People are spending a lot of time on mobile, using it to perform a variety of day-to-day tasks. Some use their mobile to search for news and information, while others shop for products and services.

Office workers and executives are also sending or receiving e-mails on their smartphone or tablet. Mobile use for job hunting across industries is also becoming more commonplace.

As such, your HR team needs to start incorporating mobile recruiting strategies, which could work both ways for you and your potential employees.

For job seekers, mobile is a convenient way of connecting with your company to learn more about your workplace culture, as well as job ad listings that they can apply for. As the employer, going mobile puts you on the forefront of using digital solutions to update your system in hiring.

The mobile recruiting strategies described below can help ease up common challenges among your HR colleagues, as they enhance your hiring processes and improve the overall experience for your candidates.

1. Optimized website

LinkedIn proposes a mobile recruiting based on three pillars: Learn, Apply, and Engage.

The first pillar is where job candidates and professionals are researching your brand and any possible job opportunities in your company through their mobile devices. They might have seen your brand name on social or heard about you from their peers or family. Now, they’re looking you up via your website, and optimizing your site can give a good first impression and contact point for mobile candidates.

A mobile-optimized website:

• Uses a mobile responsive user interface, where the mobile page automatically adjusts the flow of its design elements to accommodate the screen size of the phone or tablet that’s being used to access your site;
• Takes into consideration various limitations of mobile devices such as iPhones and iPads not being able to play Flash;
• Includes less text but more videos and images that have a light file size to enable easy and fast download on the internet;
• Contains forms and links that work on mobile; and
• Allows candidates to filter jobs by function or location, which is a great way of setting expectations for jobseekers early in the hiring process.

2. Mobile-enabled job application and tracking

Obviously, your mobile strategy should enable candidates to apply for your job listings, but the most important thing you should consider here is whether your careers site contains the necessary tools that can easily move someone from the first stage all the way to the last step in your application process.

For one, your mobile recruitment strategy should take after the concept of easy processing of application that traditional methods of hiring are offering to job talent these days. As much as possible, you should have a “one-click” apply option on your website.

Avoid directing your candidates to multiple links if you could gather everything that they need on one page – list of job openings, job descriptions, and the option to apply using their LinkedIn profile without asking for their resume or a cover letter. The simpler and shorter your job application is, the more likely that candidates will be encouraged to submit a complete application.

When it comes to tracking, there are several aspects of mobile recruitment that you should monitor through an applicant tracking system regularly. You could use this system, for example, to identify which ad is getting more responses from candidates.

You could also leverage your applicant tracking system to analyze which advertising channel is giving you more quality results in terms of candidate fit to your company culture.

3. SMS Blast

You could also use short message service (SMS) to drum up your mobile recruitment campaigns. By organizing or participating in a career fair, you could gather candidates’ personal or job information – their name, LinkedIn profile, email address, and phone number, to name a few.

After the event, you could send an SMS blast to your target candidates, and once they opt in, you could send them text alerts to notify them of new job openings in your company.

4. Mobile video interviews

These days, there’s no lack in technologies that make it possible for you to conduct video interviews with your candidates. Video conferencing can be especially useful in the initial screening of candidates or if you’re looking to hire a team of remote workers.

This way, they don’t have to visit your headquarters and have face-to-face meetings with your panel of interviewers. It’s a time- and money-saving strategy that many job talents would find practical.

 

Mobile is where the future of recruiting is. Candidates are prioritizing mobile in researching jobs, applying for their target position, answering interviews, and connecting with employers.

As a recruiter or HR manager, you can’t miss out on this technology or else, you risk losing attracting and engaging great talent to other companies.