Bullhorn mobilepoweredselling

How Leading Recruiting Firms Win More Business Using Mobile Technology

MOBILE-POWERED Selling:

21.888.GOLIVE8 • [email protected] • @BULLHORN

Table of Contents3 Executive Summary

4 Introduction

5 The Mobile Megatrend

7 Recruitment Industry Rings in Mobile

10 Account Managers, Connected Any Time, Anywhere

11 Mobile Access, Fuels Staffing Sales Success

12 Mobile Hang-Ups Holding Firms Back

13 Unlocking Mobile Success

16 The Mobile-Powered Client Meeting

18 Conclusion

19 About Bullhorn


EXECUTIVE SUMMARY • Mobile technology is changing the way recruiting firms operate and the way recruiting

professionals work. While it’s obvious that staffing and recruiting firms must evolve their online presence to support candidates applying through mobile devices, it is far less clear how mobile will impact their full-time employees, the recruiting and account management professionals who work with clients and candidates.

• Mobile access to the ATS gives users the flexibility to perform recruiting tasks from anywhere at any time, which is a huge advantage for recruiting firms. Bullhorn’s 2013 Staffing and Recruiting Trends Survey reported that 84% of staffing professionals consider mobile access to their ATS/CRM to be important to their success.

• Bullhorn’s survey research suggests firms see the primary opportunity to leverage mobile being within their sales function. One-hundred percent (100%) of the staffing salespeople polled who spent more than half their time outside in meetings considered mobile access important, with 86% considering it “extremely important.”

• Empowering sales and account managers with fully mobile-ready ATS and CRM capabilities produces clear business benefits. Account managers and sales personnel can spend more time face-to-face with clients and prospects, as well as showcase the firm’s capabilities by having more timely and accurate data available during meetings.


INTRODUCTION Mobile usage is soaring worldwide. Smartphone and tablet usage is on a trajectory to surpass the usage of desktop computers. Like leaders in other industries, recruitment executives see potential in taking their businesses mobile. While the need to support candidates — whether searching and applying for jobs or logging time — via mobile is clear, how recruiting professionals can harness the mobile revolution to improve performance of internal staff is not. Bullhorn analyzed the actual usage data of the thousands of recruiting professionals using its fourth generation mobile product to gain insight into how firms are successfully leveraging mobile technology.


Mobile is exploding. By the end of 2013, the number of mobile-connected devices is expected to exceed the world’s population.1 What’s more, mobile devices aren’t just telephones anymore; today’s smartphones are powerful computers in their own right, enabling constant Internet connectivity. Global mobile data traffic grew by 70% in 2012, amounting to nearly 12 times the size of the entire global Internet in 2000.2 Mobile Internet usage will surpass desktop Internet use in the next few years.

THE MOBILE Megatrend

1,2 Cisco Visual Networking Index: Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update, 2012-2017

2,000

1,600

1,200

800

4002007 2009 2011 2013 2015

Mobile vs. Desktop Internet Usage

INT

ER

NE

T U

SE

RS

DESKTOPUSERS

MOBILEUSERS


3,4 Cisco Visual Networking Index: Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update, 2012-2017

The rapid adoption of

Internet-connected

smartphones and tablets

represents a fundamental

shift in the way people

access the Web.

This mobile megatrend opens up a whole

new dimension for businesses, just like the

Internet did in the ‘90s, shifting the way

many industries operate. Uber, Hailo, and

other startups, for example, are transforming

the taxi and car hire industry by enabling

riders to connect directly with drivers via

mobile without the cost and hassle of using

dispatchers. Mobile banking has changed the

traditional banking landscape; consumers can

check their balances, view transaction history,

and transfer money right from their mobile

devices. Also, companies like Starbucks

have rolled out mobile payment software

through prepaid cards, enabling consumers

to pay their bills at the register using their

smartphones.

The mobile megatrend is impacting not only

the U.S. but the entire world. In 2012, mobile

data traffic grew by 44% in Western Europe

and 95% in the Asia Pacific region.3 Overall

global mobile data traffic is expected to grow

at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of

66% by 2017.4


How is the mobile

megatrend

impacting the

multibillion dollar

global recruitment

industry? Will mobile be

transformative or produce

smaller, more incremental

changes? While it’s still early

in the game, it appears that

mobile will primarily impact

two aspects of the recruiting

industry: the candidate

experience and sales/

account management.

The most obvious and

immediate impact of mobile

on the recruitment industry

is in the way recruiting

and staffing firms interact

with millions of candidates

every day. Much of this

communication has already

migrated to the Internet.

