Your Website Needs to Be Ready for Mobile…Now

If you’re looking at your applications folder and wondering why it’s a little slim, the reason might be your mobile website — or lack thereof. Given that just one in four Fortune 500 companies even has a mobile-optimized website, it’s tempting to think your corporation is ahead of the game simply by having one. Wrong!

Seventy-two percent of job seekers want to receive job information on a mobile device of choice, which means their phone is their go-to device when researching available jobs.

Investing in a better mobile website and making sure a candidate can complete the entire application process on their phone will give more people access to your job postings and application process. Seventy percent of mobile job seekers take action on applications within the hour, versus 30 percent of desktop candidates.

Mobile Websites: No Longer Optional

According to TalentHQ, 62 percent of passive job seekers will look at a company’s mobile website on their phone or tablet. If the mobile version of your company’s website has the same layout as the desktop version — usually not a good idea, since desktop sites are harder to navigate on mobile) — or fails to conform to modern mobile website standards, job-seekers are less likely to keep poking around and take a closer look at the jobs your company might be offering.

What’s more, 84 percent of candidates think that most companies would benefit from having a better mobile website. While it may not seem like a big deal to have a fast, simple, and easy-to-use mobile website if you don’t rely on it to get customers, you still need a good mobile experience if you’re looking to hire.

Make Applying On-the-Go Effortless

Even if your mobile website looks nice on smartphones, responds to every single touch without fail, and loads every page in less than a second, you’re still missing out on potential candidates if they can look but can’t touch.

Though many application forms are built on a desktop format, 40 percent of job-seekers will abandon job application processes that they can’t complete on a mobile website. This means that it’s absolutely worth it to go the extra mile when building your company’s mobile website to make sure that anyone can complete a job application while browsing on a phone, whether that means devoting more company resources to your mobile website or paying a contractor more to get it done. It’s not enough to make your job listings viewable on mobile — it should be easy to apply as well.

For starters, your company should use an applicant tracking system (ATS) like RecruiterBox, Jobvite, or Resumator that makes forms much easier to fill out and track. It should also give the applicant an easy way to upload a resume, cover letter, or work samples from their phone. Your mobile site should also update candidates when you’ve received their application and let them know when they should expect you to get back to them.

Putting It in Perspective

It’s a little disheartening just how few companies are building better mobile websites. Only 5 percent of the Fortune 500 companies have the kind of fully-optimized mobile applications that job-seekers are looking for. The most successful companies in the world can often teach smaller business a thing or two, but this isn’t one of those cases.

Bigger companies can afford to lose applicants due to the sheer number of candidates they deal with, but most smaller and mid-sized companies can’t. If you have the kind of slick mobile job application that job seekers are looking for, that’s an advantage you have over every other company that still hasn’t gotten their mobile experience together.

There are, of course, other benefits to having a smooth mobile website: 61 percent of people have a better impression of a brand based on their mobile experience. While you’re building a better application experience for your mobile job seekers, you’re also building your reputation as a company with all of your visitors, regardless of why they’re visiting.

Read on at Recruiter.com

Maren Hogan

Maren Hogan is CEO of Red Branch and general Bad@$$

Maren Hogan is a seasoned marketer and community builder in the HR and Recruiting industry. Maren started Red Branch Media and, before she hired all the smiling faces you see below, she ran it on her own. In marketing for over 15 years, she has deep experience in strategic campaigns and a long-term, results-based operational approach.