rolepoint mobility whitepaper

MOBIL ITY & RECRUIT ING

A R O L E P O I N T W H I T E P A P E R B Y @ B I L L B O O R M A N

2RolePoint Inc. © 2014 Mobility & Recruiting

I N T R O D U C T I O N

The mobile discussion has been gaining

momentum over the last few years, and

the data to support the mobile argument

makes the case for integrating recruiting

technology with mobile capability

overwhelming. The discussion is no longer

about “if” but more about “how”.

The case is overwhelming, but the thinking

should be much more than a technology

consideration because mobile changes the

recruitment game for all stakeholders.

Whilst this paper will touch on the

technology aspects, there are plenty of

excellent papers that cover this already.

The real focus is how mobile changes the

way recruitment works. Mobile, or more

specifically “mobility”, changes not just

recruiting but also life in general because

smartphone users become permanently

accessible and connected, and are not

restricted to being plugged in and wired

up. In the way that the reduced cost and

availability of home computers and the

spread of access took the internet from

the office to the home, so the explosion in

Smart device adoption has taken the

internet, and all that this brings, from the

home to our pockets, and that changes

things.

In July 2012 David Armano, the Managing

Director of Edelman Digital, wrote a post in

the Harvard Business Review that

described the concept of mobility in this

way:

“IT’S NOT ABOUT MOBILE AS MUCH AS

IT IS ABOUT UNDERSTANDING

MOBILITY. MOBILITY MEANS

INFORMATION, CONVENIENCE AND

SOCIAL ALL SERVED UP ON THE GO,

ACROSS A VARIETY OF SCREEN SIZES

AND DEVICES. MOBILITY IS RADICALLY

DIFFERENT FROM THE STATIONARY

‘DESKTOP’ EXPERIENCE. IN SOME

CASES, MOBILITY IS A ‘LEAN BACK’

EXPERIENCE LIKE SITTING ON A

COMMUTER TRAIN WATCHING A VIDEO.

IN OTHER CASES IT CAN BE ‘LEAN

FORWARD’ – LIKE SHOPPING FOR A

GIFT WHILE YOU TAKE YOUR LUNCH

BREAK AT THE PARK. AND IN MANY

CASES, IT’S ‘LEAN FREE’ WHEN YOUR

BODY IS IN MOTION, OR YOU’RE

STANDING IN LINE SCANNING NEWS

HEADLINES OR PHOTOS WHILE YOU

WAIT FOR YOUR TURN TO BE CALLED.”


In this paper, we are going to consider how

mobility will impact on job seeking,

recruiting, recruiters and social referrals.

Whilst many new ideas and technologies

are described as “game changers”, it is

more often hype over reality. Mobility

though might just be the thing that really

does change the game of recruiting.


M O B I L E T E C H N O L O G Y

A L I T T L E H I S T O R Y

The first text message was sent on 3

December 1992, when the 22-year-old

British engineer Neil Papworth used his

computer to wish a “Merry Christmas” to

Richard Jarvis, of Vodafone, on his Orbitel

901 mobile phone. Papworth didn’t get a

reply because there was no way to send a

text from a phone in those days. The first

phone to be able to send text SMS (short

message service) was built in 1993 by

Nokia. Text messaging enabled

messaging on the move, making

communication less dependent on being

“wired in.” The growth of text messaging

as a means of communicating was the

early stages of mobility because people

could receive and reply to messages on

the move. Before cell phones, this had

only been partially achieved by pagers,

which relayed a message to the users,

requiring them to get to a phone line to

respond by voice, or to return a simple

message. The short part of SMS came

from the number of charachters that a

message could be constructed of, 180

including letters, numbers, spaces and

Latin symbols. 40 more than a modern

day tweet! In 1993 Nokia were the first

manufacturer to produce a cell phone

with a keyboard, but it wasn’t until 1999

that texts could be exchanged between

network providers. The IBM Simon was

the first touchscreen phone introduced in

1992. Simon was the first phone that

could send and receive faxes, e-mail and

pages through its touch screen, as well as

integrating features like a notepad and

address book. Although the term Smart

was not yet coined, Simon is considered

to be the first of breed.

