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Jamie Lawrence

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Insights Director

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Five ways to make recruitment mobile-friendly

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This article was written by Kes Thygesen, co-founder and head of product at RolePoint, who provide social recruitment software.

Want to snag top job candidates? Better switch on that iPhone.

The hiring process is tricky no matter your company’s size or scope, but new technologies are changing the face of recruitment. Plenty of job seekers are already on top of the mobile recruitment trend, with more than 70 percent saying they use their mobile phones to actively look for jobs. But mobile recruitment also means positioning your company to attract passive job candidates, too–and that means paying keen attention to the way mobile technologies can mix with your current recruitment strategies.

Any company needs to ensure their recruitment process covers all the right bases, and mobile is no platform to ignore. But it doesn’t take tons of time and money to attract and engage potential job candidates on their mobile devices. Here are five easy ways to make the recruitment process mobile-friendly:

  • Produce great content. If you want to attract job seekers who may not know of your company already, keep in mind that mobile users spend lots of time aimlessly browsing on their devices. To draw them in, produce great content to indirectly lead them to your site–try blog posts, webinars, videos, podcasts, or visual media like pictures and infographics to share ideas, advice, and insight. Draw from your company’s values and area of expertise to provide quality content and draw in mobile users.
  • Ramp up sharing. Once you’ve created great content, don’t just let it sit there–share it! Remember, social media is a two-way process–a conversation, not a broadcast. Ramp up your social media presence by engaging with your followers and other people tweeting about topics of interest to your company. Follow relevant users, retweet other great content, and consider running a social media contest to entice people to follow you.
  • Make it seamless. A disappointing seven percent of employers currently have a mobile version of their career site. Enlist the help of your IT department to ensure company career pages and job descriptions easily load and can be viewed properly on mobile devices. Remember, if applicants get overwhelmed with the mobile recruitment process, they’ll leave–so make it easy to apply online, attach a CV, or link to a personal website on any mobile device. Integrate with your applicant tracking system (ATS) to keep track of who’s finding you on mobile devices to adjust your strategy accordingly.
  • Cut the clutter. Job seekers like using mobile devices to browse for jobs because they are less likely to come with the spam or clutter regularly found in online job boards. The last thing you want is for your company to come across as spammy. Resist the urge to add advertisements or other company promotions to your mobile careers page. Keep the mobile recruitment process clean and simple overall, so job seekers will be enticed to seek out more information or apply right then and there.
  • Pay attention. Have an HR manager or recruiter live-man your company’s social media pages to quickly answer candidate questions that may come through. Remember, the peak times people check their smartphones are in the early morning hours (before 9 a.m.), during lunch, and late afternoon (between 3 and 5 p.m.) Be cognizant of your online and mobile traffic during these hours to give applicants the satisfaction of immediate feedback should they have questions.

The digital age means job seekers are splitting their attention when looking for jobs. Gone are the days of sitting at a computer to browse companies. Couple your existing hiring process with mobile recruitment strategies, and job candidates will come away with a much more positive perception of your company.

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Author Profile Picture
Jamie Lawrence

Insights Director

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