Post on 16-Jun-2015
MOBIL ITY & RECRUIT ING
A R O L E P O I N T W H I T E P A P E R B Y @ B I L L B O O R M A N
2RolePoint Inc. © 2014 Mobility & Recruiting
I N T R O D U C T I O N
The mobile discussion has been gaining
momentum over the last few years, and
the data to support the mobile argument
makes the case for integrating recruiting
technology with mobile capability
overwhelming. The discussion is no longer
about “if” but more about “how”.
The case is overwhelming, but the thinking
should be much more than a technology
consideration because mobile changes the
recruitment game for all stakeholders.
Whilst this paper will touch on the
technology aspects, there are plenty of
excellent papers that cover this already.
The real focus is how mobile changes the
way recruitment works. Mobile, or more
specifically “mobility”, changes not just
recruiting but also life in general because
smartphone users become permanently
accessible and connected, and are not
restricted to being plugged in and wired
up. In the way that the reduced cost and
availability of home computers and the
spread of access took the internet from
the office to the home, so the explosion in
Smart device adoption has taken the
internet, and all that this brings, from the
home to our pockets, and that changes
things.
In July 2012 David Armano, the Managing
Director of Edelman Digital, wrote a post in
the Harvard Business Review that
described the concept of mobility in this
way:
“IT’S NOT ABOUT MOBILE AS MUCH AS
IT IS ABOUT UNDERSTANDING
MOBILITY. MOBILITY MEANS
INFORMATION, CONVENIENCE AND
SOCIAL ALL SERVED UP ON THE GO,
ACROSS A VARIETY OF SCREEN SIZES
AND DEVICES. MOBILITY IS RADICALLY
DIFFERENT FROM THE STATIONARY
‘DESKTOP’ EXPERIENCE. IN SOME
CASES, MOBILITY IS A ‘LEAN BACK’
EXPERIENCE LIKE SITTING ON A
COMMUTER TRAIN WATCHING A VIDEO.
IN OTHER CASES IT CAN BE ‘LEAN
FORWARD’ – LIKE SHOPPING FOR A
GIFT WHILE YOU TAKE YOUR LUNCH
BREAK AT THE PARK. AND IN MANY
CASES, IT’S ‘LEAN FREE’ WHEN YOUR
BODY IS IN MOTION, OR YOU’RE
STANDING IN LINE SCANNING NEWS
HEADLINES OR PHOTOS WHILE YOU
WAIT FOR YOUR TURN TO BE CALLED.”
3RolePoint Inc. © 2014 Mobility & Recruiting
In this paper, we are going to consider how
mobility will impact on job seeking,
recruiting, recruiters and social referrals.
Whilst many new ideas and technologies
are described as “game changers”, it is
more often hype over reality. Mobility
though might just be the thing that really
does change the game of recruiting.
4RolePoint Inc. © 2014 Mobility & Recruiting
M O B I L E T E C H N O L O G Y
A L I T T L E H I S T O R Y
The first text message was sent on 3
December 1992, when the 22-year-old
British engineer Neil Papworth used his
computer to wish a “Merry Christmas” to
Richard Jarvis, of Vodafone, on his Orbitel
901 mobile phone. Papworth didn’t get a
reply because there was no way to send a
text from a phone in those days. The first
phone to be able to send text SMS (short
message service) was built in 1993 by
Nokia. Text messaging enabled
messaging on the move, making
communication less dependent on being
“wired in.” The growth of text messaging
as a means of communicating was the
early stages of mobility because people
could receive and reply to messages on
the move. Before cell phones, this had
only been partially achieved by pagers,
which relayed a message to the users,
requiring them to get to a phone line to
respond by voice, or to return a simple
message. The short part of SMS came
from the number of charachters that a
message could be constructed of, 180
including letters, numbers, spaces and
Latin symbols. 40 more than a modern
day tweet! In 1993 Nokia were the first
manufacturer to produce a cell phone
with a keyboard, but it wasn’t until 1999
that texts could be exchanged between
network providers. The IBM Simon was
the first touchscreen phone introduced in
1992. Simon was the first phone that
could send and receive faxes, e-mail and
pages through its touch screen, as well as
integrating features like a notepad and
address book. Although the term Smart
was not yet coined, Simon is considered
to be the first of breed.