Given the rate of adoption first of SMS,

followed by mobile internet and

smartphone technology, it is hard to

remember that we are looking at

relatively recent technology, and it is only

now that we are beginning to appreciate

the benefits that mobility can bring to

recruiting. The mobile landscape has 4

key stakeholders, and each have a

different agenda:

– The users

– The networks

– The device manufacturers

– Third party app manufacturers


The interests of each of these parties is

not always the same, which can lead to

confusion when determining mobile

recruiting strategy. Whilst there is no

official definition of what constitutes a

smartphone, the Wikipedia definition is

commonly accepted as correct:

“A SMARTPHONE, OR SMART PHONE, IS

A MOBILE PHONE BUILT ON A MOBILE

OPERATING SYSTEM, WITH MORE

ADVANCED COMPUTING CAPABILITY

AND CONNECTIVITY THAN A FEATURE

PHONE. The first smartphones combined

the functions of a personal digital

assistant (PDA) with a mobile phone.

Later models added the functionality of

portable media players, low-end compact

digital cameras, pocket video cameras,

and GPS navigation units to form one

multi-use device. Many modern

smartphones also include high-resolution

touchscreens and web browsers that

display standard web pages as well as

mobile-optimized sites. High-speed data

access is provided by Wi-Fi and mobile

broadband. In recent years, the rapid

development of mobile app markets and

of mobile commerce have been drivers of

smartphone adoption.

The mobile operating systems (OS) used

by modern smartphones include Google’s

Android, Apple’s iOS, Nokia’s Symbian,

Blackberry Ltd’s BlackBerry OS,

Samsung’s Bada, Microsoft’s Windows

Phone, LG’s webOS, and embedded Linux

distributions such as Maemo and MeeGo.

Such operating systems can be installed

on many different phone models, and

typically each device can receive multiple

OS software updates over its lifetime.”

Worldwide sales of smartphones exceeded

those of feature phones in early 2013. As of

July 18, 2013, 90 percent of global handset

sales are attributed to the purchase of

Android and iPhone smartphones. Aside

from the obvious smartphone, we also

need to consider the impact of other

devices such as tablets, game stations and

other hand held devices, and latterly

wearable technology such as Google Glass.

Whilst not strictly mobile, we should also

consider the implications on recruitment

messaging of Smart TV, as the dynamics

are much the same, in that messaging

occurs in much


S E C T I O N H E A D E R

V


the same way, interrupting another activity

or operating in tandem. The when, where

and how people are viewing content is

changing beyond recognition, and

recruitment messaging needs to keep up.

According to a recent Flurry report, global

smartphone adoption has exploded,

growing faster than any consumer

technology in history.

The rate of Android and iOS device

adoption among international users has

out-paced the 1980s PC revolution, the

1990s Internet boom, and the social

networking craze of the ‘aughts, according

to Flurry, which reported the rate of

smartphone adoption to be 10 times that

of what we might now perceive as the

positively glacial pace of early personal

computer adoption. We should now

consider that the way in which we

communicate with each other is via a

mobile device, and this must impact on

how we think about recruiting.

SO WHAT IS DIFFERENT?

T H E R E L A T I O N S H I P

B E T W E E N S M A R T P H O N E

A N D U S E R

A good place to start considering how

things have changed is by looking at the

relationship between user and device.

Once the need for a wire was removed,

communication became anytime and

anywhere. The rise in popularity of social

media as the primary method of

communication between people, and their

domination of social games by internet

users has significantly increased the

amount of time people spend using their

smart device. In a previous RolePoint

paper, “Gamification in Social Referral and

Recruiting”, we identified the ways in

which user behavior has changed. We

know that people are consuming content

on the move and as a secondary function.

This calls for clarity of messaging and a

simple to operate call to action, as well as

a message that stands out on any screen

because not only are people doing

something else when the message arrives,

they will also be receiving more messaging

from more sources than ever before.



V


Evidence of how people view their mobile

device can be found in research conducted

by the Pew Center for internet research

published in September 2012:

67% of cell owners find themselves

checking their phone for messages, alerts,

or calls — even when they don’t notice

their phone ringing or vibrating.

44% of cell owners have slept with their

phone next to their bed because they

wanted to make sure they didn’t miss any

calls, text messages, or other updates

during the night.

29% of cell owners describe their cell

phone as “something they can’t imagine

living without.”

