In fact, Millennials are exactly who most HR departments should embrace, as outdated legacy systems fail to meet the needs of the newest generation of candidates. What better way to merge the old with the new than to hire those of us who remember what it was like before the internet exploded? Think of the advantages!

Social Referrals

Not only are Millennials job seeking for themselves, a lot of us are trying to help our unemployed or underemployed friends and colleagues move ahead in the corporate world, as well. With an incredibly competitive landscape for even the most basic jobs, it’s no secret that who you know is just as, if not more important than what you know. And thanks to social media, professional networks are larger than ever! Take a lesson from the Millennial handbook and encourage your existing employees to post, tweet, or pin opportunities your company is looking to fill. If there’s one thing our generation knows, it’s that it takes little effort to reach many – and chances are there is a qualified candidate linked to an existing employee who will fit your bill.

Application Process

We understand that once upon a time, filling out a job application meant going to your potential place of employment and jotting down your information time and again with a clipboard and shoddy Bic in hand. We also understand that there are more effective ways to acquire the necessary recruitment information a company needs to make decisions. There are few things more frustrating to a job seeker than having to repeatedly scribble their experience into a field that fits all of two words.

So, what’s the solution? Make your apply process mobile (and Millennial) friendly. If your company needs to hire recent grads or a 20-something in search of a new career – think about the best way to engage them with your brand. Afford your candidates the opportunity to create a profile on a smartphone or tablet, so if they come back to your site looking for another position, they’re only one-click away from submitting their application. Simplify it even more by allowing candidates to use their social media profiles to pre-populate your application form. Note: This isn’t lazy, it’s efficient – especially for the 13.1% of unemployed Millennials who are likely applying to as many jobs as possible, hoping for a win.

Video Interviews & Resumes

Because we are gearing more towards the small screen, reading has become secondary to viewing when consuming content quickly on handheld devices. In fact, several companies have enhanced their recruiting processes by offering video interviews to attract Millennial hires. In doing so, you are able to expand the candidate search outside of your designated locale, reduce costs by taking less time to meet with potential hires and build a better hiring process which allows your team to collaborate by sharing videos with managers.

On the flip side, video resumes are an upcoming approach that will give us the chance to show you who we really are, without the added pressure of fitting our many skills into a single page Word doc. While we often pride ourselves on being able to emote in 140 characters or less, we also want the opportunity to boast about our education and experience without text limitations. Video resumes will not only provide insight into our work history, but also our attitude, ethics and expectations for ourselves.

Remember, at the end of the day, we Millennials just want the opportunity to showcase our talents, engage our passions and pay our bills – just like the generations before us. So, rather than thinking of us as hindrances to the hiring process, start thinking about how we can help reach and retain your target audience for new hires.

The post What Millennial Job Seekers Mean to HR appeared first on Mobile Recruiting | Mobile Recruitment |.

• Samsung S3
• iPhone
• iPod Touch
• iPad 2
• iPad Mini

… oops! almost forgot, an old-school flip, feature phone.

Technically, we also have a portable gaming device that’s able to access the Internet. So in all, that makes for seven different mobile devices just in my house alone. Now that I’ve actually typed it out, I am actually quite embarrassed  Nonetheless, it does accurately portray how much of a mobile society we are living in today.

According to an infographic by www.creotivo.com, 45% of Americans own a smartphone and 31% own a tablet today. Mobile devices are working their way into virtually every aspect of our lives. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Because without so much as even one of those seven mobile devices located in my household, I may stop functioning altogether and become completely non-communicative. After all, how would I communicate if I can’t talk, text, tweet, like, Pin, or surf the Internet?

One of the industries that mobile devices are making an impact in is recruiting. A report by PotentialPark states that 85% of job seekers already use or would be interested in using mobile recruiting tools. If your organization isn’t making full use of iPhone or Android mobile recruiting, then you may be missing out on the single biggest trending way of recruiting top tier talent into your organization. Below are three tips for enhancing your mobile recruiting efforts to attract the best potential candidates:

Optimize – Optimize your organization’s career section for mobile recruiting. Include all open jobs with recruiter and/or HR contacts. Make the site’s navigation as mobile-user-friendly as possible, so that top talent isn’t turned off by content or an interface they wouldn’t want to be a part of.

Apply – Continue the ease of navigation into the mobile application process. Make it seamless to attach files, upload resumes, and utilize social network widgets and links all from the convenience of a smartphone or tablet.
Internalize – Extend the quality of the career section of your company’s website to current employees by making it easy to submit referrals this on their mobile devices.

It’s a win-win situation for employers and candidates alike if mobile recruiting continues to trend in a positive direction. Smartphones and tablets have already made our lives easier in numerous, different ways. Why can’t it work well for recruiting too?

The post Employers: Don’t Forget Mobile Apply appeared first on Mobile Recruiting | Mobile Recruitment |.

Social media sites were founded on the desktop, but moved swiftly to mobile devices based on the wants and needs of users. It all of a sudden made more sense to reach people who were on the go, than to limit users to the shrinking time spent on desktops and laptops. As a result of these changes, the recruitment methods used for social media must also adapt accordingly for mobile convenience. So let’s take a look at how you can expand your company’s net to gather more talent with the small screen.

