Mobile Recruiting

Mobile recruiting is quickly becoming standard in the recruiting industry. Where once it was a nice feature to attract younger job applicants, it’s now an expected form of engagement in the talent acquisition process.

Several industries now have high concentrations of mobile job seekers who occasionally or consistently apply for jobs via their smartphones. According to one study, 64.9% of foodservice job seekers use mobile devices to apply to jobs while 63.1% of transportation job seekers do.

But mobile recruiting goes far beyond posting jobs to mobile-friendly job boards and waiting for applicants to act. Here, we’ll explore how mobile recruiting works and how mobile recruiting software can give your recruitment efforts an edge in the marketplace.

What is mobile recruiting?

Mobile recruiting refers to a recruitment and talent acquisition strategy that leverages mobile devices to attract, engage, and hire candidates. It also encompasses all the technologies and processes involved in facilitating such an initiative.

Recruiting and job posting apps are one of the most popular forms of mobile recruiting. Job applicants can download these applications to their phones, then search for open positions easily using keywords and intuitive sorting features.

But there are many different avenues organizations can follow to engage in mobile recruiting. For example, a company wishing to engage job applicants via their mobile device could do any or all the following:

• Text-to-apply campaigns
• Mobile-first job applications
• AI-powered chatbots and FAQ databases
• Direct text messages to candidates
• Virtual job fairs and interviews

Essentially, if you can do something with a mobile device, you could potentially incorporate it into your hiring process. Some organizations even launch their own mobile apps to engage potential hires and get them interested in the company.

Why is mobile recruiting important?

Mobile recruiting is important because people are doing more through their mobile phones than ever before. Today, almost every consumer owns a smartphone. They are quickly replacing computers as the primary tool for managing one’s life.

Similarly, many of the channels people are most comfortable communicating through are prevalent on mobile devices, including SMS (short message service, or text messaging), social media, and mobile communication apps like WhatsApp.

According to the Pew Research Center, young people are adopting smartphones much faster than older generations. Mobile recruiting is now an essential strategy for attracting younger job applicants.

Finally, mobile recruiting is an important part of creating a better candidate experience. Job candidates shouldn’t be forced to engage in processes they aren’t comfortable with. By meeting candidates through their favorite channels, recruiters, hiring managers, and talent acquisition experts can make recruiting a smoother experience for everyone.

The mobile recruiting process

Mobile recruiting is an important part of the beginning of the recruiting process. Companies can use mobile recruiting tools to attract candidates through career sites, social media, apps, and job sites.

Once they attract candidates, recruiters can encourage them to apply through simple, text-based application processes. Instead of attaching a resume to an email, mobile recruiting enables them to apply via text message or even through social media. This eliminates many of the manual processes involved in applying for a job and improves the candidate experience.

After the initial application, recruiters can engage with candidates via text message or a messaging app to keep the conversation going. Candidates are more likely to respond to a text message than an email, and the process is much more efficient.

What is mobile recruiting software?

Mobile recruiting software refers to any software application that facilitates mobile recruiting activities. A text messaging solution that integrates with your talent acquisition software could be considered a type of mobile recruiting software. Similarly, a platform that collects all your communications via email, text, social media, and more could be considered a type of mobile recruiting software.

You should be able to use your mobile recruiting software to let candidates apply from anywhere. For example, if you’re targeting candidates who don’t sit behind a desk, mobile recruiting software can help you meet them where they are on the channels they prefer, even if you’re miles away.

How does mobile recruiting software work?

Mobile recruiting software should fit directly into your recruiting technology stack. If you use an applicant tracking system (ATS), a candidate relationship management (CRM) tool, and marketing tools to track and engage candidates, your mobile recruiting software should be able to share data with these applications to create a unified experience.

Most of today’s mobile recruiting software is cloud-based. It can be accessed from anywhere, enabling your recruiters to engage and hire candidates no matter where they work.

Some mobile recruiting software suites are features of an overarching recruiting platform that serves to create an end-to-end recruiting strategy. This eliminates some of the technology bloat organizations experience when piecing together the software necessary for their recruiting strategies.

What to look for in mobile recruiting software

Ease-of-use, interoperability, and integrations with your other recruiting technologies are all important factors to consider when searching for a mobile recruiting tool. Stay away from tools that have been “adapted” for mobile use. Instead, look for tools that are “mobile-first,” meaning that they are designed to be used by both your employees and candidates on mobile devices.

The best mobile recruiting tools include features like the following:

• Text recruiting and engagement
• Mobile-friendly career sites
• Text-to-apply and “single click” application features
• Mobile-first marketing tools
• Automated text messaging campaigns
• Mobile-friendly virtual career fairs
• Mobile reporting and analytics

If possible, consider a software suite that includes these features as part of an end-to-end recruiting and applicant tracking platform. This will also help you eliminate any redundancies in your technology stack.

iCIMS’ mobile recruiting software

The iCIMS Talent Cloud provides you with a variety of mobile-first recruiting features, so you can leverage your candidates’ mobile devices to create a more modernized and streamlined candidate experience. With iCIMS Text Engagement, you can meet candidates on their favorite communication apps, including SMS, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and others.

Schedule a demonstration today to find out how iCIMS can turn texts into hires.