67%

44%

29%



V


To give this some context, the same

research from Pew identifies (as of

May 2013):

91% of American adults have

a cell phone

56% of American adults have

a smartphone

28% of cell owners own an Android

25%

own an iPhone

4%

own a Blackberry

34% of American adults own a tablet

computer

26% of American adults own an e-reader

63% of adult cell owners now use their

phones to go online, a figure that has

doubled since the tracking of internet

usage on cell phones began (by Pew)

34% of cell internet users say that they

mostly go online using their cell phone.

That means that 21% of all adult cell

owners now do most of their online

browsing using their mobile phone as

opposed to some other device such as a

desktop or laptop computer.

——

This respected research paints a clear

picture of the average smartphone user

in the US, where the smartphone is often

described as an extension of the self,

essential for every aspect of life, and the

principle way in which a growing number

of people connect with the internet.



V


In terms of what activities internet users

are engaging in on mobile vs. desktop,

Experian Marketing Services found in Q1

2013 that US mobile internet users spent

the greatest percentage of their mobile

web time using email, a 23% share of time

spent vs. only 5% of time spent on

desktop. Social networking came in second

on mobile, garnering 15% of time spent.

Travel also occupied a greater share of

time on the mobile internet (9%)

compared with the desktop (1%). Video

accounts for 69% of mobile data traffic.

Time spent on mobile internet by US

mobile internet users by activity, Q1 2013

Mins/hr% of Total

Notes: ages 18+; includes mobile browsing with an app;

excludes app usage; read chart as if time spent on mobile

devices in 2012 was distilled into 1 hour, then 14 minutes

(23.3%) of it would be spent on email; numbers may not

add up to 100% due to rounding

Soure: Experian Marketing Services as cited in press

release, April 16th 2013

Email 14 23.3

Social Networking 9 14.9

Entertainment 8 13.0

Shopping & Classifieds 6 10.8

Travel 6 9.3

Business & Finance 5 8.2

Lifestyle 4 7.2

News & Media 3 5.0

Other 5 8.4



T H E C H A N G I N G

R E C R U I T I N G T I M E S

When we consider what people are doing

on their mobile device, we begin to build

a clearer picture of where mobile fits in

with users and what they are doing. The

working day has been extended into life,

with people using every available moment

to be either productive or social and

connected.

This is important for recruiters to understand,

because recruiting technology needs to fit in

with the changes in user behavior. An

average mobile phone user checks their

phone up to 150 times a day; it’s the first and

last thing they check everyday. If you want to

reach them with recruitment messaging,

content or communication, then mobile

needs to be your primary consideration,

along with mobility, and the fact that you are

probably interrupting another activity, like

commuting, waiting in line or watching the

television.

In researching this paper, we have been

tracking the peak times for access to 40

career sites (25 US/15 UK), by mobile

device. We have witnessed the following

peak times for the last 3 months:

– 6.10am - 9.15am - This covers the

pre-work time and morning commute.

– 10.45am - 11.10am - The morning break

– 11.50am - 2.12pm - Lunch

– 4.45pm - 9.45pm - This time shows a

continuous rise peaking at 9.45. Other

internet research shows that this is also

the optimum time for recreational

activity, in particular gaming, where

users will be connected with up to 3

devices completing 3 different tasks, as

well as potentially having the TV

playing in the background.

The other important consideration is the

changing hours of jobseekers and people

looking to connect and engage. In the

past, people expected and were happy to

wait for answers. They searched for

opportunities on a PC, fired off an

application and were happy to wait for a

response. When they wanted more

information or clarification of a point, they

were happy to fire off an e-mail or

complete a form and wait for a reply.

Social media, and in particular mobility,

has meant that people have an

expectation of an instant response. They

want to engage with a person in real time,

and their times are different to traditional

office times.

It is clear from this data that we should

consider e-mail and social media as mobile

messaging. A mobile message is different

to a traditional communication, so any link

or call to action needs to be mobile

optimized. Talent acquisition teams need

to consider these changing dynamics in

order to understand and reach their target

audience in the most effective way, while

using the most popular channels.

InternetEmail Total Cell Internet Use

5 5 %6 0 %

A P R I L 1 2A P R I L 0 9 M A Y 1 3M A Y 1 0 M A Y 1 1

5 2 %

4 4 %4 4 %

3 8 %3 8 %3 4 %

2 5 %

3 1 %

4 3 %

4 7 %

6 3 %

2 5 %

5 3 %

A L M O S T 2 / 3 O F C E L L O W N E R S

G O O N L I N E U S I N G T H E I R P H O N E S

Percentage of cell phone owners who use

internet or email on their device:

Source: Pew Intetnet & American Life Project Spring Tracking

Survey, April 17-May19 2013. The margin of error for results based

on cell phone owners is +/-2.4 percentage points.