Email now represents the

bulk of pre-placement

communication, and

post-placement time and

expense management is

increasingly handled via

online time cards. Much of

this activity will naturally

shift to the mobile Internet

as part of this broad

trend. In fact, recruiting

communication may

migrate more quickly due

to the inherent sensitivity

of new employment-

related communication for

candidates already gainfully

employed. It’s only natural

that candidates might

hesitate to use their work

desktop when seeking new

opportunities. Millennials,

who are heavy mobile

users, will further

accelerate the shift

as they become 50%

of the employed

workforce5.

RECRUITMENT INDUSTRY Rings in Mobile

5 What Millennials Want, Examiner.com, June, 2010


There seems

to be a lack of

acknowledgement by

recruiting firms that

job seekers want to

interact with recruiters

and apply for jobs

from their mobile

phones. A 2013 Simply

Hired report found that

86% of job seekers said

they would use mobile

technology if it simplified

the process of applying for

a job.6 Despite the fact that

mobile technology provides

a fast and convenient way

to connect with candidates,

many firms are unprepared

to support job seekers

applying via mobile.

An iMomentous Fortune

500 Mobile Readiness

Report recently showed that

only 33% of companies have

a mobile-optimized careers

section and just 3% have a

mobile apply function.7 The

majority of recruiting and

staffing firms seem similarly

unprepared. While mobile

apps are convenient for

pre-placement activities,

they can also be useful for

post-placement functions

such as time and expense

management, which allow

employees to submit their

hours from the jobsite directly

from their mobile phones.

While it’s obvious that

recruiting firms must

optimize their online

presence for mobile, it is far

less clear how mobile will

impact their employees and

the way they do their jobs.

These employees already

rely heavily on software

that helps them automate

the large number of tasks

they perform each day. The

average recruiter executes

more than 300 clicks per

day in his or her applicant

tracking system/customer

relationship management

system (ATS/CRM)

according to Bullhorn’s

usage data, which is about

six times the number that

86% OF JOB SEEKERS

said they would use mobile technology if it simplified the process of applying for a job.

6,7 Recruiters – Why You Need a Mobile Friendly Recruitment Website, Web-based Recruitment, May 2013


the average non-recruiter executes. The ATS is

used by recruiters to manage job orders and

the large volume of resumes and applicants

they receive for each position, which produces

an average of 188 applicants per opening.8

Ninety-three percent (93%) of

recruiting firms reported using

an applicant tracking system

(ATS) in 2012.9

Mobile access to the ATS gives users the

flexibility to perform recruiting tasks from

anywhere at any time, which is a huge

advantage for recruiting firms.

Indeed, according to Bullhorn’s 2013 recruiting

trends survey, 84% of staffing professionals

said they consider mobile access to their ATS/

CRM to be important to their success, with

53% of respondents saying it was “extremely

important.”10

While mobile is considered to be important,

salespeople appear to be the only employees

fully leveraging mobile and the freedom

this technology has given them. Recruiters,

who are not on the road as often as account

managers, should still harness the power

of mobile to improve efficiency and stay

connected with candidates after business hours.

But how exactly are recruiting and staffing

professionals’ jobs changing as recruiting

tools become accessible via smartphones and

tablets? What new ways of working might

emerge that better serve clients and improve

effectiveness and efficiency?

84%

53%

Mobile Access

EXTREMELYIMPORTANT

IMPORTANT

8 News and Trends in Management, The Wall Street Journal, February 2012

9 2012 Recruiting/Talent Acquisition Survey: Technology, Staffing Industry Analysts, July 2012

10“Two Steps Forward, One Step Back: North American Staffing and Recruiting Trends Report,” Bullhorn, Inc., 2013


Bullhorn’s survey research suggests that

firms see the primary opportunity to

leverage mobile being within their sales

function. Indeed, “mobile recruiting” looks

to be a misnomer; “mobile selling” might

be more apt. One-hundred percent of the

staffing salespeople polled who spent more

than half their time outside in meetings

considered mobile access important, with

86% considering it “extremely important.”

The survey results overall suggest

that salespeople are 24% more likely

to consider mobile access to the

ATS/CRM “extremely important”

than recruiters. Perhaps this is because

salespeople travel to meet clients whereas

recruiters work almost entirely from the

office. Salespeople have always been early

adopters of technology. For example, they

were the first to embrace smartphones and

customer relationship management (CRM)

tools,11 and therefore may be harbingers of

how the general business public will be using

mobile in the future.

While mobile currently provides a

strong advantage for sales and account

management professionals, it may have

a limited upside for recruiters who don’t

spend as much time out in the field. With

the exception of executive search recruiters,

most recruiters spend the majority of their

time working from their desks and don’t

often travel out of the office to meet with

candidates. Although mobile may not seem

compelling to recruiters now, it does provide

them with the ability to perform interviews

after hours (when candidates are more

available) and review activity notes at home

or on the road via tablets. The flexibility

mobile provides will bring more

speed and collaboration to recruiting

teams that take advantage of this

powerful business tool.

