Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Kim Dushinski on June 26, 2008 at 10:42am

Interesting concept - using mobile to recruit. I predict this will become part of the old school in recruiting methods very quickly.

Permalink Reply by Recruiting Animal on June 26, 2008 at 11:56am

Louis looks a younger and thinner than I had imagined. His voice on the phone suggests a different build and demeanour.

Permalink Reply by Bill Vick on June 26, 2008 at 12:12pm

This was done while Louis was at the beach. :)

Permalink Reply by Recruiting Animal on June 26, 2008 at 12:21pm

So, Bill, did he shrink in the water?

Permalink Reply by David Szary on June 26, 2008 at 3:53pm

Bill. I think both Louis and Kristin are spot on. While I'm clearly not an expert in this area and don't know of many folks currently using mobile media . . . it's time has come.

While there are a ton of advantages to using this media in recruiting, I love the fact that you will catch them at times when they have time to read, think about the opportunity and respond (commute, airports, hanging out with friends, etc., etc. etc.).

Permalink Reply by Julian Stopps on June 27, 2008 at 4:41am

A number of factors are occurring simultaneously which are driving the mobile media forward as a viable recruiting solution, some of which are fairly obvious, some of which are not. For example, while everyone has heard the hype about the iPhone, it’s actually changes in corporate policy that are just as likely to fuel the growth in mobile job searching.

In the last few years businesses, corporate companies in particular, have been working hard on putting ‘acceptable usage policies’ in place to govern how employees use the Internet in the work place. These policies place restrictions on an employee’s ability to search for jobs from their office computer. This is a problem (for recruiters), as midday is typically seen as a peak time for job seeking (presumably with job seekers looking for work over lunch). If the full screen Internet experience is not an available option, people will inevitability turn to the most convenient alternative, which is quickly becoming the mobile Internet.

At the same time we are seeing a technology revolution taking place; mobile devices are becoming the long awaited ‘mobile computer’, while ‘cloud computing’ means that documents (such as resumes) can be stored in a location that’s universally accessible. Put the two together and we are finally reaching a stage where it’s viable for a mobile job seeker to go through the complete job search and application process on their mobile device. Previously the need to have ‘preregistered’ a resume with a job board has slowed the growth of mobile job seeking, but this will evaporate as these two technology advances reach the main stream (and we’re a little way off from this at the moment).

Keeping with technology and we can expect some big leaps forwards in the mobile phone space in the next two years. Tariffs for data services on mobiles are dropping quickly, while at the same time operators are investing in ‘mesh’ networks which will improve network access significantly. This moves us towards an ‘always on’ audience, one that is almost always plugged into the Internet in some way. A person’s mobile phone is typically no less than 3 meters away from them, it’s very personal item (phones are rarely shared in way computers are) and it’s both a push and pull device in terms of how data can reach it.

So what does this mean for recruitment advertising? In once sense very little changes, we may see people migrate from the computer to the mobile device for job seeking, which itself has challenges, but those who understand how to use the web to recruit shouldn’t struggle to migrate to the mobile platform. In another sense, everything changes. As consumers change the way they interact with the Internet their expectations will alter. A person who job hunts every night from a computer will be happy to wait 24 hours for a response to a job application. A person who job hunts every night, every train trip and ever lunch hour from a mobile phone will be expecting a response far quicker (and will judge a recruiter on the quality and speed of the response).

Recruiting on the ‘small’ device is a very ‘big’ topic…

Permalink Reply by Bill Vick on June 27, 2008 at 8:04am

Julilan - what a very thoughtful and interesting posting. I particularly like your concept of "full screen Internet experience" vs "small device". I read someplace that 200 million computers were sold last year vs 700 million phones and in less than 3 years over 80% of the worlds population will have access to a phone. Its going to fuel the change that’s taking place in the way both people and recruiters work. What are your thoughts on using texting to recruit the elusive Gen Y candidate?

Permalink Reply by Julian Stopps on June 27, 2008 at 9:01am

Hi Bill,

Something I’m noticing is that using texting or SMS seems to work extremely well for the type of recruiting that answers short notice resource problems. The kind of situation where there is a very short lead time between knowing about the requirement and filling the role.

In the last two weeks I’ve seen two examples where sourcing candidates to fill short term temporary or contract positions has been effectively delivered by text based communications. The first was the sourcing of experienced temporary workers for a one day event; candidates were taken from an approved list of workers and selected on a location basis. Responses to the texts were quick (far better than email communications) and less work intensive than calling candidates by phone. The second was the sourcing of IT resource to fill an immediate and unexpected need, again the response was immediate.

There’s obviously some overlap in the above examples, the candidates already had a relationship of some kind with the ‘texter’ and the roles were the type that are typically filled by Gen Y. However using texting as a method for sourcing freelancers, temporary workers and contractors seems an obvious solution, as people working in these areas are typically more familiar with responding quickly to resource requirements.

Julian