By Jaime Spuhler on Jul 1, 2014 in Recruiting Software Blog

Mobile recruitment is a relatively new strategy in talent acquisition. An increasing number of organizations are employing mobile capabilities in their recruitment processes, as the applicant pool moves to tablets and cell phones as their method of choice. Huffington Post estimates that 33 percent of all Fortune 500 companies now have mobile-friendly career sites.

For those that have not jumped on the mobile bandwagon, various factors are taken into account. It may be a lack of resources, lack of upper-management buy-in or it may be that a mobile strategy has been implemented, but it is not producing the desired results. If lack of performance is the issue at your organization and faith in the mobile application process is dwindling, fear not. Huffington Post recently published an article (highlights below) detailing common issues with mobile recruitment sites that companies of all sizes face.
Here are a few things to consider if your mobile recruitment strategy is not producing optimal results:

• You aren’t focusing on passive candidates. Your mobile recruitment strategy doesn’t just mean optimizing your career site for mobile devices — it means attracting candidates who may not even be on the job search in the first place. Try inbound marketing techniques like adding regular blog content, social media updates and contests, mobile-optimized YouTube videos, or SEO landing pages to draw in potential candidates. These techniques offer a backwards approach to getting candidate eyes on your job openings.
• You haven’t checked the time. On average, people look at their mobile devices in the morning between the time they wake up and when they get to work or class — between 6:30 and 9:15am. They check their devices again during lunch, between 11:45am and 2:20pm, and finally, from 4:30 to 9:45pm. Think of it this way: people used to take smoke breaks during work — now, they take Facebook breaks. Your mobile recruitment strategy should anticipate job candidates will be searching during these times in order to respond to postings in a timely manner.
• You’re silent. Uncertainty can be expected in the job search process, but job candidates don’t like to be ignored — they want to be kept in the loop as to the status of their application or resume. If your mobile recruitment strategy doesn’t include live-manning social media or an online talent network to answer candidate questions, job seekers may come away with a negative perception of your company. Your team should be living in online and mobile channels during the times mentioned above and live-manning social media feeds, email accounts, or incoming messages.
• Your mobile sites are too messy. Perhaps your company has attempted to reach passive candidates with blog posts or webinars. This is a great strategy, but it won’t work if your content isn’t optimized for retargeting or easy bookmarking. Remember, you don’t have a candidate’s full attention on a mobile device — often, they’re checking these devices during a commute, on a bus, or while sitting in front of the TV. They may not have time to watch a webinar or read a lengthy blog post, so make it easy for them to come back to this content later.

Getting the most out of your mobile recruitment strategy requires extra focus and support as the strategy develops. It is not enough to simply create a mobile-capable career site and then sit back and wait for candidates to apply. If you are not getting the traffic that you anticipated being driven through your mobile site, run through these tips to see what can be changed and/or what to focus on for continued improvements. Mobile is the future, if not the present. Ignoring this staple of talent acquisition will put your farther behind in the recruitment game over the long run.
Traci Kingery, PHR is an HR Professional and freelance writer based in the Midwest, specializing in immigration and talent management. When she’s not improving unemployment, she keeps busy with her husband and four children.