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Mobile Apply a Must-Have for Employers
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Talent Management

Mobile Apply a Must-Have for Employers

Talkin’ Bout a Mobile Revolution

Recruiting is now mobile. Don’t miss your calling with mobile apply!

Mobile revolution. I’m sure you’ve heard the term before. Tech pundits

have been harping on the arrival of the mobile revolution like those

annoying doomsday preppers who are always wrong. It seems that every

year, there is some new trend that we are told will change the world,

and every year, these predictions fall flat.

Despite reason for skepticism, however, the numbers surrounding mobile

are quite convincing and by all indications the mobile day of reckoning

is already upon us. This past year mobile search surpassed search on

traditional desktops and by year’s end, there will be 207.2 million

smartphones

users in the US (2 billion worldwide).

As a recruiter or hiring manager you may be thinking, “I get it, people

are obsessed with their phones, but what does this have to do with me?”

Surprisingly, the answer may be far more than you think!

Job Seekers at Forefront of Mobile Revolution

Based on reports from numerous outlets, job seekers are actually at the

forefront of this mobile shift. Research carried out by both

Glassdoor

and

Kelton

found that 9 out of every 10 applicants use their smartphones during

their job search, totaling 1 billion

job searches each month by Americans. Furthermore, Indeed issued a

report finding that 70% of the

clicks

from Millennials and Gen Xers on their site come from mobile

devices, with Baby Boomers not far behind at 50%.

Mobile Candidates Take on More Complex Application Tasks

From these findings, it is clear that smartphones have already become an

instrumental part of the job search for most candidates. Ok, so

candidates use their smartphones to search for jobs…big deal. How

about for activities such as uploading a resume or actually filling out

and submitting a job application? There is no way applicants intend to

use their mobile devices for these more complex application tasks,

right? Actually,

candidates

do wish to complete such tasks on their smartphones, and they may be

even more eager to do so than you think. According to reports issued by

Pew:

* 50% of smartphone job seekers have used their smartphone to fill out

an online job application.

* 23% of smartphone job seekers have used their smartphone to create a

resume or cover letter.

Even beyond these early adopters, it appears that the vast majority of

all job seekers are interested in deeper mobile apply capabilities. In

an article by recruiting industry thought leader Tim Sackett, he

preaches on the importance of a more advanced

mobile

apply offering, citing additional

Pew

research that found:

* 70% of applicants want to apply for jobs directly from their mobile

device.

* 55% of candidates want to upload their resume to a career site from

their mobile device.

So Why Are Mobile Apply Rates Low?

From these findings, one has to ask the question, “If all of these

mobile job seekers want to apply directly from their smartphones, why do

they so often switch to a desktop computer to complete an application?”

90% of job seekers are using their smartphones in the job search, so why

aren’t mobile apply rates higher? These are great questions that really

bring us to the root of the mobile apply problem.

Cumbersome mobile apply offerings lead to low candidate conversion

rates.

Simply put, applying to most jobs on a smartphone SUCKS! According to

Glassdoor, “1 in 2 job seekers believe it is difficult to

apply

to jobs on a mobile device.” Think back in your own experience.

Based on the statistics, chances are you have searched for job

opportunities on your smartphone and even greater chances are that the

candidate experience wasn’t good. I can speak to this personally.

A Letter from a Recent Job Seeker

Having transitioned jobs a month ago, my own candidate experience is

still fresh in my mind. Being employed while I carried out my job

search, the best time for me to hunt for jobs was on the train to and

from work. Of course, being on the move, with limited space, I used my

mobile device to do this. This was great because in a way, it allowed me

to be productive with my commute.

Unfortunately, very few of the enticing job opportunities that I found

through my mobile search were optimized for mobile apply. In fact, the

application process was nearly always so cumbersome on my smartphone,

that I was forced to switch over to my laptop to actually apply. This

meant spending all train ride compiling a list of job opportunities on

my smartphone that I intended to apply to. Then when I got home, I would

sit down at my computer, hoping to remember all of those jobs I had

identified, research for them and then apply. This was a huge

duplication of my efforts and an incredibly inefficient use of my time.

Furthermore, I simply forgot to apply to many of the jobs that I had

intended to because of the time and complexity involved in the crossover

from my mobile device.

Candidates Want to Apply from Their Mobile Devices

The reality is, I (and most candidates) want, and would even be excited

to apply directly to jobs from a smartphone. However, the overwhelming

majority of career pages and applications are not optimized for mobile.

This makes for a burdensome apply process that leads to

poor

mobile candidate conversion rates. Currently, only 1.5% of mobile

candidates click through a job posting, in comparison with 8% of desktop

candidates. These statistics scream of a poor candidate experience.

Optimizing for Mobile Will Improve Your Candidate Experience and

Increase Conversion Rates

Previously, we have discussed how a

poor

candidate experience correlates directly to high candidate drop-off

rates. Job seekers want a simple and transparent application process. As

more and more candidates utilize smartphones in their job search, it is

essential that your careers page and application are optimized for

mobile use.

Contact Newton to Optimize Your Mobile Apply Offering

Newton offers a fully responsive Applicant Tracking software platform to

build your career pages and applications. This means mobile, tablet,

desktop, you name it—the candidate experience will always be seamless.

Contact

us to learn more about how you can optimize your mobile apply

offering with Newton today!

Guest

Post by Danny Madigan, Marketing Associate

 


 

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