The
Mobility
Factor
Searching for info Started on a smartphone Continued on a PC Continued on a tablet Browsing
the Internet Shoppingonline Planninga trip Managingfinances networkingSocial Watching anonline video
65
%
63
%
65
%
47
%
59
%
66
%
56
%
4
%
5
%
4
%
3
%
3
%
8
%
8
%
60
%
58
%
61
%
45
%
56
%
58
%
48
%
The use of mobile devices, including smartphones
and tablets, is rising steadily. In many industries,
from travel to retail to banking, consumers are
reaching for mobile devices to make transactions.
While several industries have made many
operations mobile-friendly, the recruiting industry
has lagged behind, though evidence shows that this
is changing.
Increasingly mobile, increasingly screen-oriented
According to a study by Google, 90% of daily media interactions are screen-based: smartphone, laptop/PC, tablet or TV. Only 10% are non-screen-based: radio, newspaper, magazine (hard copies, not online). On average, consumers spend 4.4 hours of their leisure time in front of screens each day. Close to 88% of that time is spent viewing two devices simultaneously; TV + laptop is the most common, followed by TV + smartphone.
Smartphones are the most common starting place for online activities, even when that activity is concluded on a different device:
An overview of selected industries demonstrates how mobile devices are increasingly important in both business and business-to-consumer interactions.
Mobile technology adoption in selected industries
BANKING AND FINANCIAL SERVICES
A recent study by Mortech, a Zillow business, showed that 58.5% of lenders have implemented mobile computing. Nearly 85% of mortgage firms use mobile devices for pricing updates, while 50.8% use them for borrower loan status, 36.4% submit loan applications through mobile technology, and 23.5% use mobile devices for closing documents.
RETAIL
According to Digby, 80% of consumers use a smartphone as part of the shopping process, and 25% of consumers engage in online shopping via mobile only.
HEALTHCARE
A study by Ernst & Young revealed that 44 million health-related
smartphone apps were downloaded worldwide in 2011. Within one year of the iPad’s launch, 27% of physicians surveyed owned tablet computers, five times the national average.
TRAVEL
Google’s head of travel industry reported that mobile revenue will be 18% of the online market and 8% of the total travel market by 2014. In the United States, 22% of the total 2012 travel bookings/purchases were made from mobile websites and 12% from native apps.
Usage lags behind desires in job mobility adoption
Although the recruiting sector is straggling in mobile adoption, Mashable reports that mobile recruiting is becoming more popular with job seekers:
19% of job seekers use mobile devices to search for
jobs, but 57% of job seekers would like to use
mobile devices to search for jobs.
44
MILLION
Health-related smartphone apps were downloaded worldwide in 2011, according to a study by Ernst & Young
Potentialpark, an online recruiting research lab, conducted a similar study of more than 25,000 job seekers worldwide at nearly 700 top employers. The organization found that 26% of job seekers use their mobile devices for career-related purposes, and another 59% could imagine doing so. Survey respondents were most interested in using mobile devices to:
• Look for job openings (69%)
• Track the status of their applications (63%)
• Research companies and career opportunities (47%)
Job seekers’ online behavior
Job seekers may say they want to use their mobile devices for job searching and applications, but they are far more likely to visit job sites on a desktop computer. Typically, site visits from desktop users
3 3 Personals May 2013 People Search December 2013 Newspapers December 2013
Source: Google Internal Data based on query data for each category. Mobile includes Tablet.
Mo-Moments happening in 2013!
Forecasted indexed query volume for Computers and Mobile
Care Services May 2013 Home & Garden September 2013 Food Delivery December 2013
In many ways, the recruiting industry has lagged behind other industries and its own customers. Several sectors, for instance, are expected to have mobile queries surpass computer-based queries in 2013.
Above represents online behavior of job seekers.
increases by approximately 30% during the workday, peaking during the early afternoon. In contrast, site visitors using smartphones and tablets decrease during the workday. Presumably, since job seekers at work would be expected to use personal smartphones and tablets to search for jobs without being detected by their supervisors, other factors must be involved. Job seekers are more willing to use company-owned desktop computers, even with the possibility of detection, than stealthier, personal devices.
