Is Your Hiring Process Mobile Friendly?

We’re living in a world of hyper- connectivity.  These days, everything must be mobile optimized- from websites to online shopping carts and even online job applications.  Yet according to a recent CareerBuilder survey, only 10% of businesses optimized their job applications for mobile.  The failure of the other 90% to optimize their applications for mobile amounted to missing out on roughly 94% of candidates using their mobile phone or smart device. If your hiring process isn’t mobile friendly from beginning to end, your business could be missing out on the most digitally mature candidates.

Creating a Mobile Friendly Hiring Process

Increasingly, more candidates are logging on and searching for jobs from mobile devices.  Many of these candidates continue to log on from mobile devices to communicate with recruiters, answer additional hiring questions, and submit documents.  With this in mind, how do businesses create a mobile friendly hiring process from beginning to end?  Try the following suggestions:

• Create video job postings.  Video is a very mobile friendly way to attract candidate interest.  Videos are easily viewable on any mobile device and can enhance the hiring process for technologically sophisticated candidates. By filming a video, candidates can easily digest what the position is and how they might see themselves in the role. Video also enhances the candidate experience because it’s more interactive.
• Optimize career pages. The problem with many career pages is that they aren’t on mobile- friendly platforms nor do they offer mobile friendly options.  It’s time for employers to collaborate with the Marketing team to design custom landing pages that enhance the mobile hiring process, not detract from it. Consider how your team can present the employer brand with engaging and dynamic content. This could be a video job posting, live chat options with brand ambassadors and team photos.
• Create SMS recruiting content. Employers have an opportunity to enhance candidate communication with little effort on their end.  Consider creating mobile friendly recruiting messages that are brief, but inspire action.  Rather than creating spammy canned emails like those that some recruiters send out on LinkedIn, create tailored messaging that encourages the mobile candidate to view more content or dive further into the experience with a brand ambassador via mobile.  The key is to think creatively but think in terms of brief engaging content.
• Simplify the application process.  Few businesses’ application processes are mobile friendly.  Couldn’t a company offer a way for candidates to automatically submit their resumes via QR code or LinkedIn?  This would enhance the mobile hiring process instead of automatically linking to an ATS that requires 9 pages of typing and retyping qualifications, references, GPA’s, and contact information. What’s the point of automatically parsing a resume if the hiring process begins as a headache? This can actively deter top candidates instead of attracting them to the job posting.  The answer is to simplify the process as much as possible to make it more attractive and engaging.
• Offer mobile friendly video interviews. Video interviews can be extremely mobile friendly and enhance the hiring process.  Candidates can log on and record an interview on demand so the recruiter can screen them.  Or candidates progressing through the hiring process can log onto a live video interview via mobile app.  Video interviews are a great way to connect with mobile candidates in a meaningful way. Now both employers and candidates can tell their story via mobile.

As mobile usage continues to grow, more candidates will start their job search on mobile devices.  The challenge for employers is to successfully create a mobile hiring process that enhances the candidate experience, not harms it.  We will begin to see more focus in 2016 on mobile recruiting, but employers who advance their mobile hiring process now will  be ahead of the pack.