Since the average person spends nearly five hours a day on their mobile devices, it makes sense that certain activities like recruiting would be made available on mobile devices as well. Indeed, having a mobile hiring team app on your phone allows you to hire on the go, which allows you to hire faster and more efficiently. It’s not just recruiters who are seeing the power of mobile devices; potential applicants are using them to actually search and apply for jobs as well. The numbers are staggering: nearly 78 percent of millennials used mobile devices to land jobs in 2016 while 73 percent of Gen Xers were doing the same thing. Not to be left too far behind, the rate of baby boomers finding jobs through mobile applications jumped from 51.2 percent in 2014 to 57.2 percent in 2016. How does the introduction of mobile recruiting help you find the right people and hire faster? It’s simple.
1. Quicker and More Convenient Communication
The infiltration of mobile phones into our lives seems to be never-ending, so it makes sense that employers wanting to attract top talent are constantly on the lookout for ways to get in contact with applicants. This involves texting them directly, which has a response rate of nearly 30 percent; this is far greater than the rate of response for email, which is closer to 4 percent. In the cutthroat world of recruiting, once you find an ideal candidate for a job, you have to move quickly, and that involves communicating with them as soon as possible through any means necessary.
2. More Diversified Talent Pool
While owning a smartphone may be associated with a more affluent lifestyle for some, the truth is actually the opposite. As pointed out by one blogger, nearly 13 percent of households with annual incomes less than $30,000 are completely dependent on their smartphones. Not only is income level a dividing line, but race is as well: 12 percent of African-Americans and 13 percent of Latinos rely completely on their smartphones while only 4 percent of whites do. If your goal as a recruiter is to introduce more diversity into your workforce, you’ll find your efficiency greatly increased by utilizing mobile recruiting tactics into your ATS tracking system.
3. Bring the Talent to You
One of the more intriguing techniques recently employed by hiring managers is a form of “guerrilla” recruiting: placing codes in communities that people can text to enter into a talent pool of potential candidates. These codes are plastered on social media profiles, flyers at local restaurants – everywhere that HR personnel may think their ideal job seeker would hang out. The applicant texts the number on the board and can instantly see a list of potential opportunities and potential interview times and be notified of future updates with the company. It’s a great way to fill your talent pipeline with minimal effort.