This is what we’re thinking…

According to Google, by 2013 more people will use mobiles than PCs to get online. Mobile searches have grown by 400% since 2010 and recruitment related queries on mobile are up threefold.

But will recruiters look for a new agency using their mobile? And will candidates apply for vacancies using their mobile… and do people store their CV on their smartphone?

The short answer is yes… and here are three very good reasons why…

Why a mobile site is important…

1. According to IDC Smartphones outsold PCs in 2011 and this gap is set grow in 2012.
2. Your candidates and clients are using Facebook and Twitter on their mobiles. Over 40% of Facebook users access the service on their mobiles and a similar figure applies to Twitter; what’s more LinkedIn is catching up fast. If you’re posting vacancies on these platforms, people will be visiting your site from a mobile; if they receive a poor experience on your site; they’ll simply browse away.
3. Thanks to sites such as the BBC, Amazon mobile and Google itself, users are expecting more from mobile websites. Google research has found that 71% of users expect a mobile site to load as fast as a desktop sites and 40% have turned to a competitor site if a website doesn’t work well on a mobile.

What sort of mobile recruitment website do you need?

The key questions to ask when looking at a mobile recruitment website are:

• Is it bespoke – has it been designed specifically to work on mobiles?
• Is it editable – can you use a content management system to edit pages, jobs, news etc?
• Does it connect to social media – does your website work well if a visitor clicks from within the Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn apps?
• And the big one – are your candidates able to apply online using either a stored CV from your main website, a cloud service such as dropbox or via LinkedIn?

But what about apps?

The other major option when going mobile is to build an app. And this is very possible; we can easily create an app that matches the functionality of your mobile website. However, the most successful apps we have developed are not job search systems. They tend to be tools or applications that have some specific use.

For example, if you run contractors you might want an app that enables them to complete their timesheets from their phone. This timesheet app would also include latest contract vacancies so that it would prompt existing contractors to look at new opportunities.

So mobile recruitment. Is it the next big thing? To be honest who cares, its here and its a way for you to attract more business. But be aware, a mobile recruitment website is no longer an option; you need to be thinking about it now.