Time to Get Ready for Mobile Recruiting

By Caroline Slomski, Guest Blogger from NAS Recruitment Communications

We can all breathe a sigh of relief. 2009 is officially over. But the last year has brought more than a change in government, home values, and 401(k) plans. Companies battened down the hatches to ride out the economic wave; and, yet, something else has been brewing: The way in which we consume information. We emerged from our safety shelters and entered a world that is more on-demand than ever before. Leading the revolution? The mobile web.

Last Wednesday, Steve Jobs stepped onto Apple’s stage once again to finally announce one of the most highly anticipated mobile devices of our lifetimes. The Apple iPad. The iPad and other similar new generation mobile devices on the way from Research in Motion (RIM), Nokia, Archos and Vliv may not yet be the perfect mobile devices for recruiting due to lack of support for most video file types and critical HR applications but the promise is real and it’s closer than you think. In fact, your candidates have already begun to arrive at the party and they expect you to be there to greet them even if it hasn’t completely started. There are a number of things you can do to ensure they don’t leave before things get really interesting.

First, let’s consider what we have to work with today. The mobile web is exceedingly more diverse an experience than the web interaction you get from your standard desktop or laptop computer because there are so many variables. The iPhone or Google’s Android phones give you a different mobile web experience than say RIM’s BlackBerry devices. A WAP-enabled Nokia phone, a different experience still. The mobile web introduces a completely new set of rules and challenges that the HR community must adopt.

Considering mobile adoption numbers, if you’re committed to delivering a best-in-class candidate experience and to truly engaging A-level talent, here are your steps for getting mobile-ready:

1. Build a mobile career website. Why? Because despite the fact that most phones are not going to support those beautiful flash pieces you spent months perfecting, the mobile web of today is about snackable content. Your mobile career site is the online equivalent to the 30-second elevator pitch. Deliver only the most essential information and don’t forget to consider your visitors’ needs.
2. Forget about “apply now” for the moment. Your online job application forms are not compatible with most of today’s web-enabled mobile phones. But you can’t afford to miss an opportunity to engage these visitors. Instead of driving them to your application, encourage them to complete a short form that includes their email address and area of interest. Add these names to your talent network and push out relevant career and company information.
3. Expand your communication channels. A mobile-ready site brings with it a whole slew of new communication venues to add to your sourcing strategy: 1) Mobile search marketing, expected to grow to a $2.9 billion business by 2013; 2) Mobile banners, which typically receive much higher click-through-rates than the traditional online banners; and 3) Text messaging, now more popular than calling.

The good news? Until the richer mobile experience promised by the next generation mobile devices, mobile websites work today, and, as compared to your traditional sites, they’re relatively inexpensive to build. If you have already built a strong career website, your transition into the mobile space should be pretty painless. The bad news? You can’t wait any longer to take action. Ask your agency or web analytics team to report on site traffic from mobile phones over the last 18-months. Now consider the growth that the mobile web is experiencing. Do you want your name equated with a poor user experience or as a “johnny-come-lately?” Can your hiring efforts afford to let A-level talent pass through your site without leaving behind their information?

Caroline Slomski is a Digital Marketing Strategist & Consultant for NAS Recruiting Communications focusing on employment branding, website design and online strategy. You can follow Caroline on Twitter @CarolineSlomski.

This article also appeared in this month’s issue of THE VUE, HireVue’s monthly newsletter. To sign up, go to the HireVue home page and scroll down to the newsletter sign up on the right.