Employer mobile career apps are losing out to mobile websites, as they do not fulfil the candidates’ needs for quick and easy job seeking. This is the key finding from the latest research by Three Sparks Global, the company behind Pocket Recruit.
With the continued rise of candidates using mobile devices to find their next job more recruiters are putting a mobile strategy into action. The typical first question from a company looking to reach candidates through mobile is “app or msite”? The candidate has now made this choice for them.
The research goes on to illustrates a concerning time bomb for recruiters that are only half mobile optimising their online recruiting.
Dave Martin, CTO, Three Sparks Global and mobile recruiting pioneer shares his insight, “The initial app centric thinking from five years ago has matured and moved on as it has become clear that downloading an app is now an obstacle for the candidate to make progress. Job search engines like Simply Hired, Jobrapido and Indeed attract around 4 out of 10 of their candidates via mobile, the candidate discovery journey must be a single click from these sites to the employer job details. Downloading an app is simply a distraction and takes too long.
Apps still have a place in recruitment but are more closely aligned with Job Boards and similar services. Instead of wondering if they should use an app instead of an mSite, I advise employers to ensure they have a mobile careers mSite, which quickly delivers relevant content to their candidates with functionality that enables mobile apply. A lot of the companies that had mobile recruitment apps a few years ago are now finding huge value by focusing on this approach”
The research started 3 years ago with an in depth audit of 100 companies mobile support for jobseekers. The 100 companies were selected are the largest from the FTSE 100, Fortune 100 and Sunday Times best companies to work for. Every year the audit tracks the progress of the same 100 companies and analyses details including the presence of career mobile website, career mobile app, mobile apply solutions and their general recruitment marketing on the mobile web. During the last two years screenshots have been captured to record the mobile compatibility of those sites that are attempting to provide mobile support for candidates.
The full report “Mobile Recruiting Adoption” provides further insights into the research and discusses the trends being observed. You can download this at www.pocketrecruit.com/mobile_recruiting_adoption/