Why mobile apps are the way forward in recruitment

There is a lot of information out there regarding the role of technology (AI, job aggregators, chatbots, etc.) in the recruitment process.

Watch out for smartphone apps becoming the next hot recruitment topic as developers and recruiters alike begin to see the benefits this tech can bring to the hiring process.

The need for speed: why a streamlined hiring process matters

It is common knowledge in recruitment circles that we are living through a time where the number of roles available exceed the candidate pool, especially where top talent is concerned. Recruiters have to cater to those candidates’ needs or risk losing them to a competitor. According to a HR Magazine study from 2016, 54% of recruiters lost candidates because their hiring process was just too slow.

Communication has a key role to play here because the sooner a recruiter can present an offer, the less likely it is that a rival will get theirs in first. Efficient communication also improves the overall candidate experience.

This matters because according to CareerBuilder, 80% of candidates use their experience during recruitment as evidence for how they will be treated on the job. This is bad news if you are slow to respond and use inefficient technology.

The rise of mobile technology

Just by looking around you, it’s easy to see how popular smartphones are in the 21st Century and the stats back this up. According to Statista, global smartphone usage has risen from 1.57 to 2.53 billion from 2014 to 2018 and that number continues to rise every year.

In 2014, a LinkedIn survey revealed that 64% of active candidates used their smartphones to browse for jobs on social media networks and an Ofcom study in 2016 placed UK smartphone use at 72% of the population. These proportions will have increased further in the past three years so it’s safe to assume that a large number of your target candidates – particularly those from a younger demographic – are fully connected into the smartphone way of life – and using apps in their hunt for a new career.

Even the technophobic are realising how convenient smartphone apps are for enhancing day-to-day life. We can wake up in the morning and before we’ve left the duvet behind, we can turn up the heating, switch on the shower and have our virtual assistant tell us what the day holds. We can then order up an Uber and arrange to have lunch delivered to our desks – all from an app!

So as a recruiter, using a mobile app to connect with your prospective candidates is not just a good idea – it’s common sense. In fact, we would go further than that and suggest that a mobile app could be the missing link recruiters and internal hire teams need to gain the advantage over the competition in today’s candidates’ market.

For example, using a mobile recruitment app will enable recruiters like you to communicate with new applicants even while travelling to or from your place of work – or to meet existing candidates.

idibu’s new app lets you quickly process your candidates (choosing whether to reject or add them to your CRM) before generating autoresponders. This ensures the candidate experience remains high and that you have a fresh pool of talent in your CRM before you’ve even arrived at your desk!

Measuring success with recruitment metrics

How do you measure the impact of a mobile app on the recruitment process?

HR Magazine found that the average hiring process took 27.59 days but time-to-hire isn’t fine-grained enough to pinpoint the areas where you may be falling down.

For this purpose, it is more useful to focus on a sub-category of time-to-hire such as time-to-inform: how long it takes you to communicate the outcome of a stage of the hiring process. A mobile app will enable you to quickly qualify or disqualify prospects, without having to wait until you are on a desktop or laptop computer.

For successful candidates, this means they will more quickly progress on to the next stage of the process, overall time-to-hire will fall and your (or your client’s) company will be fully resourced and ready to generate maximum profits again. You can then move on to the next role to fill.

Whether you are comfortable with using modern technology or prefer more traditional communication methods, this article has hopefully highlighted that whilst it’s completely up to us how ‘digital’ we want to take our personal lives and interactions, when it comes to business we really have no choice but to embrace technology and move with the times, especially in a fast moving world like recruitment.

idibu provides intelligent candidate acquisition to hundreds of recruitment businesses of all sizes as well as analysis of activity and hiring funnels to greatly improve ROI and performance. Click here to arrange a FREE demo or get in touch now on 0800 311 2750.