Given the rate of adoption first of SMS,
followed by mobile internet and
smartphone technology, it is hard to
remember that we are looking at
relatively recent technology, and it is only
now that we are beginning to appreciate
the benefits that mobility can bring to
recruiting. The mobile landscape has 4
key stakeholders, and each have a
different agenda:
– The users
– The networks
– The device manufacturers
– Third party app manufacturers
5RolePoint Inc. © 2014 Mobility & Recruiting
The interests of each of these parties is
not always the same, which can lead to
confusion when determining mobile
recruiting strategy. Whilst there is no
official definition of what constitutes a
smartphone, the Wikipedia definition is
commonly accepted as correct:
“A SMARTPHONE, OR SMART PHONE, IS
A MOBILE PHONE BUILT ON A MOBILE
OPERATING SYSTEM, WITH MORE
ADVANCED COMPUTING CAPABILITY
AND CONNECTIVITY THAN A FEATURE
PHONE. The first smartphones combined
the functions of a personal digital
assistant (PDA) with a mobile phone.
Later models added the functionality of
portable media players, low-end compact
digital cameras, pocket video cameras,
and GPS navigation units to form one
multi-use device. Many modern
smartphones also include high-resolution
touchscreens and web browsers that
display standard web pages as well as
mobile-optimized sites. High-speed data
access is provided by Wi-Fi and mobile
broadband. In recent years, the rapid
development of mobile app markets and
of mobile commerce have been drivers of
smartphone adoption.
The mobile operating systems (OS) used
by modern smartphones include Google’s
Android, Apple’s iOS, Nokia’s Symbian,
Blackberry Ltd’s BlackBerry OS,
Samsung’s Bada, Microsoft’s Windows
Phone, LG’s webOS, and embedded Linux
distributions such as Maemo and MeeGo.
Such operating systems can be installed
on many different phone models, and
typically each device can receive multiple
OS software updates over its lifetime.”
Worldwide sales of smartphones exceeded
those of feature phones in early 2013. As of
July 18, 2013, 90 percent of global handset
sales are attributed to the purchase of
Android and iPhone smartphones. Aside
from the obvious smartphone, we also
need to consider the impact of other
devices such as tablets, game stations and
other hand held devices, and latterly
wearable technology such as Google Glass.
Whilst not strictly mobile, we should also
consider the implications on recruitment
messaging of Smart TV, as the dynamics
are much the same, in that messaging
occurs in much
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the same way, interrupting another activity
or operating in tandem. The when, where
and how people are viewing content is
changing beyond recognition, and
recruitment messaging needs to keep up.
According to a recent Flurry report, global
smartphone adoption has exploded,
growing faster than any consumer
technology in history.
The rate of Android and iOS device
adoption among international users has
out-paced the 1980s PC revolution, the
1990s Internet boom, and the social
networking craze of the ‘aughts, according
to Flurry, which reported the rate of
smartphone adoption to be 10 times that
of what we might now perceive as the
positively glacial pace of early personal
computer adoption. We should now
consider that the way in which we
communicate with each other is via a
mobile device, and this must impact on
how we think about recruiting.
SO WHAT IS DIFFERENT?
T H E R E L A T I O N S H I P
B E T W E E N S M A R T P H O N E
A N D U S E R
A good place to start considering how
things have changed is by looking at the
relationship between user and device.
