CWS 3.0: July 30, 2014

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Start caring about mobile recruiting; you could be losing the best candidates

By Kay Colson

The stats tell the story: eMarketer predicts by the end of 2014, nearly 25 percent of the world’s total population will use smartphones. That’s 1.76 billion people. And by 2017, more than a third will be smartphone users. What are these folks doing with these smartphones? Going online. The Pew Research Center reports 34 percent of users accessing the Internet are doing so mainly through their cell devices instead of a desktop or laptop.

"The job-search evolution from the Web to mobile devices could be as significant as the transition of print newspapers going online," said TheLadders CEO and co-founder Alex Douzet. So what does that mean to recruiting? LinkedIn surveyed its members: 72 percent of active candidates and 64 percent of passives have viewed a company career site using a mobile device; and 45 percent of active and 21 percent of passive candidates have used a mobile device to apply for a job. Because virtually all job applications are completed online … increasing smart phone usage is indeed changing how the workforce “shops” for career opportunities.

According to LinkedIn, there’s more to make it interesting. The current workforce is becoming increasingly inclined to choose an organization just like a consumer chooses a product. They are looking for more information than ever before … at their fingertips. These workers — 94 percent — want current job openings information; 72 percent want company culture descriptions;  61 percent are looking for company histories; 56 percent check for benefits information; and 45 percent want to peruse employee profiles. Traditionally much of that information surfaced during an initial inquiry, a phone screen or even later in the recruiting process.

What is your competition doing about getting this information out to the worker? Some are addressing this issue. However, LinkedIn polled its member companies and found only 13 percent feel they have “invested enough in mobile friendly recruiting”; 20 percent have “mobile-optimized their career sites”; and 18 percent have “optimized job posts for mobile use.” More important, what has your organization done to meet this demand?

Times always change, and today’s technology drives that change much faster than ever before. Companies looking for the best talent are competing every day for the top candidates.

The very best talent has their pick of assignments — are you making it it easy for them to pick yours?

Kay Colson, a senior associate with Brightfield Strategies, specializes in total workforce recruiting and management services. She can be reached at kcolson@brightfieldstrategies.com.