Internet on their phones. Yet, not many businesses have checked this critical requirement off their list. Undercover Recruiter reported that only 39% of career websites are optimized for mobile devices.
According to a study conducted by the Pew Research Center, almost half of mobile job seekers said content didn’t display properly on their phones and nearly half said it was difficult to read a job posting because it hadn’t been designed for smartphones. If your website is difficult for job hunters to look at or navigate on a cellphone or a tablet, they most likely won’t stay on your website for very long and you could miss out on some great candidates.
In addition to the technical aspects of optimizing your website, you can make your careers section more mobile-friendly by:
- keeping the copy short
- allowing visitors to browse through openings by function and location
- reducing the number of taps or swipes required to get to a posting
- clearly displaying the call-to-action such as an Apply Now button and
- providing clear and concise job descriptions.
If you’re not sure that optimizing your website is worth the investment, take a look at your website’s analytics to determine how many people visit your careers section using a mobile device versus a computer. Then further analyze which devices potential candidates are using to complete the application process through your website. You may find that applicants drop off when using their mobile devices, potentially warranting a more mobile-friendly online application process to ensure that you capture all interested candidates regardless of their device.
Create a mobile-friendly application process
The Pew Research Center’s study found that 28% of all Americans have used a smartphone to search for jobs and half of them completed an online job application using a smartphone. Many job seekers may not have access to a computer that they can use to apply for jobs so it’s important to consider providing a mobile-friendly application process.
In addition, 38% of smartphone job seekers said they had difficulty entering required text when using their mobile devices and 37% said they weren’t able to submit all the supporting documents required when applying on their smartphone. Simply eliminate this obstacle for mobile applicants by providing the option to link to their professional online profile, rather than uploading a resume, which a job seeker may not have stored on their mobile device.
Giving applicants the option to save an application while it’s in progress and to continue on a different device is an invaluable benefit as some candidates may start the application on their phone then finish it on their computer later or vice versa.
Don’t forget to test your mobile online application process to ensure that it is providing a smooth and seamless experience for users and if it isn’t, be sure to address any bugs or glitches.
Practice social recruiting
Nowadays, social media is used for just about everything and goes hand-in-hand with mobile devices. Employers can easily and affordably harness the power of social media to strategically reach better candidates in a mobile world. Recruitment statistics from Undercover Reporter state that 79% of job seekers are likely to use social media in their job search and companies are catching on – in 2011, 56% of businesses recruited through social media and in 2016, that figure jumped to 84%.
To use social media to its fullest potential, go beyond posting job openings on your social media accounts:
- encourage your current employees to share postings with their networks
- proactively search for and connect with candidates who meet your criteria and invite them to apply and
- use your social media profile to showcase your company culture and promote your employer brand to attract both active job hunters and passive candidates.
Convert in-person meet-and-greets into applications on the spot
If your company attends trade shows, conferences, job fairs, and other networking events to recruit potential candidates, consider bringing tablets with you to have candidates apply on the spot.
Communicate with potential candidates via email and/or text
Considering how much time people spend looking at their mobile devices, it makes sense that emailing or texting would be an effective method of communicating with potential candidates. In fact, 90% of recruiters surveyed say that texting helps to speed up communication with applicants. In addition, for those who are currently employed, it may be inconvenient or inappropriate to take a phone call regarding another job opportunity during work hours.
Emailing or texting with candidates works best for specific reasons such as:
– following-up with applicants
– scheduling and confirming interviews
– providing further details about the company or opportunity and
– a back-up method of communication if the candidate is not reachable by phone call.
Once mobile recruiting becomes an integral part of your overall recruitment strategy, you will be able to reach a greater number of qualified candidates in today’s mobile world. If you want to know how to get started or how to further enhance your mobile recruiting efforts, contact one of our knowledgeable and experienced recruiters.