Imagine living in a world where people carry around desktop computers with them everywhere they go. As funny as this is to picture, there is no need to stress your imagination – just look around you. Every person engaging with a smartphone is actually using a fully capable computer.
It is said that a smartphone may process more information in one day than a home computer does all week (depending on the person). This is the reason companies make their products and services accessible through mobile apps. It is also the reason why some businesses are thinking beyond services to issue job posts and accept applications through mobile apps, too.
Alex Douzet, CEO of TheLadders.com thinks it won’t be long before people move their employment searches to their mobile devices. According to a Mashable article, Douzet claims “…career search activity on mobile [is] about 35% today, with around 65% still relying on desktop.” But with 70-90 per cent of online activity in areas like gaming and social networking coming from mobile devices, the demand for mobile recruiting tools may come sooner than we think.
Still, not many companies have acted on the predictable rise of mobile job searches. Out of the 2013 Fortune 500 companies only 26 utilize apps for recruitment purposes. But others are beginning to see the benefits of making such an investment. Creating another avenue for application submission will not only increase the number of responses an employer gets from a job post, but it may also boost the quality of the candidate.
Susan Vitale is the CMO at iCIMS. She explains this from the job seekers perspective:
“Essentially, the goal [with mobile job applications] is to make sure that when you do see a job opportunity listed, you can apply right away (when you’re excited about it!) versus having to bookmark the site and come back to it once you’re back on your computer.”
Every company seeks to find the best and the brightest employees. Moving towards mobile recruiting may be the best way to broaden the talent pool. While this can be seen as an additional benefit now, it may become a necessity in the near future. If employers fail to cater to the rising mobile job search market they might be missing out on the talented applicants they’ve seen in the past.
Companies recognize that some people use their mobile devices more than computers. As they shift the exposure for their products and services to mobile platforms, will they do the same with their recruitment plans? This reality might not be too far off.
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