It is worth noting that 90% of smartphone

users’ web access is via applications.

Whilst this might seem high, it’s not when

you consider the main internet pastimes.

Research from the CEA (Consumer

Electronics Association) came up with

the following results when measuring

smartphone use in the USA:

The top activities in terms of average time

spent each day included talking (23

minutes), texting (20 minutes), using email

(18 minutes), visiting websites (16 minutes)

and social networking (11 minutes). Across

different activities, smartphone owners

spend an average of nearly two hours (114

minutes) using their devices each day.

“The degree to which consumers use their

smartphones primarily as data information

hubs, mostly forgoing devices’ traditional

purpose, is significant,” Shawn DuBravac,

Chief Economist and Senior Director of

Research for CEA, said in a statement.

“Smartphones have become the viewfinder

of our digital life. How smartphone

utilization evolves has incredible

implications moving forward.”

See more at: http://www.eweek.com/

mobile/smartphone-owners-spend-time-

with-social-networking-email-apps.

html#sthash.M6kyDzqo.dpuf

R E L E V A N C E O F M E S S A G I N G

The pattern we are seeing emerge shows

users with a short attention span, a low

tolerance to time wasting and an instant

dislike of spam. A good definition of spam

in relation to mobility is an irrelevant or

non-targeted message, and given the high

volume of emails now opened on a mobile

device, this applies across the full range of

messaging from SMS to email. To

appreciate the importance of this, we need

to look at the relationship between people

and the device they use, which goes far

beyond the normal relationship between

man and technology, given the strong

emotional attachment felt by users.

When considering messaging and content

sharing via mobile, it is important to

consider this relationship between user

and device in all activities. This is

interruption marketing 3.0 because you

will be reaching people when they are

doing something else, usually checking in


or indulging in recreational pastimes like

game playing or chatting in social

channels, or when they are on the move.

Your update comes in, their device pings,

they reach for it and check the incoming

message or update. The need to check

incoming content has been compared to

an addictive reaction. Users who lose their

device or connectivity experience extreme

stress and panic, and have a need to be

reconnected. It is a strange phenomenon

of the mobile age, where content and

updates need to respect personal space,

have a high degree of targeted relevance

to the user, and enable the user to make a

very quick choice to act or discard.

The next important consideration in this is

the user interface and ease of navigation

on any screen size. Screens are getting

smaller, when we consider products like

Google Glass or the Samsung Galaxy Gear

watch. Whilst wearable devices might

seem a little sci-fi at the moment, it wasn’t

that long ago that we were saying the

same thing about devices like the iPad.

Technology is getting smaller, quicker and

even more of an extension of self. Process

need to be re-engineered to take this into

account. Actions and navigation needs to

be simple and clear, with limited friction. It

is not enough to move a traditional online

process and make it mobile. The whole

process of connecting, engaging and

applying needs to be re-engineered, giving

each user a personal experience. We have

a long way to go with this, and the tech

will become mainstream faster than we

think in one format or another, so

recruiting process needs to keep up.



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C A L L S T O A C T I O N

All recruiting messages and updates need

a clear call to action and defined next step.

It is important to remember to keep the

whole candidate journey within a mobile

optimized environment. This means paying

special attention to the volume of clicks

required to register interest, as well as the

screen position and design of any call to

action buttons. In a recent split test for a

large corporate recruiter, bookmarking

pages from mobile to desktop resulted in

an abandonment rate (including non-

completion) of 63% compared to 19% with

end to end mobile optimization in a

continuous process. It is clear from this

that good candidates and potential

employees are dropping out when required

to step out of the mobile environment.

The test demonstrated that optimum

results are achieved when the total number

of clicks (or taps) required by a candidate

were 11 or less with no further information

required to register interest. This means

rethinking not just recruitment messaging

but the full recruitment process end to

end.

For most companies this starts with a

review of the application process, which

for the most part has not changed alot

since companies moved from offline to

online in the Web 1.0 era. This was the first

real opportunity to change things, and

mirrors the challenges faced now when

considering a world that is mobile.

