Top 3 Tips to Boost Your Mobile Recruiting Game
Organizations Need to Catch Up
How important is it to get in the mobile recruiting game? Try these numbers on for size. Among adults in the US alone, 31% own a tablet ; 45% own a smartphone, 66% of whom are Millennials. Or, to paint a more insightful picture, out of the 6 billion people on earth, 4.8 billion of them own a mobile device. And only 4.2 billion have a toothbrush.
Yet, for all the proliferation of mobile devices, most companies still lag woefully behind in jumping on the mobile recruiting bandwagon. A recent report by Potentialpark cites a whopping 85% of job seekers who already use or would be interested in mobile recruiting tools. Compare that to the mere 13% of companies with optimized careers sites. Clearly, “mobile” isn’t just a nice catch-phrase anymore – it should be a crucial element of any up-and-coming recruitment strategy.
Mobilize Your Forces and Improve Your Game
1) Mobile-optimized careers website and/or app:
Start on the ground-level, and make your careers website mobile-friendly to attract more traffic. A site that is easy to navigate will effectively deliver your employer brand messages. Include a list of open jobs based on the visitor’s current locations, and recruiter contact touch points that can be accessed from the site. At the same time, implement short loading times and do away with files that need to be downloaded. Enable social sharing tools so that visitors can easily follow you on social media, or share the information with their social networks. Lastly, provide them with the option to sign up for location-specific job alerts via SMS or e-mail – this will allow them to stay in touch with little effort.
2) Improve the candidate application experience:
Increase your candidate conversion ratio with a restructured application process for mobile visitors. Remember that people are not inclined to fill out long forms on their mobile devices – so a shorter application is better. Likewise, CV files are not readily available to attach, so make it easier for candidates to apply by not requiring them. And social sharing buttons work great on job pages, as well – especially if a visitor wants to share a specific job with their social connections.
Once the application is submitted, use mobile technology to your advantage during your follow-up activities. Allow candidates to track their application status with SMS updates (i.e. “your application was received/qualified”, etc.), and consider conducting interviews via video (HireVue is a cool, growing company in this space).
3) Mobile employee referrals:
Mobile recruiting isn’t just tools for candidates – it can also be used to engage employees in your referral program. Solutions such as our GooodJob Mobile enable employees to enjoy continued access to your referral program even when they are not in front of their computers. Limitations such as business trips, nights or weekends are surpassed when employees can make referrals on the go, as soon as they meet a potential candidate. The option to share jobs via social media also allows the referral to learn more about a specific position before they apply.
Conclusion
As mobile adoption continues to grow, mobile recruiting is becoming all the more relevant. Optimizing certain elements of the hiring process for mobile will provide both candidates and employees alike with much needed accessibility, and help you stand out among your competitors. This in turn will drive up applicant conversion ratios, as well as increase the popularity of referral programs.
Want to learn more? Take our Mobile Recruiting survey and discover where you stand in the mobile recruiting game.