Today’s guest blogger is Rick Maré with JXT. Rick is the founder and CEO of JXT, the number one provider of cloud-based digital marketing solutions for recruiters and corporate recruiters. Rick has coached thousands of recruiters, empowering them to take their businesses and careers to the next level. Connect with Rick on LinkedIn.
How we look for and explore job opportunities today have changed a lot. Mobility influenced the ways we access and exchange information in hiring to be about relevance, speed, and simplicity. Modern job hunters have a wealth of platforms to advertise their skills and connect with recruiters and potential employers. That’s why your business needs to get a mobile recruiting strategy in place (if not already) to tap into this talent pool.
Expand your reach
Mobile apply is huge. Workology showed that 90% of job seekers use a mobile device to job search in the next 12 months, and 78% of candidates apply for their jobs online. From finance to law, hospitality to construction, and across multiple industries, job seekers do nearly everything including job find on their smartphones. A useful reminder – they are not limited by time zones or geographical limitations when it comes to finding their next career move. Talent Board 2016 research cited that 79% of employers now offer mobile apply, a near 20% increase from 2015.
To capitalise on this trend, you need to find out what motivates your target market. Your mobile recruiting strategy must be able to help you to improve your recruitment efforts through mobile optimisation where it’s most relevant. If your portal does not, you could be turning away a large volume of potential talent. The question to ask is, “How quickly can an applicant find my job offer and apply for it?”
Job seekers are another type of online consumers. It comes down to providing the best user experience for them. Simple things such as making your site easy to find and apply for a job, checking your page’s functionality across all mobile and tablet operating systems and browsers should be the fundamental basics featured on a current job search site.
Your mobile recruiting strategy
Your most important first step is to get a complete picture of what your business is doing in tracking where applicants are finding you and their behaviours on-site. This metrics analysis into your online traffic and user activity will point out what’s working and what to improve to boost your online presence.
Do you need to look more into search engine optimisation? Maybe build on value-added thought leadership and knowledge sharing? What are your blog visits telling you? Are your interactive media easy to share on social media? Is your site connected to other recruitment or job hunt tools? Is your applicant tracking system mobile-ready to source, screen, enable interview management, score candidates, create job offers, and provide recruitment analytics?
Your digital recruiting strategy goes beyond connecting job seekers and prospective opportunities. The rules today ask for a site that is dynamic, yet simple to use. User attention rate is incredibly precious and if your site is not optimised for a highly popular platform, they will not be staying long enough to apply, not to mention finishing the application process.
Your takeaway
Ultimately, you need to have a clear mobile recruiting plan that promotes your online brand and attracts great candidates. It needs to have a simplified application process, built for a rich mobile experience, seamlessly integrated with your talent acquisition system. It may be asking for a lot. However, in today’s competitive field where content and user-friendliness are key factors, mobile optimisation will be an important aspect of your overall recruitment strategy.
