Mobile Recruitment: Smart Recruiting Through Smartphones

Smart recruiters recruit through smartphones! Today, mobile recruitment is a must. Recruiters who haven’t optimized their job listings and hiring process for mobile recruiting risk missing out on top talent, now more than ever.

Why do you need to switch to mobile recruitment?

Technology has changed the world as we know it. Nowadays, it affects almost every aspect of our daily lives, revolutionizing common activities from meal preparation to trip planning to communication and even how we do business.

This ushered in an exciting new era of recruiting. Mobile recruitment is one of the latest recruitment trends.

People are looking for jobs online, but it’s not enough anymore to just have a website with a list of openings and a contact email.

As per a recruitment trends report by Glassdoor, 89% of job seekers say their mobile device is an important tool for job searching and 45% use it to search for jobs at least once a day.

In this article, we’ll examine how and why charging up your recruiting efforts through mobile is important.

The benefits of being a mobile-friendly recruiter

Whether you’re a recruiter, a hiring manager, or an HR representative, those in the business of matching well-qualified candidates with new job opportunities need to be nimble and digitally savvy to propel their mobile recruitment efforts.

Why? The simple answer is busyness. Maybe it’s not a coincidence that business is just one letter away. We are always on the go – and we need a go-to solution to connect with people who are also busy.

Here are the top 3 benefits of being a mobile-friendly recruiter:

Benefit #1: Improved candidate experience

Transforming your traditional recruitment process into one that is mobile-friendly can significantly improve your candidate experience . Just as you aren’t always in front of your computer, job applicants aren’t always in front of theirs. This is especially true for people working in industries that require them to be on their feet, working with their hands or in a vehicle for most of the day.

Examples of these industries include construction, grounds maintenance, and transportation, but office workers who are in and out of meetings or who travel often also benefit from mobile recruitment.

Benefit #2: Saved time and money

Facilitating and streamlining the hiring process makes better use of everyone’s time, which often shortens the time it takes to fill the position while saving money and frustration along the way. After all, searching, scheduling, and screening can be tedious and labor-intensive activities. It’s especially complex when connecting with people in different time zones – but these might be the best people for the job.

Benefit #3: Enhanced employer brand

Another reason to go mobile is to strengthen your employer brand, thereby attracting more candidates. Keeping pace with technology demonstrates you are someone who cares about people’s job application experience and positions the business as progressive and proactive which may be innovative in other respects, too.

How to mobilize your recruitment efforts – without making it impersonal

Video interviewing is reinventing the hiring process, breathing life into increasingly outdated hiring processes by making them more efficient, strategic and, ironically, even more personal.

While technology has addressed many hiring challenges, maintaining a human element throughout the experience is important.

Traditional interviews still have their place, but video interviews allow you to prequalify candidates and see parts of an applicant’s personality that simply can’t shine through in the text. They can provide a more holistic view of each candidate much earlier in the hiring process.

Look for a sophisticated video interviewing tool that allows for both one-way and live video interviews – and make sure it’s mobile-friendly. The right video interview platform will extend beyond interviews into standardized skills testing and digital reference checks, providing a comprehensive picture of a candidate before you meet them face-to-face.

Optimizing your career site for mobile

For as much good as mobile phones have brought to the world, they have also shortened our attention spans. Research shows people now have shorter attention spans than goldfish, and can only focus on a task for eight seconds. For this reason, your digital application process needs to be simple, easy to navigate and convenient.

One of the first places job seekers go to learn more about a career opportunity is your career site – and many of these people will visit this page through a browser on their mobile phone.

Be sure to provide clear links to current opportunities and job descriptions that can be easily read (or, even better, watched) on screens of any size.

Measure the analytics of the careers section of your website to determine how well your content is performing and how people are accessing it. Monitor your internal site search, too. This can be an indication that someone is not happy with their current role or they may be looking to advance in the company.

Active job seekers are likely to have set up notifications on their mobile phones, so they’ll get notifications when job posts matching their search terms pop up. That way they can apply sooner than later. Consider adding an option for candidates to sign up for notifications through your website and stay informed throughout the hiring process. If this position isn’t the right fit, at least you’ll have each other on the radar for future opportunities.

Capture candidates’ attention while you’re in the palm of their hand

An increasing number of job seekers are choosing to apply for new opportunities from their mobile devices. According to Indeed, 78% of millennials, 73% of Gen Xers and 57% of baby boomers have used mobile job search (as of 2016). These numbers are likely to have risen – and will continue to rise as generations that have grown up with technology begin to enter the workforce.

If you’re not working to make your recruitment and application process mobile-friendly, you’re not doing your job. As a recruiter, you are tasked with finding people who would be good at doing the jobs you are trying to fill, no matter where they are. Recruiters who haven’t optimized their job listings and hiring process for mobile recruiting risk missing out on top talent, now more than ever. You’re missing prime opportunities to find and conveniently connect with qualified candidates.

As a recruiter in the digital age, it’s important to capture the attention of well-suited candidates while you’re- quite literally – in the palm of their hand. A constantly-connected world of smartphones necessitates smart recruiting practices.

About the author

JF Poirier is the content marketing manager at VidCruiter, a global leader in video interviewing & recruitment software.

He has extensive experience consulting with HR leaders from around the world to deliver expert advice and find solutions to their most complex hiring challenges. He tweets @VidCruiter.