Does your company have a mobile only recruitment strategy? -

A mobile only recruitment strategy – A MUST for finding exceptional talent

The term “war for talent” was coined when printed candidate resumes were literally being dropped in the in-tray on my desk as a recruiter many moons ago. Let me assure you, there is still a war for talent underway – but the rules have changed…completely.

Recruiter in-trays are now empty. Where once talented professionals came to us, we now need to head out (digitally) to find the talented individuals who will help our companies grow and thrive.

Robust and effective mobile only recruitment strategies need to be developed to track down talent. In fact, many companies are already well on their way with their mobile recruitment strategies to attract the best talent in the marketplace.

In this article, I explain what a mobile only recruitment strategy is and why your company needs one. I will outline exactly what your competitors are doing RIGHT NOW to attract the best talent the market has to offer.

The time has come for companies to develop a mobile only recruitment strategy. Deloitte is predicting that 30-40% of the population will have mobile-only internet by 2022 – that represents serious mobile, cell and tablet activity.

Your advertisements, website content, surveys, calls to action and email campaigns all need to be reviewed. Any experience on a mobile device must create a compelling case for working with your company.

If you haven’t started thinking about how this change will impact your ability to attract talent, you should…right now.

What does the term “mobile only recruitment” mean?

Mobile only recruiting refers to the process of searching for talented candidates with the assistance of mobile technology only. It is the process of directing the recruitment process “on the go” and includes communicating and connecting with candidates using mobile technology and apps.

Why a mobile only recruitment strategy is essential

Here are 4 compelling reasons you need a mobile only recruitment strategy:

Because your competitors already have a mobile only recruitment strategy! If you have not given serious thought to how you will attract candidates looking for work solely on mobile devices, you are going to be left behind.

A clear majority of the population (especially millennials) look for work on the go when they are out and about…or relaxing in front of the TV…on mobile devices.

An effective mobile recruitment strategy demonstrates your company is committed to innovation. It also signals that you understand how talented individuals look for work.

A mobile strategy helps you build a positive brand image for your company. Progressive recruitment mobile strategies reach the sort of talent you need to grow your brand, your business and your success.

The key elements of a mobile only recruitment strategy

Here are just some of the elements of a mobile only recruitment strategy you need to consider:

Ease of mobile device access to content

This includes optimisation of advertisement content and copy (imagery, videos, static content including infographics and diagrams)

Your recruitment and talent attraction content needs to load quickly and seamlessly on mobile devices. Sometimes websites that perform brilliantly on desk tops, load slowly and poorly on mobile devices.

Does your website content load quickly on a mobile device? Is it optimised for viewing on mobile devices? Is the copy and design dynamic and innovative?

Have you checked to see if your Careers or Employment page loads well on mobile devices? You need to make it super simple for candidates to apply for work directly from their mobile device of choice.

Quality of your content

Does your website content excite and intrigue?

Gone are the days when a prospective employee signing a contract without doing research on your company. Job seekers want more in depth information about company values and culture. Your website content should reflect your key brand messages.

Your website design and content needs to stand out from your competitors. It should allow potential employees to form a positive impression of your brand. Utilising video is a great way to build a positive candidate experience with your brand.

BUT, does your video content load slowly on mobile devices? The mobile brand experience is part of the candidate experience. Make sure it’s a positive one.

Tailoring your messaging for mobile applicants

Are your calls to action mobile device friendly?

There is no truer measure of engagement than when a prospective candidate reaches out to you when you create calls to action on your website and other digital assets. In a recruitment context, a call to action might be an invitation to apply for a role. It could also simply be an invitation to learn more about your company and the people who work within it.

What calls to action do you make on the social pages of your website? Can prospective employees connect with your company seamlessly from their mobile devices? Can they upload their resume easily from a mobile device?

Do you tailor your mobile only recruitment strategy for different digital platforms, targeting multiple and disparate talent pools?

With so many digital platforms available, your company’s opportunities to reach candidates is unprecedented. But you need to use each digital platform (including social media platforms) in slightly different ways depending on the platform and the candidate demographic you are trying to attract and connect with.

The most effective content and imagery should be shaped specifically for the social media platform you are using. That means slightly different messaging, content and calls to action for each social media platform.

So, have a think about where you are circulating your digital content. Does your current digital content compel talented professionals to get in touch with you? Have you got a specific social media strategy that includes a schedule for posts, a keyword strategy, videos and other value added content?

