5 Reasons Your Mobile Recruiting Efforts Are Failing
According to Kes Thygesen, co-founder and head of product, for RolePoint, a social recruitment software company, ” … optimizing a career site for mobile devices isn’t the only thing companies need to do to drive mobile recruitment. If your company has done this but still isn’t seeing an improvement in hiring volume or quality of candidates, it may be a sign your mobile recruitment strategy has holes.”
Making a smooth transition to mobile recruiting is going to be crucial. According to CNNMoney.com, “The International Data Corporation predicts that by 2015, there will be more consumers in the U.S. who are accessing the Internet via mobile devices than through PCs.”
Writing in a Huffington Post column, Thygesen says there are five things companies overlook in their mobile recruitment strategies:
- Passive Candidates
- Time of Day
- No Responses
- Messy Websites
- Slow Process
Passive candidates are those candidates not even looking for a new job. “Try inbound marketing techniques like adding regular blog content, social media updates and contests, mobile-optimized YouTube videos, or SEO landing pages to draw in potential candidates,” Thygesen says.
Candidates not looking for work are sometimes the best job prospects. You just need to convince them to move for new employment opportunities when most people are happy where they are.
The time of day is important for recruitment because people are creatures of habit. They check their smartphones and tablets in the morning before work, mid-morning, at lunch time and mid-afternoon. It’s just like when people used to take smoking breaks. “Your mobile recruitment strategy should anticipate job candidates will be searching during these times in order to respond to postings in a timely manner,” says Thygesen.
One job website, according to the CNNMoney.com article, found mobile users are 34 percent more likely to access it between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. compared with the company’s desktop users because downtime is now more productive than it used to be.
Nothing irritates a job seeker more than going through a lengthy online application process and hearing silence from the employer. “If your mobile recruitment strategy doesn’t include live-manning social media or an online talent network to answer candidate questions, job seekers may come away with a negative perception of your company,” Thygesen advises. He also says the members of your team responsible for monitoring your mobile recruitment should be especially vigilant during the prime usage times mentioned above.
Messy websites are another negative for mobile job seekers. Thygesen correctly points out that tablets and smart phones are often used as tools until a job seeker can get to a laptop or desktop computer. “Remember, you don’t have a candidate’s full attention on a mobile device — often, they’re checking these devices during a commute, on a bus, or while sitting in front of the TV. They may not have time to watch a webinar or read a lengthy blog post, so make it easy for them to come back to this content on the Web later,” he says.
A slow, complicated process can be just as bad as a messy one. “If your mobile recruitment process relies on asking candidates to complete the next steps of their job search away from your site, like checking LinkedIn for job openings or switching to a new webpage to apply, it’s too complicated and you’ll lose interest,” Thygesen adds.