Best-in-breed will embrace mobile limitations while
maximizing experience
In almost all industries and sectors, mobile usage will outperform web usage everywhere, with the exception of recruitment and job seeking.
Surveys show that users do
not want to apply for jobs
or compose cover letters on
a smartphone. Rather, they
want to use smartphones
for what they do best:
• Quickly research a position and the company offering it • Find new potential jobs
• Mark positions of interest for further research and future
application
• Connect with in-house and third-party recruiters
Some apps, for example, duplicate the Applicant Tracking System (ATS) popular with many large corporations. On a smartphone, applying for a job using that system can require 50-70 screens.
Other apps duplicate the online job-searching experience, often by typing in keywords, which is cumbersome on a small screen. Even if a search proves successful, job seekers do not typically have their resumes stored on their smartphones ready to send, nor do they want to compose cover letters on a small virtual keyboard.
According to Beyond.com Career Network, 77% of job seekers used a job-search app in 2011. The top three reasons:
Can react quickly to new job postings (36%) Able to job search any time, anywhere (24%) It is a discreet way to search for a job (18%)
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It appears that mobile technology has not penetrated the recruiting industry as it has other industries because of three factors:
According to Potentialpark, only 13% of employers surveyed have a mobile version of their career website. Many job-search functions are better performed with a large screen and a keyboard than the small screen and virtual keyboard of a smartphone. Existing mobile apps attempt to duplicate the entire web experience on an app, rather than offer a streamlined experience with essential elements for on-the-go usage.
None listed “ability to apply for a job” as a reason to use a job search app. Retailers faced a parallel situation, with mobile shopping apps initially duplicating the desktop experience. This approach made shopping cumbersome on a mobile device. In response, PayPal and Amazon changed the retail experience to fit the device. Through PayPal and Amazon One-Click, mobile payments in 2011 reached $10 billion, and undoubtedly will have increased when 2012 figures are available.
To be useful to both job seekers and recruiters, an app must leverage the strengths of smartphones and reflect the way people already use mobile technology.
Smartphones are often the starting point for online activities — perfect for discovery and research — but completion typically takes place on a desktop or laptop. Thus, an intelligent job-search app should:
• Push potential jobs to job seekers based on criteria the job seeker has specified, rather than rely on searches • Help identify relevant jobs by showing what jobs similar applicants are searching • Provide quick, easy ways to research a job and a company • Seamlessly integrate with a related website where applicants can complete the application process and store resumes and relevant documents • Provide multiple options for job seekers to interact with job listings: save for further investigation, delete from their queue of potential jobs, or connect with a recruiter • Track application status • Connect job seekers and recruiters • Help recruiters find promising candidates quickly and make contact
In short, a more effective use of mobile technology for job seekers and recruiters would include using a mobile device as a front-end tool for a mobile- and web-enabled job application tracking system. With this approach, job seekers could use a mobile device to review jobs selected for them based on criteria they specified whenever they had a spare few
minutes. Job seekers could mark the jobs that looked promising, delete the ones in which they had no interest, and even send an “I’m interested” notification to a recruiter.
The second part of the process — creating a job-specific resume and cover letter, choosing samples (if applicable), and applying for a job — would be completed on a desktop or laptop computer, with its larger screen and full-size keyboard.
Bringing recruiting into the mobile age
Already, consumers have embraced mobile technology to shop, bank and perform many other functions. Those same consumers, when seeking jobs, have reported via surveys that they would make mobile technology a key part of their job search and application if it were convenient and available.
What will bring mobile recruiting to the tipping point? Three key elements: Mobile applications that take advantage of things mobile devices do best: bite-sized chunks of information, initial research, bookmarks of potential jobs, peeks at competitive job searches, connections between job seekers and recruiters Seamless integration with a full-featured website where job seekers can customize and complete a job application Status updates delivered to a mobile device
The future of mobile recruiting
Although widespread adoption of mobile technology has not yet spread to the recruiting industry, consumers have both shown and expressed a willingness to use mobile apps when convenient options are available in many other industries. In fact, all signs indicate that mobile technology will transform the recruiting and job search processes — just as it has online banking and shopping — once organizations stop trying to replicate the desktop experience and instead develop apps that showcase the
strengths of mobile devices.
