In the past three articles I’ve described the latest developments in mobile recruitment. In Part 1 the explosion of mobile internet in the coming years and the evolution of online recruitment to mobile was reviewed. The implications of mobile devices and the required actions for HR / Recruitment Managers were described in part 2. In part 3 a short checklist was provided to see if your career site is ‘future proof’ for candidates visiting via a mobile device.

I will conclude here with some mobile solutions that show what already is technically possible to support your recruitment and selection process:

Mobile Recruitment Applications explained

1.     Employer Branding: Basics first! Device-specific apps are great for increasing the employer branding through the mobile devices. Great examples come from OTYS, PepsiCo (Corporate) and Personato (Recruitment Agency).

2.     Job boards: iPhone Apps from Job Boards such as Monster, CareerBuilder and Indeed have been in the top 10 of most popular business apps since their release in almost every country. And you were still debating the (non)sense of a mobile app? Think again!

3.     Virtual business cards: Although we almost always meet each other online first, there is a time when you meet each other face to face. Exchanging virtual business cards is more convenient than the paper version because it can never be lost. Applications such as Bump (also integrated into LinkedIn App) and Cardcloud make this possible with many extra features such as immediate follow each other on various social networks. For recruiters, it’s also great that you are able to find more background information about a person on mobile applications from people search engines such kgbpeople and 123people.

4.     Social networking: Mobile Apps from LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter allow you to easily search for candidates, as well as establish and maintain contacts anytime, anywhere.

5.     Location-Based Services: Ever walk into a room and wonder if you have anything in common with anyone there? Sonar shows you how you are connected to the people around you by analyzing your Foursquare, Facebook, and Twitter networks. One of the most popular LBS Apps is probably Foursquare. While on the go, you can easily tell friends on Foursquare where you are, share pictures, get their comments (“I’m right around the corner, I’ll stop by to say hello”), and get insider tips (“We’re hiring!”). Tweetsee is an app that doesn’t rely on your personal network but shows you the tweets that are closest to you in any given moment. Check what your coworkers candidates are tweeting about!

6.     Social news: Activity on online social networks is huge but you cannot spend all day staring at Twitter to check if interesting news comes along. Luckily, there are brilliant apps for the iPad, such as Flipboard or Zite, that orderly arrange all the social news for you in a kind of newspaper.

7.     QR of Augmented Reality (AR): QR apps have put new life into vintage printed ads, brochures or business cards. And who knows what high-end applications such as Layar will bring to the future of recruiting!

8.     Sharing CV’s: Once you’ve made contact with a candidate and received a resume, it can easily be saved and shared with your hiring managers or clients via the Dropbox Application.

9.     ATS: Recruitment systems (or Applicant Tracking Systems) present a professional step in managing the recruitment and selection process. Many vendors offer only a mobile website but Recruiter App is an ATS that is specifically developed for the iPhone.

10.  Agenda planning: Scheduling an interview can be time consuming. Tungle is a calendar that syncs with your calendar in Outlook, Gmail, iCal or other calendars. Tungle allows people to access to your calendar and see when your schedule has a window for an appointment.

11.  Interviewing: Personal encounters are not longer necessary when using a video-enabled Mobile App such as Skype or FaceTime. Video interviewing is a new and easier approach.

12.  Follow-up: Fast feedback is very important and is made easy with an SMS text message reminder. And if necessary, you can set up recurring text messages for other tasks (check TextMinder). If you prefer voice reminders, you can try Vocal.

Final thoughts

Online recruitment will get a new big brother; ‘Mobile‘. To anticipate this and to include this in your Employer Branding or Job Marketing strategy is crucial to maintain contact with your audience. It will become a part of the media mix without actually bringing major changes to the recruitment landscape. The first companies who take this matter serious will have the advantage of reinforcing the image of an innovative employer, receive extra attention, and gain valuable experience for a sustainable competitive advantage.

But ultimately, it still ensures that
1. You’re there where your (future) candidates are
2. You adapt content to the needs and circumstances
3. You provide the applicant choices about the way to want interact with you
4. You provide a positive experience and service
5. You provide a consistent experience

Developing a mobile app does not have to be complicated or expensive. In fact, the best solutions are simple and serve as an extension of your own career site and efforts on social media platforms. You do not need to reinvent the wheel; you just need to adapt it to a new type of user.

The download numbers of (free) recruitment applications I’ve seen are impressive. In the top 100-business iPhone Apps there are many job apps. A specialized recruiting agency saw its apps downloaded more than 500 times in one week! In short, the reach and interest is there from your target audience. It is now time to respond to it and incorporate in your recruitment strategy.

© 2011 Jacco Valkenburg