ACCOUNT MANAGERS Connected Any Time, Anywhere

11 The Future of Sales Technology, Inc.com, December 2012


MOBILE ACCESSFuels Staffing Sales Success

1. Better Client Service — Account managers and sales personnel can spend more time

face-to-face with clients and prospects, providing a more personalized experience. A mobile

application also enables account managers to have the latest up-to-date information before and

during each meeting so that they can get more things done.

2. More Timely and Accurate Data — Sales personnel can enter in jobs immediately

after meeting with a client, getting recruiters on the hunt before they even return to the office and

subsequently giving their firms a better chance to fill new job orders. A mobile app allows them to

enter in notes right after a meeting when thoughts are still fresh in their minds.

3. Better-Showcased Capabilities — The ability to look up candidate inventory

on the fly gives clients a more concrete sense of a recruiting firm’s abilities. According to

Bullhorn Mobile usage data, “viewing candidate information” is the most commonly used mobile

functionality. Finding and reviewing actual candidate information side-by-side with the client

leaves a strong impression.

4. Reporting Access — For executives, mobile access provides the ability to stay on top of

the business at all times. Mobile recruiting apps allow executives to view key reports that monitor

activities such as recruiter performance and provide insight into the sales pipeline.

Empowering sales and account managers with fully mobile-ready ATS and CRM capabilities produces clear business benefits. Most notably:

“Mobile allows us access to the most current information available about our clients, candidates, open job orders, and placements. This allows our staff to stay informed and enter more relevant information in the system in a quicker timeframe.”

— JON THEOPHILUS

Director of Information Technology

Brooksource


MOBILE HANG-UPSHolding Firms Back

1 FunctionalityVery few ATS/CRM vendors have provided mobile solutions that are capable of robustly

performing key recruiting functions. Many vendors offer mobile websites that are used for

information gathering; however, this doesn’t do much for salespeople. A credible mobile

experience should focus on only the key functions (e.g. entering notes or jobs) that a team

needs while on the road.

2 Usability ATS/CRM vendors that do offer some mobile capabilities often just try to shrink their

existing Web software down to a mobile format instead of tailoring it to the specific

screen parameters and interaction properties of mobile devices. This doesn’t work, so it

doesn’t get adopted.

3 WorkflowFirms with highly specific workflow or terminology may need to configure aspects of

their mobile ATS/CRM interface in order to match well enough to generate successful

field adoption.

4 Old HabitsExperienced recruiters who have had success over the years using old techniques may be

hesitant to adopt new tools.

Despite the benefits of a mobile platform, many

recruiting firms have yet to adopt these tools

because they are being held back by a few challenges.


UNLOCKINGMobile Success

Despite the challenges, some staffing and

recruiting firms already empower their sales

and account management teams with easy

mobile access to the critical software tools

they need for better client support and

more successful sales calls. To understand

exactly how, Bullhorn analyzed anonymous

second-by-second usage data from

thousands of Bullhorn Mobile users over an

eight-month period. The results paint a vivid

picture of how recruitment professionals

successfully leverage mobile recruiting

technology to improve the way they work.

Mobile recruitment software usage is

surprisingly consistent across time of day

as shown in the graph below.

The busiest periods are morning and

afternoon business hours, with another peak

in the evening.

1PM-5PM

AFTERNOON

11AM-1PM

LUNCH

6AM-11AM

MORNING

11PM-6AM

LATE NIGHT

7PM-11PM

EVENING

5PM-7PM

EVENING COMMUTE

20%

14%

23%

13%

19%

11%

The hard-charging nature — or perhaps also the insomnia-inducing stress — of the recruiting industry fuels mobile usage deep into the night!


Analyzing the specific

actions users perform

with Bullhorn Mobile

yields further insight into

how staffing professionals

are leveraging mobile

recruiting technology.

Aggregated into broad

categories in the graph

above, client research

and candidate review

represent by far the

largest amount of activity.

Finding the right client,

contact, or candidate

relies heavily on

the mobile “search”

function; about a tenth

of research activity is

searching, comprising

8% of all actions users

take. Productively sifting

through a firm’s entire

database using small

smartphone screens

and keypads requires a

careful UI design. Simply

repurposing desktop

search and list viewing is a

recipe for user frustration

and low adoption.

About half of client

research (20% of total

usage) entails viewing

individual client contacts,

with the rest of usage

focused on reviewing

client company records

(11%) and open jobs and

placements (8%).

At first glance, the

relatively small proportion

of activity devoted to

adding and updating

records via mobile — once

for every 17 times a user

views records — might

suggest low importance.

