Recruiting Trends for Mobile Recruitment Companies

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1 The Evolving World of Mobile Recruiting Companies have progressed but still need to improve By Gerry Crispin, SPHR and Mark Mehler CareerXroads With the seismic shifting of the world population to mobile devices, human resources professionals face a stark choice. They must either adapt to changing conditions and allocate more resources toward mobile-savvy job seekers or compromise their ability to compete for talent. CareerXroads second survey on mobile recruiting practices found that companies have made significant progress in this regard. Consider that: More than half (54 percent) of them are providing or subsidizing their recruiters and hiring managers mobile phones. Nearly four in five (79 percent) are following at least one in 15 important mobile-related, recruiting practices to better connect with job seekers prospects and candidates. That s up from 68 percent in the first CareerXroads mobile recruiting survey in December In addition, noticeably larger percentages of the companies surveyed are following many of these practices and others than a year earlier. For example: More than half the survey respondents said that job seekers can now access their companies career site via mobile devices, more than double the 19 percent who answered the same the previous year. And one in five can apply for a job via their mobile devices from a previously saved job profile versus only 3 percent in But the latest survey also found that companies are not doing enough to take full advantage of the mobile trend. Some of these organizations may not yet see the urgency, while others are unsure how exactly to proceed. Just 3 percent of the surveyed companies said that they had mobile opt-in promotions within job postings, while just 8 percent delivered job openings via phone or text. The task for companies is not unlike the challenging conditions they faced in the 1990s when the internet transformed recruiting. Organizations then had to make rapid progress in developing their online capabilities, including career sites and software systems for processing candidates. Recruiting arguably changed more during this period than in any other period. The rise of mobile represents a change of similar magnitude as job seekers increasingly see the advantages of searching and applying for positions anywhere, anytime. A total of 40 HR executives from large, national and international organizations responded to the survey. 1

2 Anemic Response In 2011 CareerXroads first mobile recruiting survey found that organizations had barely addressed the rising usage of smart phone and tablet usage. While nearly one in three companies did not follow even one of 15 mobile recruiting practices, the remaining firms did so in small numbers if at all. In all: Not one company said that candidates could opt into any marketing delivery of their choosing (phone, , SMS) via mobile. Just 3 percent of respondents said that they had been the target of mobile recruiting campaigns, could complete surveys for either job category interest or talent pool segments, or optimize job listings as a forward to option where mobile apply is impossible. Less than 7 percent said that that candidates could access custom mobile pages (visible only to them) as a specific, targeted hiring group. Only one in 10 (10 percent) said that candidates could download an App from iphone or Android markets to obtain career/job information. Only 16 percent said that candidates had been the target of mobile recruiting campaigns designed and launched with the help of outside vendors, create agents using,mobile phones that supply newly approved jobs via text or follow specific job families/recruiters on Twitter. In 2011 CareerXroads asked colloquium members to share Mobile practices not much was happening: 2

3 Leading Firms Are Slow To React While many companies recognize that they must now factor the continued rise of mobile usage into their recruiting strategies, relatively few of them are taking action. Consider Fortune 500 companies, who traditionally lead HR trends. A short study of these firms efforts to connect with mobile-savvy job seekers looked at three questions: whether a candidate could view career pages redesigned for a smart phone or table, search, or apply for positions. At more than one in two companies (53 percent), job seekers could do none of the above. Less than one in five companies (19 percent) offered career pages created for mobile devices. Only one in 10 allowed candidates to apply via their apparatuses. These findings dovetail with the results of the mobile usage survey. Two in five companies in the survey (41 percent) do not have the tools to measure traffic to their career sites coming from mobile devices. And even more forward-thinking firms that do measure the number of job seekers from mobile devices to their career sites received relatively light traffic. Fewer than one in three respondents said that their firms career sites received less than 20 percent of their traffic from mobile devices. Just one in 20 (5 percent) said that their firms received percent of traffic via mobile devices. Not one company in the survey received more than 40 percent of its job seekers from mobile. In addition, slightly more than one in five respondents (21 percent) said that their companies monitored traffic, although their career sites were not adapted to mobile. 3

4 Yet the survey also hints at a growing mobile wave of candidates who are seeking quick, easy access to the information and tools they need. Perhaps most interesting, more than three in five companies (61 percent) could attribute at least one hired employee to mobile. 4

5 About one in three of those firms hired 1-5 percent of their exempt employees as a result of mobile recruiting activities, while fewer than one in 10 companies could account for 5-20 percent of their exempt hires via the use of mobile recruiting resources. About one in five companies hired about 1-5 percent of their non-exempt employees and recent college graduates through mobile recruiting activities, while fewer than one in 10 of these companies hired 5-20 percent of their non-exempt employees and recent college grads from mobile recruiting activities. Not one of the survey respondents said that their companies hired more than 20 percent of their employees exempt, non-exempt of recent college graduates via mobile recruiting activities. Clearly, the mobile trend remains in its early days. Yet these percentages and the total number of hires resulting from mobile should continue to climb significantly in the coming months and beyond. Signs of Improvement To be sure, a number of companies have improved their mobile recruiting tools, or are at least headed in that direction. In response to one question, more than one in two respondents (55 percent) said that their companies were working with vendors on mobile use resources. Almost one in three respondents (30 percent) said that their firms could track mobile traffic to and within their company career sites. Clearly, there is room for improvement. A full 8 percent said that their organizations had delivered offer letters or content using mobile devices. Slightly more than one in three respondents (35 percent) said that their companies could do none of the above (the question allowed for multiple answers). 5

