Written by Alex Roland, Marketing Intern
How we recruit possible job candidates has evolved dramatically over the last few years. We saw the advent of the cell phone change how often we could reach out to candidates, we saw email change how we sent and received resumes, and we saw online job postings change how people apply for jobs and how employers find candidates. Now we are seeing the smartphone change the recruiting process once again. Now we need to make sure that job ads and the apply function of those ads are useable on mobile devices. There are several reasons why as well as specific factors to keep in mind when attempting to create mobile friendly applications.
Why Recruiters Need a Mobile-Friendly Application Process?
Everyone has a phone. All of us. Nearly every single person, at least every single job seeking person, likely has a smartphone of some sort. Not only do all of us have this device, but we do practically everything on it as well. We do everything from checking the weather, ordering food, reading the news, and even watching sports. A Pew research survey found that 43% of smartphone owners used the phone to find information about a job. This research also found that 18% of these users also applied for a job on their phone. This coupled with the fact that more and more younger people are entering the workforce who live their lives on their phone tells us that we need to start focusing on the application process for mobile devices.
Mobile applications are also just easier on everyone. If you can apply for a job on a phone, then you can apply literally anywhere, anytime. Instead of having to set time aside to sit down on your computer to go through sites and then upload resumes, one could browse jobs on their phone and by the time lunch comes around, they could apply for a few job openings on their break. It is widely known that when you increase access and usability of something, then more people will start to take advantage of that opportunity.
How to Begin Implementing a Mobile-Friendly Application Process
There are a multitude of issues that one must remember when attempting to implement a mobile apply function. One major issue to keep in mind is usability. The usability of a mobile job application page can make or break you. If your mobile application doesn’t work properly, potential job candidates will abandon your site and never apply.
The simplicity of a mobile apply feature also factors into usability. If your site is too complex, then users will simply leave and never apply as well. Your site may load and technically be usable, but it is very easy for it to be too complex to use or navigate your web page. Always be sure to test out your site multiple times on different phones to make sure it works. Go through every page on the site and leave no stone unturned.
Another factor to keep in mind is how easy can the job application be shared via social media. Since social media rules our smartphones, it’s actually normal for someone to share a job application they saw. This will go a long way in exposing your ad to more people who may be interested.
Social recruiting is becoming a great way to find quality candidates, and if your application can be easily shared then you can help your social recruiting efforts simply by having shareable content. The trick to this is making sure that whatever platform you are using to put up your job application has an easy to use share function. Some applications or other posts online are not shareable. Sometimes it is because they just can’t be shared, and other times if you try to share, it doesn’t look good and no one will click on it anyway.
Arguably the best way to make sure that your job applications are simple to share is to use video job ads. Video is extremely simple to share across all social media platforms. People see a “preview” and a description of your ad while at the same time having access in the video to an apply button, linking them right to the page where they would apply.
Another benefit of video job ads is they solve the first problem discussed, which is usability. Nearly all video formats will load on a smart phone. Even if a website is not formatted to work on a smartphone very well, but there is a video on the site that appears, then that video can still easily be played. Using video helps eliminate the problems associated with having a multitude of pages where one is for the job description and another page is what links to a third page with another link to the application. Lessen the confusion!
With video job ads, you can simply link straight to the application and include all the other information in the video. With mobile smartphones becoming such an integral part of our lives, it is absolutely necessary that recruiters adapt to this. Job searches on phones are increasing, and so are job applies. If we can start conducting talent acquisition strategies and activities on mobile devices, we can not only reach more people, but additionally find more qualified candidates!