Once the need for a wire was removed,
communication became anytime and
anywhere. The rise in popularity of social
media as the primary method of
communication between people, and their
domination of social games by internet
users has significantly increased the
amount of time people spend using their
smart device. In a previous RolePoint
paper, “Gamification in Social Referral and
Recruiting”, we identified the ways in
which user behavior has changed. We
know that people are consuming content
on the move and as a secondary function.
This calls for clarity of messaging and a
simple to operate call to action, as well as
a message that stands out on any screen
because not only are people doing
something else when the message arrives,
they will also be receiving more messaging
from more sources than ever before.
M O B I L E T E C H N O L O G Y
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7RolePoint Inc. © 2013 Mobility & Recruiting
Evidence of how people view their mobile
device can be found in research conducted
by the Pew Center for internet research
published in September 2012:
67% of cell owners find themselves
checking their phone for messages, alerts,
or calls — even when they don’t notice
their phone ringing or vibrating.
44% of cell owners have slept with their
phone next to their bed because they
wanted to make sure they didn’t miss any
calls, text messages, or other updates
during the night.
29% of cell owners describe their cell
phone as “something they can’t imagine
living without.”
67%
44%
29%
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To give this some context, the same
research from Pew identifies (as of
May 2013):
91% of American adults have
a cell phone
56% of American adults have
a smartphone
28% of cell owners own an Android
25%
own an iPhone
4%
own a Blackberry
34% of American adults own a tablet
computer
26% of American adults own an e-reader
63% of adult cell owners now use their
phones to go online, a figure that has
doubled since the tracking of internet
usage on cell phones began (by Pew)
34% of cell internet users say that they
mostly go online using their cell phone.
That means that 21% of all adult cell
owners now do most of their online
browsing using their mobile phone as
opposed to some other device such as a
desktop or laptop computer.
——
This respected research paints a clear
picture of the average smartphone user
in the US, where the smartphone is often
described as an extension of the self,
essential for every aspect of life, and the
principle way in which a growing number
of people connect with the internet.
M O B I L E T E C H N O L O G Y
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In terms of what activities internet users
are engaging in on mobile vs. desktop,
Experian Marketing Services found in Q1
2013 that US mobile internet users spent
the greatest percentage of their mobile
web time using email, a 23% share of time
spent vs. only 5% of time spent on
desktop. Social networking came in second
on mobile, garnering 15% of time spent.
Travel also occupied a greater share of
time on the mobile internet (9%)
compared with the desktop (1%). Video
accounts for 69% of mobile data traffic.
Time spent on mobile internet by US
mobile internet users by activity, Q1 2013
Mins/hr% of Total
Notes: ages 18+; includes mobile browsing with an app;
excludes app usage; read chart as if time spent on mobile
devices in 2012 was distilled into 1 hour, then 14 minutes
(23.3%) of it would be spent on email; numbers may not
add up to 100% due to rounding
Soure: Experian Marketing Services as cited in press
release, April 16th 2013
Email 14 23.3
Social Networking 9 14.9
Entertainment 8 13.0
Shopping & Classifieds 6 10.8
Travel 6 9.3
Business & Finance 5 8.2
Lifestyle 4 7.2
News & Media 3 5.0
Other 5 8.4
10RolePoint Inc. © 2014 Mobility & Recruiting
M O B I L E T E C H N O L O G Y
T H E C H A N G I N G
R E C R U I T I N G T I M E S
When we consider what people are doing
on their mobile device, we begin to build
a clearer picture of where mobile fits in
with users and what they are doing. The
working day has been extended into life,
with people using every available moment
to be either productive or social and
connected.
This is important for recruiters to understand,
because recruiting technology needs to fit in
with the changes in user behavior. An
average mobile phone user checks their
phone up to 150 times a day; it’s the first and
last thing they check everyday. If you want to
reach them with recruitment messaging,
content or communication, then mobile
needs to be your primary consideration,
along with mobility, and the fact that you are
probably interrupting another activity, like
commuting, waiting in line or watching the
television.