Map your talent acquisition mobile engagement activities and initiatives

Many companies have optimised their digital content via a mobile only recruitment and attraction strategy for your active recruitment campaigns. But what about your mobile only strategy for longer term talent acquisition strategy?

How are you using your digital content to drive proactive interest in your company? Can candidates quickly and easily express interest in your company in a general sense, from their mobile devices? You need to think about adding calls to action in logical places on all pages of your company website, not just your Careers or Employment page.

Determine how any mobile based communications and documents will integrate with your Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) and CRM System Integration

Any content that candidates send to you via their mobile devices (including resumes) need to be automatically integrated with your Applicant Tracking System and related CRM system your company uses.

In addition, and systems you use must allow you to send and record correspondence between your recruitment or business unit team members and candidates with SMS messages and emails throughout the recruitment process.

There is certainly a growing trend for recruitment system vendors to have more advanced integration capabilities, including the seamless integration of mobile based interactions and documents (including resumes) into their recruitment systems.

What your competitors are doing RIGHT NOW

Not convinced you need a mobile only recruitment strategy? Here are some of the latest innovations that your competitors are using to attract top talent RIGHT NOW:

Facilitating entire role applications via SMS
Customising job opportunities according to the prospective candidate’s location and/or browsing history
Using mobile optimised career sites that tell a complete story about their company culture and creating a compelling case for talented candidates to connect with their brand
Adding social media widgets so that candidates can verify if they know any employees within the company who can recommend them
Adding a link to their company Careers or Employment pages from their Facebook Company page with content that is fast, dynamic and mobile device friendly
Allowing candidates to self-schedule interviews via their mobile or an app
Inviting candidates to create video messages that respond to specific interview questions in real time or via pre-recorded videos
Using apps like Switch and JobR (now incorporated with Monster) which is mobile technology that allows candidates to express their interest in a job posting by swiping left and connecting with recruiters

Practical tips to improve your company’s mobile recruitment candidate experience

Get your recruiting team and your marketing team together. Brand messages across your company should be aligned

Don’t waste the in house knowledge and digital marketing capabilities you have within your company. Take advantage of any technologies and innovative ideas your company is using in marketing, to enhance the candidate experience with your company.

Often the recruitment function within a company is completely separate from the marketing function. This needs to change. Brand messaging is equally important for both functions and the key messages going to market should definitely be aligned.

Review the key brand messages that you are currently communicating to customers and potential employees. Are the messages aligned?

If not, schedule some time to nut out how you can create a consistent brand message in the marketplace. Decide on some new and innovative ways you can disseminate your key brand messages, with tailored content specifically for mobile devices.

Draw on the many talents within your existing marketing and recruitment teams to innovate. Don’t be afraid to give methods a go. Failing fast will ensure you continue to innovate and find new and effective ways to attract super talented individuals to join your company.

Develop a clear mobile only communication and attraction strategy. Ask yourself – what are the typical behaviour patterns of our mobile friendly target market? How can we adapt our content for mobile users?

Share employee stories in a mobile friendly format

Ever been at the train station and seen an entire train platform full of people looking at their phones. Whilst some people are most certainly looking at cat videos to pass the time, others are using their idle time on the train platform looking for new work opportunities.

When people are on mobile devices, you often have their undivided attention…for a minute or two. Make sure your recruitment and talent attraction content is easily “consumable”.

Whether people are waiting for a train to turn up or sitting in a coffee shop waiting for their latte buddy to arrive, they are more likely to watch video snippets about companies just like yours.

You must devise mobile brand building and recruitment strategies to catch people when they are most likely to “consume” information about companies they might like to work for.

Your own employees are often your best recruitment scouts – engage them

Gone are the days when prospective employees just looked at your job advertisement on SEEK and applied. Now they google you, check out your company social media pages, look up company reviews on Glassdoor and use a huge range of other reputable digital forums to learn more about your company and what you stand for.

Before candidates even apply to job advertisements, your company reputation and commitment to innovation is placed under a microscope.

Proactively create your brand message and story for prospective employees. Even better, give your employees a couple of hashtags to share their daily experiences within your company on Instagram.

As an example, global beauty brand L’Oreal, asks its employees to share their company experience with the hashtags #LifeatL’Oreal and #L’OrealCommunity. This is just one innovative example of collaborating with your current employees to build your brand profile.

How effective is your current mobile only recruitment strategy?