But in fact, viewing

records is far more

common than adding

or updating records via

desktop applications as

well. And the immediate

capture and sharing of

new job orders and other

account information from

account managers in

the field provides their

recruiting teams with

an enormously valuable

43%

41%

1%

8%

2%

5%

Tasks Performed in Bullhorn Mobile

Client Research

Candidate Search and Review

Viewing Notes

Adding/Updating Notes, Jobs and Other Records

Reports

Client Site Driving Directions


head start. Entering data

immediately after meetings

instead of hours later back

at the office helps users

capture details that would

otherwise be forgotten

and reduces errors

introduced by less than

perfect human memory.

Only 2% of mobile activity

spent viewing reports can

be attributed to managers

staying on top of their

team’s key metrics, such

as placements, open jobs,

and activity levels, while

on the road. The smaller

number of supervisors

compared to recruiters and

account managers means

relatively smaller report

activity, though obviously

supervisors highly value

both the peace of mind

of knowing that group

performance is on target as

well as finding out early that

an issue needs correcting.

Only 2% of mobile activity spent

viewing reports can be attributed to managers

staying on top of their team’s key metrics...


THE MOBILE-POWERED Client Meeting

A powerful view into how mobile technology improves

account managers’ ability to prepare for, manage, and

follow up on sales calls emerges from detailed insight into

mobile recruiting activity and timing. This “playbook” can

serve as a starting point for almost any type of recruiting

firm seeking to better serve clients and win a larger share

of business.

First, mobile recruiting can help a salesperson find out

how to physically get to a client’s office. Integration

with smartphones’ GPS and mapping capabilities means

mobile recruiting software can automatically provide

precise directions to the client site. This process is less

time consuming than tracking down and printing driving

directions from a client website.

As usage data makes abundantly clear, one of the most

valuable benefits that mobile ATS/CRM access provides

is complete, up-to-date knowledge of account status. In

the minutes before the meeting starts, mobile-powered

sales reps can quickly look up the company as well as

individual client contacts to review recent notes, open jobs,

placements, and more. Reps can kick off meetings with

timely, accurate updates on current business and reduce

the chances of being blindsided by new client issues. As

successful staffing and recruiting firms know well, superior

client service sets the stage for business success.

Reduce the chances of being blindsided by new client issues.


With luck, having a good track record with

previous job orders can help salespeople

facilitate a discussion of a client’s additional

needs. Salespeople with mobile access to

their ATS/CRM system can demonstrate their

firm’s capabilities during a client meeting

by instantly sharing insight into the strength

of their candidate database with clients on

the spot. This can further differentiate an

agency from competitors whose salespeople

respond to questions only with bluster or

promises to “get back to you soon.”

After the meeting, effective mobile recruiting

software gives firms further advantages.

Submitting new job orders immediately

gives recruiting teams a jump on rivals who

must wait hours for sales reps to get back

to the office or connect their laptop before

they can start working on reqs. Furthermore,

sales representatives can capture and share

important meeting outcomes, issues raised,

and other pertinent information as notes

before leaving the parking lot. Follow-up

actions can commence immediately. The

entire team benefits from an instantaneous,

accurate, and complete understanding of

the client which enables them to deliver a

superior level of service. And in a business

where every minute counts, the extra speed

delivered through mobile recruiting means

better bottom line results.


Conclusion Mobile technology is changing the way recruiting firms operate and the way recruiting

professionals work. Mobile access to client and candidate data enables recruiting firms to work

faster and more efficiently. For any firms looking to incorporate mobile into their recruiting

strategy, start by rolling it out to employees who often work remotely like sales and account

management teams. However, before investing in a mobile solution, make sure it’s going to

deliver all of the functionality you need. For example, very few applications today offer the

ability to browse lists, search for candidates, add notes or job orders, view reports, and get

directions using a built-in GPS. These are all key capabilities that a team needs while on the

road. Managers may also want the ability to customize the workflow on their mobile apps

in order to mirror their team’s recruiting process. With the right features and functionality,

recruiting firms will quickly find success using mobile technology.

To learn more about Bullhorn Mobile, visit: http://www.bullhorn.com/products/mobile-recruiting


AboutBullhornBullhorn creates software and

services that help recruiters put the

world to work. For thirteen years our

innovations have powered the recruiting and

staffing operations of fast-growing start-ups up

through the world’s largest employment brands.

Headquartered in Boston, with offices in St.

Louis, Richmond, Vancouver, London and Sydney,

Bullhorn’s applicant tracking system, recruiting

CRM, and social recruiting products serve more

than 10,000 clients representing nearly 200,000

users across 150 countries.

Please visit our website at www.bullhorn.com to

learn more about Bullhorn’s full suite of recruiting

software tools.

Have an immediate question?

Speak with an expert: call 1-888-GoLive8.

Bullhorn mobilepoweredselling

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