Recruitment process, for the most part,

dictates that candidates supply

information, apply for jobs and upload

documents such as the resume typically

via an ATS. It is easy to see how this

process does not translate to a mobile

world. Companies that recognize this (and

the numbers are still quite small), have

recognized the need to move from an

apply process to one that requires a simple

connection as an expression of interest.

Whilst there has been much talk of the

need for mobile apply, this is really simply

replicating an existing process which is

now dated. Online profiles such as LinkedIn

and other data sources present the

opportunity to profile without the need for

the candidates to submit any more than

permissions, and this can be a one tap

operation enabling profiling and push

notifications and messaging tailored to the

individual based on their personal data.



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Tailoring the user experience to the

individual rather than taking a one size fits

all approach is critical when we consider

the personal aspect of mobile messaging

and recruiting.

E - M A I L A N D M O B I L E

Despite the explosive growth of social

media, e-mail remains the principal form of

communication in the recruitment process.

Between October 2010 and October 2013

mobile opens of e-mail has increased by

over 450%. According to marketing

company Litmus Labs, 42% of the email

client market share is on a mobile platform

such as iPhone, iPad or Android.

ExactTarget reveals that 56% of consumers

with a smartphone have purchased

something as a result of an email message.

See more at: http://www.

onlinemarketinginstitute.org/

blog/2013/05/4-best-practices-for-mobile-

email-marketing/#sthash.3PGb9dZF.dpuf

This means e-mail messaging needs to be

crafted for mobile first.

According to the Email Sender and

Provider Coalition, 69% of e-mail recipients

delete messages without reading them

based on recognition of the sender and

the content of the subject line. Given the

reactive nature of instant review on receipt

on a mobile device, this is another critical

factor in mobile recruiting. The name of

the mailing account needs to be easy for

the recipient to recognize from the source,

and the subject line needs to be clear and

easy to understand, with no more than 35

characters. The call to action (or next

step), needs to be visible in the preview

pane, because the reader wants to be able

to determine quickly if they want to

proceed. It is also important to remember

that the mobile reader will scroll and read

down rather than across, and conversions

to the next step are greatly increased

when a large call to action button with a

simple message is located at the bottom

of the mail, such as “download our app”,

“connect with us” or “join our talent

network.” Remembering the attrition rate

when readers are taken from a mobile

environment to a non-mobile one, it is

important to remember that the

destination needs to go mobile to mobile

and be quick and easy to navigate.



Another critical factor in mobile is load

time. Because users are often on the

move, load time needs to be instant, with

the facility to cache any information

already supplied should the user lose

connectivity for example during a train

journey.

C A N D I D A T E P R O F I L I N G

A N D T A R G E T I N G

E-commerce in the retail sector often leads

the way in innovation. We can draw a lot of

parallels with what has happened in the

retail sector and what is going to be a

trend in online shopping if we consider the

candidate as a consumer. There are clear

patterns between the way people buy and

the way people look for jobs and change

jobs. The winners in the war for customers

adopt strategy and tactics that can be

mirrored in the war for talent. One area

that stands out in relation to this is

candidate profiling. This begins by

considering what a candidate actually is.

Smart companies have begun to

differentiate between candidates and

applicants. Candidates are classified as

anyone connecting with an organization in

relation to careers, for example

downloading a career site app or being

referred to an organization, whereas an

applicant is someone who has applied for

a specific opportunity and is being

measured against those requirements. The

applicant process is transactional and lasts

for the time the vacancy is open or the

applicant is rejected, with the next step

determined by the recruiter.

By contrast, the candidate process is one

of on-going relationship and is determined

by the actions of the candidate

themselves, who will choose to opt in (stay

connected), or opt out. The candidate will

choose the point at which they want to be

an applicant driven by triggers such as the

notification of an open opportunity. In

retail terms, it is the difference between

being interested in products and brands,

and choosing to actively buy. The

relationship is driven by making it easy for

the consumer to get to know both the

brand and their products. Once the

connection is made, the retailer collects

data on every visit and transaction to get

to know the potential customer better, and

to customize the experience in order to

convert them to active customers

spending dollars. The challenge for the


hiring company is getting a target

audience who meet an employer profile to

connect and be receptive to employment

brand marketing and notifications of

opportunity. Mobile creates great

opportunities in this area because

connection is as simple as tapping a

button as a call to action, with a trigger

distributed by e-mail or social media

messaging to a personal mobile device

that is accessible during the down times

when people are browsing, checking in and

responding. The talent network approach

via mobile enables easy tracking and

profiling of candidates in order to ensure

the content shared is highly relevant to the

profile of the individual. The more relevant

the content to the candidate, the more

likely they will respond positively to

triggers like jobs and choose to become

applicants.