6 More Resources But Room for Growth Regarding specific capabilities related to mobile usage, companies have boosted some resources for hiring managers and particularly for recruiters. Over the past 14 months, they ve also made it easier for job seekers to learn about job openings, apply for them and track their progress through the hiring pipeline. At the same time, companies are lagging in a number of areas that will be increasingly important in building relationships between potential employer and employee. More than one in two hiring managers (54 percent) have subsidized smart phones, or at least receive these devices from their companies. More than two in five hiring mangers (41 percent) have smart phones, while nearly that percentage (38 percent) permit recruiters to call them wherever they are to expedite recruiting activities. More than one in four hiring managers (28 percent) receive training in smart phone policies. These are all signs of a heightened awareness of the increasingly preferred methods of communication among job seekers. Yet: Little more than one in 10 respondents (13 percent) said that hiring managers could check the status of open positions via their phones. Less than one in 10 (8 percent) said that hiring managers could access and send new job requisitions. Just 5 percent said that managers could receive text updates from recruiters. 6

7 Recruiters had roughly the same access to corporate-sponsored smart phones but were making even more use of them in their work. Consider that: More than one in two respondents said that recruiters (54 percent) have smart phones, while nearly one in two (46 percent) say that they can t work without one. A full 46 percent said that their companies supplied smart phones, while 38 percent said that their smart phones were subsidized. Nearly three in five recruiters (59 percent) could receive calls on their smart phones by finalists for job openings. More than one in three (36 percent) could receive calls from any job seeker. More than two in five recruiters (41 percent) have access to Facebook fan pages and interact with job seekers. A full 31 percent share openings via social media. More than half (54 percent) have access to company careers pages and more than a third (36 percent) to the company intranet. On the other hand, just 13 percent could access or search applicant tracking systems while only 3 percent could perform any of the listed functions. 7

8 More than half the respondents to the survey (51 percent) said that job seekers could navigate or search the company s career sites and nearly the same percentage (46 percent) said that job seekers could text, call or chat with recruiters. But the percentages fall way off for 15 other common recruitingrelated functions. Fewer than one in four prospects and candidates (23 percent) were targeted via mobile devices with external help or can option forward to . Just over one in five (21 percent) could apply for positions through previously saved profiles. Slightly less than that (18 percent) could apply for positions from scratch. Only 15 percent use career apps on iphones or Androids, customize landing pages or check on resume statuses. Fewer than one in 10 (8 percent) are targeted via mobile without external help or receive job openings via phone or text. A full 21 percent of the companies surveyed enabled job prospects and candidates to do none of the above. 8

9 Conclusion When CareerXroads conducted its first mobile recruiting survey in late 2011, it found that companies had done little to connect with increasingly mobile active job seekers. Nearly a third of the survey respondents said that their companies did not follow even one of 15 mobile approaches, and even those that did, did so in nearly miniscule numbers. Fast forward more than a year to CareerXroads most recent survey. Companies have clearly been figuring out how to respond to the growing surge of mobile usage in the job market. A much larger percentage of companies are providing at least one of the 15 mobile-related services. A majority of these organizations are providing or subsidizing mobile phones. Job seekers can find information, apply for positions and follow up via mobile devices with greater frequency and ease. Yet there is still enormous room left for improvement. The number of firms following one or more mobile practices remains relatively small. Some of these companies have perhaps still not fully appreciated the significance of increasing mobile usage. Others have perhaps not yet determined how they may make the most of this growing opportunity. Regardless of which group they fall into, they risk being left behind in their search for talent. This is a new era in recruiting, no less significant than the launch of the internet. We look forward to seeing how companies progress over the next year and beyond. 9

10 About CareerXroads: The Staffing Strategy Connection The Evolving World of Mobile Recruiting Gerry Crispin and Mark Mehler are the personalities behind CareerXroads and the CareerXroads Colloquium. Mark and Gerry have worked for and with corporations of all sizes in career planning and placement, contract recruiting, executive search, recruitment advertising and human resource management. After years working on the front lines of recruiting, these two saw a new potential in the Internet and in 1994 came together to create CareerXroads These Internet Recruiting Pioneers have formed a thriving international consulting practice that works with many of the world s most competitive corporations to better understand and adopt cutting-edge, recruiting technology solutions to their staffing strategy and process. Gerry and Mark do not sit on for-profit boards, advisory or otherwise, and have no stock in any of the firms in the industry. Nor do they represent any firms in the industry but their own. Gerry does lead a standards task force as part of his volunteer activities with SHRM. You can reach Gerry and Mark at or mmc@careerxroads.com You can also find them participating at conferences, or catch their comments on Linkedin, Twitter, ERE, RecruitingBlogs for starters. More about the CareerXroads Colloquium The CareerXroads Colloquium was created in 2002 to bring together corporate staffing professionals who share a passion for critical analysis and sharing what really works (and what really doesn't) in their firms. The group has evolved into a forum for some of America's top staffing leaders and meets eight times a year across the country, hosted by members. Regularly scheduled webinars on hot topics, monthly commentary on breaking trends and a variety of research and networking activities ensure that members are armed with information and connections. For more on CareerXroads and the CareerXroads Colloquium go to or