If all of this mobile only recruitment strategy talk has got you thinking, here are my top tips for progressing your company’s mobile recruitment approach.

Start with an audit of your company’s current mobile recruitment experience

Literally go through the application process yourself on a mobile device, from beginning to end. That way you can spot bugs or other hiccups in the process and record them. Ask others in your company to do the same and collate their feedback. Then begin to fix any problems you incur.

Slow rendering content and video clips, dead links and poorly crafted messaging and position application processes do your company a great disservice. Note that mobile-only users are likely to suffer from slower speeds than their wired friends, and so your website needs to account for this as well.

If you have made the effort to create powerful digital assets, make sure your video clips, infographics and other digital content provides an exceptional candidate experience on their mobile device.

Review your website content and functionality

Pay particular attention to the pages on your company website you currently use to attract candidates (ie your Employment or Careers page). In addition, check your Menu page. Is it easy for candidates to find your Employment and Careers page?

Here are a few key aspects you should audit:

Look at your Careers/Employment page on a mobile device. Can candidates currently express an interest in work with you via any mobile device they may be using?
Do videos load quickly and run without glitches on mobile devices?
Do all email links work?
Do your social media pages link to your Careers/Employment page work? Check each link.

Make no mistake, if your current recruitment and attraction content is not mobile friendly and fit for fast, impressive and complete interaction, the talent keeps walking (metaphorically speaking!).

Audit your current social media strategy

If you already use social media as part of your mobile recruitment strategy, review the effectiveness of your current strategy. What posts are generating the most interest? How often do you create calls to action for current roles? Do you encourage potential future employees to connect with or follow your company?

If you are not too familiar with social media platforms, just start with one. If your company is well established, see how frequently you create posts that are designed specifically to attract and connect with talented professionals who could one day work for your company.

Keep your brand messages consistent and try out a few different post types to see what posts draw the most attention.

You can use your social media platforms to:

Welcome new staff
Shout out if you have a specific event coming up that prospective candidates might enjoy
Showcase your employees spending time together or alternatively pursuing their passions with the support of your company
Outline your key brand messages

It is estimated that 47% of millennials are currently using their mobile phones for job searches – Avanture.com

Review your email campaign processes, messaging and links

The aim of your mobile recruitment strategy is to make the candidate application experience really easy. This includes providing multiple digital channels that candidates can use to connect with your company, apply for live roles and express an interest in working with you down the track.

Do your current email campaigns include calls to action and links to your social media accounts? Have you incorporated a way for candidates to apply for roles directly from email or SMS messages?

Within the past decade, the number of texts sent monthly has increased more than 7,700 percent – Avature.com

Strive for innovation in interactivity and candidate connection

The rate of technology change is ridiculously fast. You need to be on the look out for new and innovative ways to attract, engage and assess potential candidates constantly.

Gamification in hiring and selection processes is trending and may well be the next big innovation in mobile only recruitment strategies.

A Quick Word of Advice

When you are looking to improve or build a mobile only recruitment, don’t try to attack everything at once. It will become overwhelming very quickly if you try to tackle huge changes all at once.

Your first priority should be to amend any “glitches” in your current mobile recruitment process. Then choose 2-3 key changes at a time, prioritising tasks that will make the biggest difference to the candidate experience when they are exploring opportunities with your company on a mobile device.

Mobile Recruitment Strategies are not just for Executive Search Recruiters

Every company that recruits for any position in any industry sector needs a mobile only recruitment strategy. This is because every household is likely to have access to mobile technology regardless of socio economic circumstance.

Additionally, if you think that a mobile only recruitment strategy is only required for the younger talent pool, you are wrong.

Make the most of this unprecedented opportunity to connect with the most digitally connected talent pool we have ever seen.

Develop a mobile only recruitment strategy that delights, intrigues and compels candidates to learn more about your brand and aspire to work with your company.

There is no silver bullet when it comes to developing an effective mobile only recruitment strategy. And “following the leader” might not get you the desired results (although learning from what other companies are doing is a worthwhile approach).

Tap into your most compelling and authentic employee value proposition and enjoy the process of finding new and innovative ways to attract, connect and secure exceptionally talented individuals to help your company soar.

Got any “mobile-only” recruitment strategy tips? Need some help to audit your existing mobile recruitment approach? Get in touch.

Looking for more general recruitment advice? Check out my other blog posts with helpful hints and tips to improve the way you source the best talent in the market.

Does your company have a mobile only recruitment strategy?