I N T E R N A L M O B I L I T Y

One of the other areas often overlooked

when considering the potential benefits of

a mobile recruiting strategy is internal

mobility and internal engagement. Whilst

much of recruitment messaging is pointed

towards the outside world, the internal

audience is equally important. An internal

talent network provides the channel to

keep employees informed about

opportunities that match their skills and

experience, and to share culture brand

content about their workplace and

company. When Sodexo launched their

mobile recruiting app in 2011, the app was

built to give users a different experience

(and content) if they were an employee, a

former employee or external candidate.

This included considerations around areas

like what jobs were visible, content options

and navigation. The surprising results to

come from the launch has been that the

most hires came from internal applicants

who benefited from having visibility to

relevant jobs and an easy way to express

interest and get more information in order

to make an informed choice in their own

time rather than being dependent on a

static intranet.



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T H E M O B I L E R E C R U I T E R

When planning a mobile strategy it is easy

to concentrate on the marketing aspect.

But it is also critical to consider the

opportunity presented as an operating

system for recruiters. Mobility impacts

everybody and can be used to speed up

the recruiting process by enabling

recruiters to conduct tasks in downtime, in

particular, actioning next steps and

communicating. Dutch start up Hunite

launched a mobile aggregator that takes

push notifications from all HR systems and

enables employees to action items through

a simple call to action button and access

the data they need to make decisions. In

recruiting terms, this can be enabling

actions like scheduling interviews,

reviewing resumes, communicating with

line managers, applicants and candidates,

sourcing etc. Consideration needs to be

given to what are easy actions that can be

conducted in down time that improve

efficiency, a common theme in successful

mobile strategy.

S O C I A L R E F E R R A L

Plugging in to employees’ social networks

provides the biggest potential source for

candidates and applicants but the big

challenge is gaining employee engagement

and participation on an ongoing basis.

Whilst there might be a flurry of activity at

launch, there is drop off at equal speed.

One of the big causes of this is that the

process of referring becomes too time

consuming, or requires the employees to

do all the heavy lifting. This is resolved by

messaging via mobile with a simple call to

action button to trigger the next stage,

such as forward, yes/no, endorse etc. This

enables employees to contribute to your

pipeline outside of core work hours

because mobile offers 24 hour reach. As

with all mobile strategy, ease of navigation,

(scroll and tap), a clear call to action

button, limited text, mobile optimization

for reading without needing to pinch or

stretch, fitting multiple screen size, relevant

messaging and limited text are critical

factors for conversion.



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V I D E O

YouTube reported in 2013 that over 40% of

global watch time was via a mobile device.

Video presents a great opportunity to

showcase culture brand in an authentic

way, with cost being significantly reduced

through the use of a mobile device and

applications like Instagram and Vine (for

Twitter), or full video suite app like Cameo

that enable editing and collaboration and

delivers content responsive to screen size.

shooting from mobile for mobile.

The key considerations for mobile video is

sound, lighting, load time and with limited

movement and graphics. Load time and

rendering is critical in this, as with all

mobile content because mobile users have

a much lower patience threshold over

waiting for content because they are

viewing whilst doing something else in

their personal time. It is this aspect of

mobility that is a critical consideration in all

content, not just video. Fewer words, clear

messaging, communicating by video and

picture images with easy navigation,

reduced load time, an easy call to action

requiring limited user input will lead to

success in recruitment messaging.

The growth of video interviewing (which in

most cases would be better termed video

screening) presents new opportunities via

mobile, in particular when it comes to

reducing fill time, a major factor in

recruiting effectiveness. The video

interview providers such as HireVue, Sonru,

Cameo and WePow have all integrated

mobile in to their offering, meaning

screening questions can be sent out and

responded to in a much quicker time with

less friction in the process, and responses

can be shared with recruiters and hiring

managers in real time. The logistics of

using video to screen and to interview

greatly reduces time to hire and the

associated admin costs. Whilst a lot of

attention and discussion has been around

mobile reach and the potential for talent

attraction, we should now be thinking

around the full process being responsive

and instant.



