Perhaps you’re an employer and you want to reach potential job candidates in an efficient manner. Maybe you are a job board or newspaper interested in boosting your online employment advertising. Either way, you should work with recruiting solution providers that know how to reach job candidates on mobile devices.

The number of people searching for work on mobile devices is doubling each year, yet only a small percentage of employers offer mobile job applications. Those companies are missing out, since up to 40 percent of job seekers abandon the application process when it is not mobile-friendly. A survey by Jibe found that 86 percent of jobseekers with smartphones would use their phones to search for jobs, and 65 percent cited, “You can do it anywhere,” as the biggest benefit of searching for jobs via mobile. Cindy Cloud of Informatica Corp says, “We think mobile is the next big area for recruiting.” Here are some tips to help you set up or improve your mobile recruitment strategy.

What Job Candidates Want

Job candidates want to apply for jobs using their smartphones and tablets while on lunch hours or on the train home at night, and they don’t want to deal with recruiters who don’t accommodate the needs of mobile job applicants. A streamlined mobile job seeker experience helps ensure applicants will complete their applications rather than abandoning them. Job seekers also want email alerts when job openings meeting their needs are announced so they can apply right away. Features like instant sign-in (so that they don’t have to enter personal information with every search) and stored resumes are other features mobile job seekers love.

What Employers Want

Employers want to reach top talent, and ironically, many companies seeking tech-savvy employees alienate these exact job seekers by not having a streamlined, efficient way for them to apply using their mobile devices. Employers also want to reach passive job seekers: those who are already employed, but who may be tempted by a better offer. Often these are the very people who browse jobs on their iPhones on the subway or while on their lunch breaks, and they may never find out about great jobs they qualify for if the employers don’t have a way to reach out to mobile users.

Mobile Features that Make a Difference

When a mobile job seeker takes out her tablet while at the corner deli for lunch, she doesn’t want to have to retype personal and professional information for each job she applies for. She also doesn’t want to go through a 15-page application that’s not optimized for mobile. She needs a process that’s efficient, stores relevant applicant information, and provides features like email alerts whenever new relevant positions open up. Apps that integrate with social media sites like LinkedIn and Facebook reach even more job applicants on mobile devices.

Supplementary Mobile Recruiting Techniques

Some recruiters and employers supplement their mobile outreach with things like QR codes on recruiting posters. These allow mobile users to scan the code and go right to the job application app or page. Some recruiters also allow mobile job seekers to send texts to a designated number to reach links to job openings. Smart employers and recruiters are seeing the benefits of accommodating mobile device users and doing more to make the process as hassle-free as possible.

Mobile job searches are increasing exponentially, but the adoption rate by employers and recruiters of mobile-friendly application processes has lagged. Mobile-optimized recruiters have an advantage over those who are not mobile optimized. They reach more applicants and can fill positions much more efficiently than those whose application processes are tethered to traditional websites. Whether you’re a job seeker or an employer, working with a recruitment solution provider that understands the importance of mobile job search is critical to success.

If you want to develop an income stream from your publication website, you should check out the recruitment advertising solutions for web publishers available from RealMatch. This fully integrated job platform maximizes exposure through a mobile app that allows real-time job matching, sorting, and filtering, application directly from mobile devices, push notifications for new matches, and continuous engagement with those searching for jobs.

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