In researching this paper, we have been
tracking the peak times for access to 40
career sites (25 US/15 UK), by mobile
device. We have witnessed the following
peak times for the last 3 months:
– 6.10am - 9.15am - This covers the
pre-work time and morning commute.
– 10.45am - 11.10am - The morning break
– 11.50am - 2.12pm - Lunch
– 4.45pm - 9.45pm - This time shows a
continuous rise peaking at 9.45. Other
internet research shows that this is also
the optimum time for recreational
activity, in particular gaming, where
users will be connected with up to 3
devices completing 3 different tasks, as
well as potentially having the TV
playing in the background.
The other important consideration is the
changing hours of jobseekers and people
looking to connect and engage. In the
past, people expected and were happy to
wait for answers. They searched for
opportunities on a PC, fired off an
application and were happy to wait for a
response. When they wanted more
information or clarification of a point, they
were happy to fire off an e-mail or
complete a form and wait for a reply.
Social media, and in particular mobility,
has meant that people have an
expectation of an instant response. They
want to engage with a person in real time,
and their times are different to traditional
office times.
It is clear from this data that we should
consider e-mail and social media as mobile
messaging. A mobile message is different
to a traditional communication, so any link
or call to action needs to be mobile
optimized. Talent acquisition teams need
to consider these changing dynamics in
order to understand and reach their target
audience in the most effective way, while
using the most popular channels.
InternetEmail Total Cell Internet Use
5 5 %6 0 %
A P R I L 1 2A P R I L 0 9 M A Y 1 3M A Y 1 0 M A Y 1 1
5 2 %
4 4 %4 4 %
3 8 %3 8 %3 4 %
2 5 %
3 1 %
4 3 %
4 7 %
6 3 %
2 5 %
5 3 %
A L M O S T 2 / 3 O F C E L L O W N E R S
G O O N L I N E U S I N G T H E I R P H O N E S
Percentage of cell phone owners who use
internet or email on their device:
Source: Pew Intetnet & American Life Project Spring Tracking
Survey, April 17-May19 2013. The margin of error for results based
on cell phone owners is +/-2.4 percentage points.
12RolePoint Inc. © 2014 Mobility & Recruiting
M O B I L E T E C H N O L O G Y
It is worth noting that 90% of smartphone
users’ web access is via applications.
Whilst this might seem high, it’s not when
you consider the main internet pastimes.
Research from the CEA (Consumer
Electronics Association) came up with
the following results when measuring
smartphone use in the USA:
The top activities in terms of average time
spent each day included talking (23
minutes), texting (20 minutes), using email
(18 minutes), visiting websites (16 minutes)
and social networking (11 minutes). Across
different activities, smartphone owners
spend an average of nearly two hours (114
minutes) using their devices each day.
“The degree to which consumers use their
smartphones primarily as data information
hubs, mostly forgoing devices’ traditional
purpose, is significant,” Shawn DuBravac,
Chief Economist and Senior Director of
Research for CEA, said in a statement.
“Smartphones have become the viewfinder
of our digital life. How smartphone
utilization evolves has incredible
implications moving forward.”
See more at: http://www.eweek.com/
mobile/smartphone-owners-spend-time-
with-social-networking-email-apps.
html#sthash.M6kyDzqo.dpuf
R E L E V A N C E O F M E S S A G I N G
The pattern we are seeing emerge shows
users with a short attention span, a low
tolerance to time wasting and an instant
dislike of spam. A good definition of spam
in relation to mobility is an irrelevant or
non-targeted message, and given the high
volume of emails now opened on a mobile
device, this applies across the full range of
messaging from SMS to email. To
appreciate the importance of this, we need
to look at the relationship between people
and the device they use, which goes far
beyond the normal relationship between
man and technology, given the strong
emotional attachment felt by users.
