Mobile Recruiting on the increase

Recruiting is all about the ability to communicate and share information with potential candidates and clients directly. In today's technology-centric world, recruiters have numerous channels they can use to communicate directly with candidates ranging from face-to-face visits to video chat.

However, the one tool that provides a “single point of contact” allowing the use of every form of messaging in use today at any time during the day and from any location is the mobile phone.

Mobile phones today pack more computing power than than NASA's early Apollo space-crafts. They can not only handle basic person-to-person and conference voice calls, they can also interact with websites, publish blog posts, aggregate RSS feeds, send text messages, send multimedia messages, record/transmit video, record/transmit audio, send email from multiple accounts, take/send pictures, send and receive faxes, edit office documents, and interact with social networks such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc.

However, while many recruitment companies empower their recruiters with mobile phones, few build a recruiting strategy that leverages the phone as the hub of recruiter activity.

With the rise of Recruitment Software vendors providing 'smart-phone' enabled interfaces, the potential use of such devices is on the increase - and the response power it provides to the end user can be seen as a significant competitive differentiator.

Potential Advantages of Mobile Recruiting include:

The single source communications platform.
Access during idle times.
Opportunity to communicate while the iron is hot.
A remarkably fast response rate.
Accommodating personal communication preferences.

Additional Advantages of the Smart Phone as a Recruiting Platform

The cool factor. Sending text messages, videos, etc., is viewed by many as “cool,” as opposed to traditional emails and voicemails. Utilizing texting jargon like LOL (laughing out loud) can also send a message that you “get it.”

Global capability. modern 3G phones allow you to communicate wherever you are in the world. Candidates in Asia and Europe are extremely text-savvy, and using text messaging saves them money.

The generation factor. Some generations, including my current crop of college students, refuse to use email and in many cases, even voicemail, but they love texting.

Not blocked by corporate. The ability to use Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn is critical for successful recruiting. However, many corporate CIOs foolishly block recruiter access to some Web and social network sites on their computer systems. Fortunately, they seldom block access through mobile phones, so access away!

Brevity. The fact that mobile phones are utilized “on the run” forces everyone to be brief in their messages. This brevity makes both reading messages and responding to them easier and quicker. It also forces recruiters to be more concise in their messages.

Lower cost. As mobile phone services get cheaper, there is less resistance to using “my minutes” on a job search than there was in the past. In addition, you save money because you can send the same text message to a large number of people at essentially no cost. In contrast, making the same number of individual phone calls would cost a great deal because of the staff time involved in making the calls.

Differentiation. Because few firms currently use text messages and take advantage of the entire smart phone platform, it provides you with an opportunity to differentiate your firm from others.

Less spam. At least at the present time, the volume of spam that drives users away from email has not inundated smart phone applications. As a result, they are more willing to open and read your messages.

Conclusion

Many recruitment firms still visualise their business running within their four walls, surrounded by Servers, infrastructure, and Desktop Computers, with Recruiters having no choice but to be chained to their desks.

It is time firms realised the benefits of not only cloud computing, but the mobilisation of their workforce, providing business critical processing anytime and anywhere.

What is needed now is for the directors of recruiting firms to take a step back and develop a comprehensive strategy that takes advantage of the mobile phone’s capability as the prime recruiting communications tool. In my opinion, everyone will eventually reach that point, but the smart ones will do it sooner and with a more comprehensive and planned approach.