If you are already sharing jobs via your social interfaces, which means a substantial percent of your job seekers are inherently viewing these posts on a mobile device. The real question is though, are they having a good experience once they take the next step? Chances are that if you do not have a mobile optimized career site, your job postings on social are leaving your mobile users wanting more. What you need to do is show potential candidates that your company is accommodating and understanding of their expectations.

Make sure all of your links from your social sites redirect to mobile-friendly content to avoid having sky-high drop-off rates. Take into consideration that job seekers don’t need 100% of the opening’s details to apply. What they need is a breakdown of your company’s most interesting tasks -and of course including some perks can’t hurt either!

Once you have a few candidates on the line, ask about their interaction with your hybrid social/mobile strategy. Remember, no one can tell you quite how great (or poor) your UX is, better than those who have been through it with the sole purpose of landing a job at your company. Take advice on how merging social and mobile could evolve your current strategy to attract more specific talent, rather than casting such a wide net that you can’t sift through all of the under-qualified candidates fast enough. Keep up with the trends and make sure whichever social platform is on top this week provides a seamless transition to your mobile site, as well.

Of course, without social, mobile would be accelerating at a much slower pace. Assuming you already have a mobile site where prospective employees can gather to seek out open positions, ask yourself if there is any way that these visitors can benefit from social integrations. For sites that allow job seekers to join talent communities or even apply for jobs, using social log-ins is a huge time-saver. Professionally speaking, with over 187 million users, LinkedIn is a great place to start gathering information on your applicants. When users find an interesting position, give them the option to apply with LinkedIn and all they have to do is present their credentials, which in turn grants permission to parse their data into your existing apply form. Then, voila! You’ve slimmed down your apply process by minutes.

Whichever methods you choose to explore, it is in your company’s best interest to think the way your job seekers think. Embrace the idea that your social and mobile solutions shouldn’t just be available, but should also be user-friendly and efficient. The more you engage your candidates on their level, the more likely they are to feel a personal connection to your employment brand and the higher chance you have of turning candidates into applicants on mobile devices.

The post Don’t forget – Social job seekers are mobile, too! appeared first on Mobile Recruiting | Mobile Recruitment |.

Because the most desired candidates today are already busy, many do not have the time to complete their job search on a desktop computer. Mobile devices let them search for jobs, check their applications and share jobs with friends while on-the-go, saving time and ultimately helping them end-up with the right company.

A recent article by VentureBeat entitled, “How simple mobile tech can put America back to work,” describes the impact that mobile recruiting is having on the job market today. In addition to being beneficial to individual companies and job applicants, the article also notes that mobile technologies can help the overall macroeconomic job market today by pairing each qualified applicant with a well-fitting company, one at a time, saying:

Rather than focusing solely on improving online access, it is time to build interactive mobile recruiting technologies that reach people on all kinds of devices, even feature phones. By developing technologies and policies that enable wider — even simpler — mobile access to recruiting capabilities that both employers and hourly workers need to survive, we can help bridge this gap, fill this digital divide, and truly put America back to work.

Mobile job search is desirable for applicants, because it does not chain them to a computer for several hours while searching for a job and it makes the entire experience more interactive for them by constantly having access to their applications. In addition, mobile recruiting is also desirable for companies because it provides applicants with a variety of options.

Mobile is also helping attract passive candidates by building strong employment brands. Video, for example, is quickly becoming one of the most popular activities on-the-go. Faster speeds, such as 4G and ubiquitous WiFi, are letting employers paint a picture of what it’s like to work at their company that simply weren’t possible before mobile.

For example, imagine sending a candidate a text message with a link to a YouTube video promoting a job opportunity. Imagine them getting your message at an opportune time like their lunch break over their iPhone. With mobile, it’s not even possible; it’s already happening.

The post Putting America Back to Work, One Mobile Device at a Time appeared first on Mobile Recruiting | Mobile Recruitment |.

The Application Generation (GenApps) have chosen mobile phones as their conduit of instant, accessible and timely information. They use their phones to alert, remind, and respond to the most important messages and tasks.

This is good news for employers and recruitment agencies vying for the best and brightest professionals. The mobile career center allows potential employees to have easy and integrated access to position openings, with the ability to upload resumes right from their phone using LinkedIn, GoogleDrive and other popular sites.

For GenApps looking for their next career move, this is the ultimate solution to quickly research and respond to the jobs they want. They are able to search for positions, read job descriptions and place their resume at the top of the list without waiting for their work day to end.

This GenApp trait of on-demand information is supported by recent research. According to comparis.ch, half of all smartphone users bring themselves up to date before leaving home, with 29 percent checking their phone for news and updates either while still in bed or immediately after getting up, and another 21 percent checking it while getting themselves ready for the day. In addition, nearly 60 percent check their smartphone for personal messages and news while at work, with 17 percent doing so hourly.

For professionals looking for a new position, the ability to “get the jump” on the competition is an important part of the job search.

The mobile career center is essential for employers and recruitment agencies looking to connect with today’s career professionals – the GenApps – in a manner appealing to their priorities of fast, efficient and seamless task management.

The post GenApp: The Mobile Application Generation appeared first on Mobile Recruiting | Mobile Recruitment |.