When considering messaging and content
sharing via mobile, it is important to
consider this relationship between user
and device in all activities. This is
interruption marketing 3.0 because you
will be reaching people when they are
doing something else, usually checking in
13RolePoint Inc. © 2014 Mobility & Recruiting
or indulging in recreational pastimes like
game playing or chatting in social
channels, or when they are on the move.
Your update comes in, their device pings,
they reach for it and check the incoming
message or update. The need to check
incoming content has been compared to
an addictive reaction. Users who lose their
device or connectivity experience extreme
stress and panic, and have a need to be
reconnected. It is a strange phenomenon
of the mobile age, where content and
updates need to respect personal space,
have a high degree of targeted relevance
to the user, and enable the user to make a
very quick choice to act or discard.
The next important consideration in this is
the user interface and ease of navigation
on any screen size. Screens are getting
smaller, when we consider products like
Google Glass or the Samsung Galaxy Gear
watch. Whilst wearable devices might
seem a little sci-fi at the moment, it wasn’t
that long ago that we were saying the
same thing about devices like the iPad.
Technology is getting smaller, quicker and
even more of an extension of self. Process
need to be re-engineered to take this into
account. Actions and navigation needs to
be simple and clear, with limited friction. It
is not enough to move a traditional online
process and make it mobile. The whole
process of connecting, engaging and
applying needs to be re-engineered, giving
each user a personal experience. We have
a long way to go with this, and the tech
will become mainstream faster than we
think in one format or another, so
recruiting process needs to keep up.
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C A L L S T O A C T I O N
All recruiting messages and updates need
a clear call to action and defined next step.
It is important to remember to keep the
whole candidate journey within a mobile
optimized environment. This means paying
special attention to the volume of clicks
required to register interest, as well as the
screen position and design of any call to
action buttons. In a recent split test for a
large corporate recruiter, bookmarking
pages from mobile to desktop resulted in
an abandonment rate (including non-
completion) of 63% compared to 19% with
end to end mobile optimization in a
continuous process. It is clear from this
that good candidates and potential
employees are dropping out when required
to step out of the mobile environment.
The test demonstrated that optimum
results are achieved when the total number
of clicks (or taps) required by a candidate
were 11 or less with no further information
required to register interest. This means
rethinking not just recruitment messaging
but the full recruitment process end to
end.
For most companies this starts with a
review of the application process, which
for the most part has not changed alot
since companies moved from offline to
online in the Web 1.0 era. This was the first
real opportunity to change things, and
mirrors the challenges faced now when
considering a world that is mobile.
Recruitment process, for the most part,
dictates that candidates supply
information, apply for jobs and upload
documents such as the resume typically
via an ATS. It is easy to see how this
process does not translate to a mobile
world. Companies that recognize this (and
the numbers are still quite small), have
recognized the need to move from an
apply process to one that requires a simple
connection as an expression of interest.
Whilst there has been much talk of the
need for mobile apply, this is really simply
replicating an existing process which is
now dated. Online profiles such as LinkedIn
and other data sources present the
opportunity to profile without the need for
the candidates to submit any more than
permissions, and this can be a one tap
operation enabling profiling and push
notifications and messaging tailored to the
individual based on their personal data.
M O B I L E T E C H N O L O G Y
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Tailoring the user experience to the
individual rather than taking a one size fits
all approach is critical when we consider
the personal aspect of mobile messaging
and recruiting.
E - M A I L A N D M O B I L E
Despite the explosive growth of social
media, e-mail remains the principal form of
communication in the recruitment process.
Between October 2010 and October 2013
mobile opens of e-mail has increased by
over 450%. According to marketing
company Litmus Labs, 42% of the email
client market share is on a mobile platform
such as iPhone, iPad or Android.
ExactTarget reveals that 56% of consumers
with a smartphone have purchased
something as a result of an email message.
See more at: http://www.
onlinemarketinginstitute.org/
blog/2013/05/4-best-practices-for-mobile-
email-marketing/#sthash.3PGb9dZF.dpuf
This means e-mail messaging needs to be
crafted for mobile first.
