Though we couldn’t say the same thing 30 years ago, smartphones (mobile-first) are now an integral part of our lives. We use them for everything from communication and photography to work and entertainment. As a result, the Pew Research Center reports that over 97% of Americans now own a smartphone — and this includes 100% ownership among adults aged 18-49.
These facts are what make mobile phones a great avenue for recruiting fresh, young, and high-quality talent. Recruitment solutions experts LHH emphasize that following the Great Resignation, employee expectations are changing. Many are now disengaged from their jobs. If you want to truly connect with candidates and engage them as new hires, a mobile-first recruitment strategy is vital.
But how does one go about creating a truly effective mobile-first recruitment strategy? Below are a few tips you can try.
Define your ideal candidate
We’ve previously discussed how mobile social media marketing techniques create ample opportunities for business growth. The same is true for mobile-first recruitment — and in the same vein, both need research to be effective. Defining the qualities you’re looking for in an ideal candidate — from their skill set to their demographics — will help determine what mobile channels to focus on and what recruitment strategies will work best.
For example, Gen Z recruits may be more responsive to job posts made on social media. Millennial and Gen X job seekers may visit your website as well, so you’ll have to focus on optimizing your website for mobile use. Honing in on the possible interests of these candidates — like fintech for finance professionals — can further help you tailor your recruitment strategies to catch the talent you want.
Optimize recruitment processes for mobile
Once you’ve determined what the key components of your mobile-first recruitment strategy should be, it’s time to go over them and make sure they’re easy to navigate on a smartphone. Google’s free mobile-friendly test is a great tool for assessing this quality on your website. However, smartphones are first and foremost used for communication — so focus on optimizing the ways you talk with candidates through the recruitment process.
For one, you can add features that let applicants upload résumés or CVs directly to your website or to your LinkedIn profile. Take advantage of today’s automated messaging technology to acknowledge these submissions and avoid candidates becoming frustrated over delays in the recruitment process. From here, mobile applicant tracking systems like Recruitee and Manatal can help you juggle and keep in touch with multiple candidates.
Look at what your competitors are doing
Make your newly optimized recruitment process even more foolproof through competitor analysis. By doing so, it offers two main benefits. First, it allows you to detect any faults in their strategy, check if you have similar flaws in your own, and fix them before you start recruiting. It also helps you pick up any industry-specific practices that you may want to integrate into your own strategy.
The US Chamber of Commerce recommends that you first determine who your biggest competitors are. From there, you should be able to make a list of the various channels and practices they use in recruitment. You can check how successful their recruitment strategies are by browsing online reviews from candidates on sites like Glassdoor and Indeed. Research tools like SEMRush and BuzzSumo can further streamline the analysis process.
Measure your results
Monitoring some key performance indicators or KPIs as you implement your mobile-first recruitment strategy will help you spot and address points of improvement in real time. These KPIs should be SMART — specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. For example, a company might wish to fill positions on a sales team in 6 months’ time or attract 50% more job applications within that same time period.
SMART goals can also measure the success of your optimized recruitment processes. Website tracking tools like Google Analytics can determine if more visitors have been checking out your website using a smartphone. Social media platforms also have built-in analytics tools for this purpose. Meanwhile, you can try to compare the percentage of candidates who “ghosted” or left the recruitment process when communications weren’t optimized for mobile versus when they were.
Today, the smartphone undeniably reaches into all aspects of our lives — and for potential employees, that includes job hunting. By using these tips to create a great mobile-first recruitment strategy, you can attract higher-quality talent while making job searchers more accessible to all.
