On Wednesday Deloitte released their annual Global Mobile Consumer Survey and as predicted mobile usage is on the rise, but the scale, frequency and purposes for which consumers are leveraging mobile even shocked me. Mobile recruiting’s ability to drive candidate engagement is growing and here are three essential trends to help you take advantage.

Hello Text, Goodbye Email

Traditionally email has been the first thing consumers check on their mobile device when waking up in the morning - not anymore. Deloitte reports that 31% of consumers check their text messages first, while only 24% of consumers check their email first. On top of that, emails experienced “the largest year-over-year decline of any activity.” The future of text-based recruiting appears strong.

Leisure Time Goes Mobile

Deloitte’s survey also shows that outside of work we use our mobile devices most while shopping (92%), watching television (87%) and going out to eat (81%). The use of phones during these activities presents a tremendous opportunity for recruiters to use keywords and shortcodes to fill talent pipelines. Just imagine a shopper at a department store seeing a display “Text ‘Jobs’ to 55555 for Career Opportunities” – it engages talent on the spot and simplifies the application process. Mobile recruiting is evolving to attract new talent from brick and mortar storefronts, not just from device to device.

Mobile Rituals

The number of times Americans check their phones has grown to 8 billion times daily, and that may be because it’s where we spend time when we wake up and before we go to sleep. 43% of consumers check their phones within the first 5 minutes of waking up (up from 39% last year), and 33% check their phones within 5 minutes of going to sleep. As our mobile devices become more and more ritualized into our daily behavior – their influence in recruiting and candidate engagement strengthens.

The importance of connecting with job seekers on their mobile devices is obvious, and luckily for recruiters the opportunities to generate candidate engagement in 2016 are emerging quickly. TextRecruit offers a free 15-day trial to see how mobile recruiting can change hiring at your business. Visit www.textrecruit.com to get started.

Bio: Birch Faber

Birch is the Marketing Manager at TextRecruit, a mobile recruiting platform that helps attract and engage candidates via text message. He loves learning and writing about how technology is changing the way we work, and frequenting craft beer festivals in the Bay Area. You can find him on Twitter @BirchF.