According to the Email Sender and
Provider Coalition, 69% of e-mail recipients
delete messages without reading them
based on recognition of the sender and
the content of the subject line. Given the
reactive nature of instant review on receipt
on a mobile device, this is another critical
factor in mobile recruiting. The name of
the mailing account needs to be easy for
the recipient to recognize from the source,
and the subject line needs to be clear and
easy to understand, with no more than 35
characters. The call to action (or next
step), needs to be visible in the preview
pane, because the reader wants to be able
to determine quickly if they want to
proceed. It is also important to remember
that the mobile reader will scroll and read
down rather than across, and conversions
to the next step are greatly increased
when a large call to action button with a
simple message is located at the bottom
of the mail, such as “download our app”,
“connect with us” or “join our talent
network.” Remembering the attrition rate
when readers are taken from a mobile
environment to a non-mobile one, it is
important to remember that the
destination needs to go mobile to mobile
and be quick and easy to navigate.
16RolePoint Inc. © 2014 Mobility & Recruiting
M O B I L E T E C H N O L O G Y
Another critical factor in mobile is load
time. Because users are often on the
move, load time needs to be instant, with
the facility to cache any information
already supplied should the user lose
connectivity for example during a train
journey.
C A N D I D A T E P R O F I L I N G
A N D T A R G E T I N G
E-commerce in the retail sector often leads
the way in innovation. We can draw a lot of
parallels with what has happened in the
retail sector and what is going to be a
trend in online shopping if we consider the
candidate as a consumer. There are clear
patterns between the way people buy and
the way people look for jobs and change
jobs. The winners in the war for customers
adopt strategy and tactics that can be
mirrored in the war for talent. One area
that stands out in relation to this is
candidate profiling. This begins by
considering what a candidate actually is.
Smart companies have begun to
differentiate between candidates and
applicants. Candidates are classified as
anyone connecting with an organization in
relation to careers, for example
downloading a career site app or being
referred to an organization, whereas an
applicant is someone who has applied for
a specific opportunity and is being
measured against those requirements. The
applicant process is transactional and lasts
for the time the vacancy is open or the
applicant is rejected, with the next step
determined by the recruiter.
By contrast, the candidate process is one
of on-going relationship and is determined
by the actions of the candidate
themselves, who will choose to opt in (stay
connected), or opt out. The candidate will
choose the point at which they want to be
an applicant driven by triggers such as the
notification of an open opportunity. In
retail terms, it is the difference between
being interested in products and brands,
and choosing to actively buy. The
relationship is driven by making it easy for
the consumer to get to know both the
brand and their products. Once the
connection is made, the retailer collects
data on every visit and transaction to get
to know the potential customer better, and
to customize the experience in order to
convert them to active customers
spending dollars. The challenge for the
17RolePoint Inc. © 2014 Mobility & Recruiting
hiring company is getting a target
audience who meet an employer profile to
connect and be receptive to employment
brand marketing and notifications of
opportunity. Mobile creates great
opportunities in this area because
connection is as simple as tapping a
button as a call to action, with a trigger
distributed by e-mail or social media
messaging to a personal mobile device
that is accessible during the down times
when people are browsing, checking in and
responding. The talent network approach
via mobile enables easy tracking and
profiling of candidates in order to ensure
the content shared is highly relevant to the
profile of the individual. The more relevant
the content to the candidate, the more
likely they will respond positively to
triggers like jobs and choose to become
applicants.
I N T E R N A L M O B I L I T Y
One of the other areas often overlooked
when considering the potential benefits of
a mobile recruiting strategy is internal
mobility and internal engagement. Whilst
much of recruitment messaging is pointed
towards the outside world, the internal
audience is equally important. An internal
talent network provides the channel to
keep employees informed about
opportunities that match their skills and
experience, and to share culture brand
content about their workplace and
company. When Sodexo launched their
mobile recruiting app in 2011, the app was
built to give users a different experience
(and content) if they were an employee, a
former employee or external candidate.
