Mobile recruiting is certainly not a new concept in the staffing and recruiting industry. In the past 10 years, implementing mobile recruiting tactics has become increasingly more important for recruiting success! In the current candidate driven market though it is even more essential to keep candidates engaged throughout the whole recruiting funnel. From the initial application process, to communication throughout, statistics show the importance of giving candidates a mobile, user friendly experience to help decrease drop-off rates. In this article we will explore the benefits of having a mobile friendly application and utilizing SMS messaging as a form of communication with candidates. We will also explore the fancy world of Chatbots and how exactly they can come into play within our mobile recruiting strategies!

The Mobile Friendly Application

In 2020, a study performed by Appcast showed that 60.7% of job applications were completed on a mobile device compared to 39.3% on desktop. Desktop apply rates also decreased by 6.7% and mobile apply rates increased by 21.2% in 2020 compared to 2019. There is no denying that more and more applicants are applying on mobile devices versus a desktop computer. Creating a short and user-friendly mobile application is one way to motivate mobile applicants to finish the application. Candidates who are applying on their mobile device are on the go and want to be able to go through the application with the least number of clicks. A Glassdoor study showed that mobile job seekers completed 53% fewer applications. That same study showed that promoting a job opening as mobile-friendly can increase the number of job applicants by 11.6%!

Some questions to consider for a mobile application:

Does your mobile application have the ability to submit a resume and parse it into your system? If so, does the applicant need to go through filling out the information already on the resume, such as job history and education?
Can you wait on collecting certain information from the candidate in the initial application process? If so, this can help shorten the application to help ensure more candidates complete it.

Even though collecting as much information as possible is helpful from a recruiting standpoint, it can also deter applicants from finishing the mobile application because it is too long. Shortening the mobile application can help increase the number of applications being completed and coming into the system.

This is especially critical now when candidates have the upper hand and have a number of job opportunities available to them.

SMS Messaging with Candidates

Texts are something you normally exchange with friends or family, but in the past several years texting has become a popular form of communication with candidates even. Statistics even show there are many advantages of sending a text message over emailing or calling. According to our partner Text-Em-All, the average email has only an 18% open rate, where the average text has a 98% read rate. A study performed by EZ Texting also showed that 78% of people respond to texts in 10 minutes or less. Robocalls and spam calls have become a greater issue as well, where less people answer phones from unknown numbers. A survey conducted for Hiya revealed that 94% of individuals let unidentified incoming calls go unanswered. Text-Em-All also reports that only 60% of voicemails are listened to and a Message Desk survey found that individuals are 4 times more likely to respond to a text message than call back.

Does this mean that email and phone call communication should be eliminated from recruiting strategies? Not necessarily, but it can be a great way to complement it. One of the main advantages of SMS messaging is that your message will be seen sooner and you will more likely receive a response (and a quicker one.) This is a big advantage for recruiters as they are trying to fill positions quickly and efficiently. It’s also an advantage for the candidate, because you are communicating in a way that’s easy for them to respond, especially if they currently have a job. It is much harder to respond back via an email or phone call during the working hours.

One of the main takeaways though for SMS Messaging is that it helps keep the candidates you are working with engaged with your conversations if they are seeing your message almost immediately. They are more likely to respond and stay in the recruiting funnel versus ghosting your messages. Many ATS providers, have partnerships with SMS messaging companies that allow for two-way text and broadcast messaging. Having a built-in ATS integration streamlines your communication and often times will record all messages being sent in the candidate’s record. Some ATS integrations even offer a “job accept” feature that allows candidates to accept a job offer right from the text message, eliminating time communicating back and forth, and increasing the chances of a candidate finishing the recruiting cycle and getting placed.

Chatbots through SMS Messaging

Chatbots are one of the latest trends in the staffing and recruiting industry. Some may ask though, what is a Chatbot exactly and how is it used in recruiting? It’s simply an automated bot that allows you to communicate with candidates. Some may think it sounds impersonal, but really Chatbots can help increase engagement among candidates, while eliminating manual tasks for recruiters.

How can Chatbots come into play?

ChabBots are available 24/7. The best time for candidates to reach out may be after regular business hours. A Chatbot can take the place of a human to help answer questions the candidate has through Natural Language. No matter what time of day, candidates will be able to receive a response back to keep them engaged and interested.
Chatbots can also screen candidates and schedule interviews. Once an application is submitted, candidates can automatically receive a text message from a Chatbot with a number of pre-liminary questions to screen the candidate. If they seem like a good fit, some Chatbots can automatically schedule an interview on the recruiter’s calendar. This drives efficiency, saves time, and eliminates manual work for the recruiter. It also helps speed up the application and interviewing process for the candidate, so they are less likely to drop-off due to the process moving too slowly.
Chatbots can also gather information not included in your mobile application. If there is additional information you want to gather from a candidate who submitted their application on mobile, Chatbots can automatically gather that information for you during the screening process.

These are just a few of the ways that Chatbots can come into play in your recruiting strategy. Overall, they can help increase candidate engagement and decrease drop-off rates by communicating with candidates 24 hours a day and speeding up manual processes. Once the candidate is placed though, there are even more ways to incorporate Chatbots and continue automated check-in communication with candidates.

Your next question may be, how can you implement a Chatbot? A good place to start is with your ATS provider. Some ATS’s have a Chatbot integration that will automatically pull the information from your database to send messages. Having an integration with your ATS will help streamline the Chatbot communication and once again record the chats for you in the candidate’s record.

Mobile Recruiting in Today’s Market

Mobile recruiting is even more important now in the current candidate driven market. Implementing different mobile strategies such as mobile applications, SMS messaging, mobile staffing software and Chatbots are all ways to increase candidate engagement throughout the recruiting funnel and decrease drop-off rates.

Have questions or want to learn more about the mobile recruiting strategies discussed above? Contact Automated Business Designs here.

Written by Jennifer Roeslmeier Mikels

Jennifer Roeslmeier Mikels is a Sr. Digital Marketing and Brands Manager at Automated Business Designs, developers of Ultra-Staff EDGE Staffing Software. Jennifer regularly publishes articles about key topics surrounding the staffing industry with both local and national staffing associations.

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