A mobile divide is growing between candidates and recruiters. Despite the increasing overall usage of mobile devices compared to desktop computers, investments in mobile recruiting do not seem to be commensurate. As an example, only 40 percent of companies have mobile friendly career sites, according to Jobvite.

Jessica Miller-Merrill, president of Xceptional HR, summed up the vital connection we have with our mobile devices at a recent Dice roundtable event.

“When I go to a conference, I will leave my laptop at the desk when I go to the restroom. When I am out with my girlfriends at a bar, I will potentially leave my purse at a table when I walk around. In both cases, my mobile phone will be with me at all times.”

At Dice, we talk to staffing clients every day about this mobile divide and the steps they can take to bridge it and mimic the behavior of candidates. By bridging this divide, you’ll stand out from the crowd and show candidates that you are willing to engage with them when and where they prefer to converse.

Here are three ways to kick start your mobile recruiting strategy:

• Source and engage with mobile apps — you and your fellow recruiters don’t have to be tethered to a desk to source and engage with candidates. You can source more efficiently through apps that allow you to connect with candidates from anywhere and at any time. You can use these apps to recruit on your commute home, when fewer recruiters are contacting candidates.
• Optimize email communications for mobile devices — one way to increase response rates is to optimize your email communications for mobile devices. As you tweak your communications, realize that subject lines are truncated on mobile devices. In addition, your body copy needs to be short and broken up into small chunks. Test all of your email templates on mobile devices to see how they read and how peers would feel about responding to them.
• Invest in social efforts focused on employer branding — recognize that social is mobile. 75 percent of Twitter users access the site from their mobile devices. If you haven’t already done so, you should build out an editorial calendar for social channels that reflects your understanding of how your particular candidate targets use social channels to improve their professional lives.

While mobile recruiting can seem daunting, we can break it down into a manageable roadmap that will get us to a place where we meet the mobile needs of candidates. After you’ve “kick started” your mobile efforts, you can outline a more comprehensive plan that takes into account everything from sourcing to onboarding (think about an onboarding app or a series of onboarding text messages).

While it’s an odd notion to think that candidates are reading communications from anywhere, including the restroom, we’ll need to bridge this mobile divide to catch candidates at the right time.

Learn more about the Dice Recruiter App on iTunes.