This included considerations around areas
like what jobs were visible, content options
and navigation. The surprising results to
come from the launch has been that the
most hires came from internal applicants
who benefited from having visibility to
relevant jobs and an easy way to express
interest and get more information in order
to make an informed choice in their own
time rather than being dependent on a
static intranet.
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T H E M O B I L E R E C R U I T E R
When planning a mobile strategy it is easy
to concentrate on the marketing aspect.
But it is also critical to consider the
opportunity presented as an operating
system for recruiters. Mobility impacts
everybody and can be used to speed up
the recruiting process by enabling
recruiters to conduct tasks in downtime, in
particular, actioning next steps and
communicating. Dutch start up Hunite
launched a mobile aggregator that takes
push notifications from all HR systems and
enables employees to action items through
a simple call to action button and access
the data they need to make decisions. In
recruiting terms, this can be enabling
actions like scheduling interviews,
reviewing resumes, communicating with
line managers, applicants and candidates,
sourcing etc. Consideration needs to be
given to what are easy actions that can be
conducted in down time that improve
efficiency, a common theme in successful
mobile strategy.
S O C I A L R E F E R R A L
Plugging in to employees’ social networks
provides the biggest potential source for
candidates and applicants but the big
challenge is gaining employee engagement
and participation on an ongoing basis.
Whilst there might be a flurry of activity at
launch, there is drop off at equal speed.
One of the big causes of this is that the
process of referring becomes too time
consuming, or requires the employees to
do all the heavy lifting. This is resolved by
messaging via mobile with a simple call to
action button to trigger the next stage,
such as forward, yes/no, endorse etc. This
enables employees to contribute to your
pipeline outside of core work hours
because mobile offers 24 hour reach. As
with all mobile strategy, ease of navigation,
(scroll and tap), a clear call to action
button, limited text, mobile optimization
for reading without needing to pinch or
stretch, fitting multiple screen size, relevant
messaging and limited text are critical
factors for conversion.
M O B I L E T E C H N O L O G Y
19RolePoint Inc. © 2014 Mobility & Recruiting
V
19RolePoint Inc. © 2013 Mobility & Recruiting
V I D E O
YouTube reported in 2013 that over 40% of
global watch time was via a mobile device.
Video presents a great opportunity to
showcase culture brand in an authentic
way, with cost being significantly reduced
through the use of a mobile device and
applications like Instagram and Vine (for
Twitter), or full video suite app like Cameo
that enable editing and collaboration and
delivers content responsive to screen size.
shooting from mobile for mobile.
The key considerations for mobile video is
sound, lighting, load time and with limited
movement and graphics. Load time and
rendering is critical in this, as with all
mobile content because mobile users have
a much lower patience threshold over
waiting for content because they are
viewing whilst doing something else in
their personal time. It is this aspect of
mobility that is a critical consideration in all
content, not just video. Fewer words, clear
messaging, communicating by video and
picture images with easy navigation,
reduced load time, an easy call to action
requiring limited user input will lead to
success in recruitment messaging.
The growth of video interviewing (which in
most cases would be better termed video
screening) presents new opportunities via
mobile, in particular when it comes to
reducing fill time, a major factor in
recruiting effectiveness. The video
interview providers such as HireVue, Sonru,
Cameo and WePow have all integrated
mobile in to their offering, meaning
screening questions can be sent out and
responded to in a much quicker time with
less friction in the process, and responses
can be shared with recruiters and hiring
managers in real time. The logistics of
using video to screen and to interview
greatly reduces time to hire and the
associated admin costs. Whilst a lot of
attention and discussion has been around
mobile reach and the potential for talent
attraction, we should now be thinking
around the full process being responsive
and instant.