C O N C L U S I O N S

Mobile and the mobility of candidates and

applicants means the lag time between

actions such as enticing interest, job

distribution, applying, reviewing, screening

and actioning from offer to decline can be

significantly reduced through the

combination of automated recruiting

technology such as social referral

platforms, talent networks and profile

aggregators because all people on both

sides of the hiring equation: audience,

candidates, applicants, recruiters and

hiring managers, are accessible at all times

with an instant processing time. This

necessitates changing processes in line

with technology, and it is the people

aspect that is often overlooked when

considering mobile strategy. As with any

technology integration, the first

consideration needs to be “How does this

change the way we need to work.” Much

time has been spent arguing the need for

investment in mobile, but this should no

longer be the consideration. Users have

gone beyond critical mass, and mobile is

firmly established as the principle means

of communication for most people. The

cost and capability of the devices are ever

improving, and the cost of mobile data use

is ever reducing. All people in the process

are more accessible than ever around the

clock, and instant, responsive technology

requires instant, responsive processes to

appreciate the real benefits of mobile and

mobility. Responsive is not just a

consideration for web design.

Mobile, and more specifically mobility,

presents the opportunity to rethink

everything that we do and why we do it, so

we are not just trying to transfer existing

processes to a mobile platform. The key

lessons from the companies who have

done this well (and they are limited) are:

– Build mobile first with consideration for

every screen size

– Concentrate on relevance of messaging

– Keep all actions within mobile channels

– Make all steps actionable via a call to

action button

– Reduce the need for data input by all

users, aggregating available data from

other sources

– Easy navigation on any device is critical


– Load time needs to be kept to a

minimum

– Social, e-mail , SEO and video is

mobile first

– Actions need to be responsive and

instant outside of normal office hours

– Recruiting process/job seeking is a

secondary activity completed in down

time. You are always interrupting

something else

– Candidates and applicants are

different. Respond accordingly

– Look to constantly reduce steps (and

taps) in the recruiting process

– Mobility is as important a consideration

as mobile technology

– Internal audience is as important as

external audience

– A mobile enabled social referral

network will greatly improve employee

participation and results

– Tracking mobile data and analytics and

constant change is essential to improve

process

Mobile and mobility is the new era. Don’t

miss out or make the mistakes of the past.

Think process as well as technology for

everyone in the process to reduce time and

cost, and stand out as a potential

employer.



N E X T S T E P S

W W W . R O L E P O I N T . C O M

I N Q U I R I E S @ R O L E P O I N T . C O M

Nasdaq clients, building the principles that

help companies generate 70%+ referral

rates into a software-as-a-service platform.

Understanding that at the core of any

successful referral program is the

employee, RolePoint focuses on providing

an engaging, transparent and frictionless

experience, making it easy to identify

talented connections to refer.

For recruitment teams, RolePoint offers a

comprehensive set of tools, enabling

tracking, automation and recruitment

intelligence for greater control and insight

into referrals within your organization.

B I L L B O O R M A N

The author, Bill Boorman, has over 30

years’ experience in and around recruiting.

He has spent the last 3 years working with

social recruiting technology start-ups on

product and with corporate clients

including Hard Rock Café, Oracle and the

BBC to integrate social into their recruiting

practices. Bill has also hosted recruiting

events in over 30 countries worldwide.

R O L E P O I N T

RolePoint delivers employee referral

solutions to a range of Fortune 500 and

C O N TAC T U S TO S C H E D U L E A F R E E E M P LOY E E R E F E R R A L

C O N S U LTAT I O N W I T H B I L L B O O R M A N

C O N TAC T U S TO F I N D O U T M O R E A B O U T RO L E P O I N T A N D A R R A N G E

A D E M O N S T R AT I O N


R O L E P O I N T

THE MOST POWERFUL

SOURCING SOLUTION AT

DISCOVERING TALENTED

CANDIDATES WITHIN

YOUR EMPLOYEES’

PROFESSIONAL

NETWORKS

HIGHER QUALITY CANDIDATES

REDUCED TIME-TO-HIRE

LOWER COST-PER-HIRE

IMPROVED EMPLOYER BRAND

W W W . R O L E P O I N T . C O M

I N Q U I R I E S @ R O L E P O I N T . C O M

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