If Your Recruiting Isn’t Going Mobile, You’re Going to Be Left Behind

by  Lance Haun

It shouldn’t be news now that smartphone use is big (and is getting bigger). In late 2012, estimates pegged the number at over a billion smartphones with that number doubling by 2015.

If you’re a smartphone user, you’ve probably increased your reliance on the device steadily. I now expect my device to do everything but poach my morning eggs.

When you send a candidate or someone in your talent community or on your mailing list a notice of a new job, what are they going to see when they click through on their mobile device? Will they be able to do anything with it? And if you’re not there, how do you start and what does an optimal solution look like?

You need to be mobile to be competitive

With 70 percent of smartphone owners already having used their phone to look for a job, if you aren’t at least preparing for a mobile future, you won’t be competitive with other search firms much longer. According to a Simply Hired’s new Mobile Recruiting Outlook, candidates like being able to know about job openings quickly; and while few have applied for jobs via phone, more would if recruiters made the process mobile friendly.

That’s what the mobile talent acquisition platform iMomentous has tried to explain in its latest research on the subject.

“As mobile technology continues to play an increasing role in both personal and professional activities, the companies that neglect to include mobile in their recruiting and talent management processes will be at a serious disadvantage,” said Ed Newman, vice president of Strategy for iMomentous, in a statement that was released with the report

A four-part approach

The report a four-pronged approach to making your recruiting mobile-enabled:

1. Optimize your content — All of the content on your career site should be able to be read on a mobile device. If you send out links in your e-mails to candidates, you need to make sure that the system auto-detects the device so that it can serve the proper page.
2. Connect with your visitors — Whether through SMS messaging, mobile advertising, or even cutting-edge ideas like gamification, people spending more time on their mobile devices means that if you advertise jobs, you need to be there too.
3. Engage using a native app — Native apps shouldn’t be just a replication of your jobs site; it should be an application that is valuable in engaging users with push notifications and additional functionality that can create a talent community.
4. Integrate technology structure — Making sure that redirects work properly, that the ATS feeds jobs into the mobile site, and that it can take applications from there are hurdles that can’t be underestimated.

If that sounds a little too ambitious for you, especially if you are still trying to get to any mobile presence (and many firms and employers are), it recommends you start with something small and work up from there. For example, you can have a mobile-friendly landing page that can take an e-mail address or phone number for SMS and some areas of interest.

Social Media Recruiting and Mobile Technology

Recruiters have always been quick on the uptake when it comes to new and innovative technology, especially if this technology makes it easier to stay connected. Lately, there’s a lot of buzz surrounding social recruiting and mobile recruiting – and many recruiters are blindly jumping on the bandwagon. But what’s just buzz, and what will become a permanent part of every recruiter’s toolbox?

Mobile Recruiting: Apps and More

Mobile recruiting allows recruiters to do what they do best: stay connected. How? Apps. There are a few recruiting apps that I really like:

• Job Science puts the functionality of an applicant tracking system in recruiters' pockets.
• Instant Customer is a handy gadget for business card and contact management.
• Global Recruiting Round table gives users access to top industry news and trends, and allows them to plug in to a community of experts.
• Job Speek adds a new dimension to job postings: audio.

Mobile SMS and QR code recruiting is getting some serious attention. However, recruiting leader and sourcing consultant Geoff Peterson says, “The technology’s not 100% there.”

Social Recruiting: Plan for Your Slice of the Pie

Recruiting has always been social, but social media has opened a new can of worms. And if you want a piece of the social recruiting pie, there are a few things you should keep in mind:

• You need a strategy. You may have a Twitter account, but that doesn’t mean you have a social recruiting strategy. You need clear goals, an execution plan and metrics for measuring success. Otherwise, you’re just filling my Twitter feed with white noise.
• Don’t bombard, engage. Anyone can post “an exciting opportunity” on LinkedIn. If that’s all you're using your social media accounts for, however, you’re going to lose your audience fast. Share an article you enjoyed, link to something interesting you’ve come across, just don’t bombard them with jobs.
• Keep the social in social media. You can get all the Facebook fans and Twitter followers you want, but unless you’re engaging your network, they’re just numbers. There are a number of communities out there that revolve around social media in a number of industries.

About the Author: Kyle Lagunas is the HR Analyst at Software Advice. He blogs about trends, technology and best practices in HR and recruiting by day, and drinks entirely too much wine by night.