20RolePoint Inc. © 2014 Mobility & Recruiting
M O B I L E T E C H N O L O G Y
C O N C L U S I O N S
Mobile and the mobility of candidates and
applicants means the lag time between
actions such as enticing interest, job
distribution, applying, reviewing, screening
and actioning from offer to decline can be
significantly reduced through the
combination of automated recruiting
technology such as social referral
platforms, talent networks and profile
aggregators because all people on both
sides of the hiring equation: audience,
candidates, applicants, recruiters and
hiring managers, are accessible at all times
with an instant processing time. This
necessitates changing processes in line
with technology, and it is the people
aspect that is often overlooked when
considering mobile strategy. As with any
technology integration, the first
consideration needs to be “How does this
change the way we need to work.” Much
time has been spent arguing the need for
investment in mobile, but this should no
longer be the consideration. Users have
gone beyond critical mass, and mobile is
firmly established as the principle means
of communication for most people. The
cost and capability of the devices are ever
improving, and the cost of mobile data use
is ever reducing. All people in the process
are more accessible than ever around the
clock, and instant, responsive technology
requires instant, responsive processes to
appreciate the real benefits of mobile and
mobility. Responsive is not just a
consideration for web design.
Mobile, and more specifically mobility,
presents the opportunity to rethink
everything that we do and why we do it, so
we are not just trying to transfer existing
processes to a mobile platform. The key
lessons from the companies who have
done this well (and they are limited) are:
– Build mobile first with consideration for
every screen size
– Concentrate on relevance of messaging
– Keep all actions within mobile channels
– Make all steps actionable via a call to
action button
– Reduce the need for data input by all
users, aggregating available data from
other sources
– Easy navigation on any device is critical
21RolePoint Inc. © 2014 Mobility & Recruiting
– Load time needs to be kept to a
minimum
– Social, e-mail , SEO and video is
mobile first
– Actions need to be responsive and
instant outside of normal office hours
– Recruiting process/job seeking is a
secondary activity completed in down
time. You are always interrupting
something else
– Candidates and applicants are
different. Respond accordingly
– Look to constantly reduce steps (and
taps) in the recruiting process
– Mobility is as important a consideration
as mobile technology
– Internal audience is as important as
external audience
– A mobile enabled social referral
network will greatly improve employee
participation and results
– Tracking mobile data and analytics and
constant change is essential to improve
process
Mobile and mobility is the new era. Don’t
miss out or make the mistakes of the past.
Think process as well as technology for
everyone in the process to reduce time and
cost, and stand out as a potential
employer.
22RolePoint Inc. © 2014 Mobility & Recruiting
M O B I L E T E C H N O L O G Y
N E X T S T E P S
W W W . R O L E P O I N T . C O M
I N Q U I R I E S @ R O L E P O I N T . C O M
Nasdaq clients, building the principles that
help companies generate 70%+ referral
rates into a software-as-a-service platform.
Understanding that at the core of any
successful referral program is the
employee, RolePoint focuses on providing
an engaging, transparent and frictionless
experience, making it easy to identify
talented connections to refer.
For recruitment teams, RolePoint offers a
comprehensive set of tools, enabling
tracking, automation and recruitment
intelligence for greater control and insight
into referrals within your organization.
B I L L B O O R M A N
The author, Bill Boorman, has over 30
years’ experience in and around recruiting.
He has spent the last 3 years working with
social recruiting technology start-ups on
product and with corporate clients
including Hard Rock Café, Oracle and the
BBC to integrate social into their recruiting
practices. Bill has also hosted recruiting
events in over 30 countries worldwide.
R O L E P O I N T
RolePoint delivers employee referral
solutions to a range of Fortune 500 and
C O N TAC T U S TO S C H E D U L E A F R E E E M P LOY E E R E F E R R A L
C O N S U LTAT I O N W I T H B I L L B O O R M A N
C O N TAC T U S TO F I N D O U T M O R E A B O U T RO L E P O I N T A N D A R R A N G E
A D E M O N S T R AT I O N
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