As people continue to spend more time on mobile devices, a growing number of candidates will begin to apply to positions using their tablets and smartphones. If your company is behind the times on mobile recruiting and application processes, you could lose out the most tech-friendly talent – often the most desirable candidates these days. It may be time to review your human resource information systems and see if your processes are mobile-friendly.
Mobile applicants
Currently, applying on a mobile phone is still relatively rare. According to CareerBuilder, only 9 percent of candidates have applied for a position on their mobile devices. However, it's worthwhile to ask why this is the case. Given that people in the U.S. do just about everything else on their phones, it could be that the applications themselves are the problem. CareerBuilder found more than half wanted a full keyboard to complete an application, while 47 percent thought mobile screens were too small to complete the application process. In the future, companies should consider allowing mobile applicants to populate their application information using social profiles, like LinkedIn.
Optimize your career site
Even if candidates don't choose to apply to a position using a mobile device, smartphones and tablets are likely to be a part of the candidate's research process. Is it easy for candidates to access your career site using a small screen? If the site doesn't function on a mobile device, brand image could suffer. CareerBuilder found 18 percent of users had a more negative perception of companies without optimized websites.
To get started, check your site metrics to see how many people look at the career site via a mobile device. Are there a lot of people? Is the bounce rate high? If so, that indicates the usability isn't great on a smaller screen. In addition, find out where candidates are viewing your job postings and what devices they are using.
Use social media
A huge percentage of Internet time spent on mobile devices occurs on social platforms. According to LinkedIn, 36 percent of smartphone users say they look for new job openings during their commute, while more than half do so on a lunch or coffee break. When candidates are on the go, they are likely to check their social apps first. This means social channels are another smart way to communicate with mobile applicants. Make sure you have a robust social recruiting strategy in place or at least a few active social channels.
When it comes to mobilizing the recruiting process, don't forget emails and other messages. Potential candidates could be checking emails on their smartphones. If a message doesn't display correctly on their devices, they will probably close it and may or may not return to it later on a desktop. Optimize your messages for mobile devices or use short, simple sentence structure to be sure candidates can read the text no matter what device they're using.
Mobile could be the future of recruiting. To stay ahead of the game, it's smart to start optimizing now, before you lose the best talent to your competitors.
Employer Solutions Blog | Sage HRMS