What You Need to Know about Mobile Recruiting

Written by Allison Reilly | Tue, Mar 05,2013 @ PM

Mobile recruiting isn’t the next big thing in 2014, or in 2020; it’s the big thing of today. Seven out of 10 job seekers use mobile technology to search for jobs, while three out of 10 have applied for a job via a mobile device. Are you doing anything to reach those job seekers, or are you possibly missing out on the great talent that wants to work with companies that are ahead of the curve? If you’re not doing anything yet, then here’s what you need to know so you can get started with mobile recruiting, or at least think strategically into how it will fit with your overall recruiting strategy:

Job Seekers Want Mobile-Friendly Career Sites

If you already have a career site up, that’s a step in the right direction. But, to stay with the 21^st century (and to deliver what job seekers actually want), keep these three statistics from SimplyHired in mind:

72% of job seekers want to receive career opportunity information on their smartphone.
84% think job organizations should have mobile-‐friendly sites.
86% of those who have a smartphone say they would use it to search for jobs.

Mobile recruiting may not yet be at the point where if you don’t have a mobile career site, and a company with a competing position does, you will lose candidates to your competitor. However, it can’t hurt to have mobile-friendly career site, and considering how many job seekers are eagerly embracing mobile as a way to get recruited, there’s little excuse to avoid mobile or to write it off.

Related article: Simply Hired 2013 Mobile Recruiting Outlook

Social Media Recruiting and Mobile Recruiting Go Together

We’ve talked extensively about social media recruiting, and although many are still working on their social recruiting strategies, consider it a very integral part of mobile recruiting. Accessing social media on mobile devices isn’t new, so companies that fail to incorporate social recruiting with mobile, and mobile recruiting with social, are going to lose out.

86% of recruiters are likely to look at social media profiles.
90% think HR managers will look at their social profiles before offering an interview/job offer.
60% of job seekers use social media as part of their job search.

These statistics, and these particular recruiting techniques, are important when recruiting talented candidates from Generation Y. These young guns will have grown up with mobile, social media and technology in general, making them incredibly valuable to any organization.

How to Best Utilize Mobile is Still Being Debated

Mobile recruiting is hot; but it also has its kinks. One of the biggest kinks is that it’s still very difficult for candidates to apply for a job on a mobile device (86% of job seekers would do this if there were an easy way), and it’s unclear what will be the best ways for organization to utilize mobile. Yet, this doesn’t mean that companies are out of options when it comes to leveraging mobile. Here are several ways job seekers would like to use their mobile device when it comes to job hunting:

55% want to receive alerts about new job openings
45% want to apply for jobs
45% want to be able to track their application status
23% want to share the information with friends via email
32% would seek advice and references
19% would share information with others through social networks

One of the biggest issues in recruiting that we’ve discussed is the gap between employer and potential employee, the difficulty of finding great candidates who can do the job and fit in with the company culture. If your organization has been having this problem, consider mobile recruiting as a great way to bridge to gap, and a recruiting strategy to master before the rest of the field. We’ve outlined several good ideas on how to get started, and what information organizations out to provide via mobile devices.

View full post