Recruitment methods have come a long way. In the days of the Roman Empire Julius Caesar offered payment to any soldier who recruited another soldier into his army. Recruitment in the Industrial Era was a sign in the window of a business, or a person giving out flyers in front of a factory. In the 1950’s, companies posted “help wanted” advertisements in local papers. Today recruitment has vastly evolved due to the Internet and digital technologies, with talent recruitment now being 100% digital. Mobile technologies are more important than ever, leading the way into this digital 21st century, providing more efficient and effective ways to recruit talent.  

To accurately project the future of recruiting and the use of mobile technologies, it is important to take a step back to understand how recruitment became 100% digitalized. Prior to the 1990’s, 80% of job candidates were sourced via ‘help wanted’ ads and hiring decisions were made by management after interviewing qualified job candidates. After the Internet was born in the early 1990’s, job postings moved online and a small percentage of job seekers began searching for jobs there. Today, 99% of job seekers search for career opportunities over the Internet in various ways, whether it’s searching job boards or using social networking sites such as LinkedIn.   This digitalization of recruiting has made it easy to extend recruiting to mobile devices.

Recruitment is now digital and traditional recruitment tools are being replaced by digital ones, just as resumes have been replaced by digital profiles. Now a recruiter can learn more about a candidate’s skills and experiences by reviewing their online data, as opposed to a resume where candidates often misrepresent themselves. Similarly, two-way and asynchronous video interviews have replaced initial phone interviews. More and more employers are leveraging digital technologies to improve the candidate application experience and streamline the hiring process. 

Leveraging technology does have its challenges and it has been increasingly important to not only embrace new technologies but to wisely deploy them.  Understanding the digital recruitment environment is paramount when deciding which technologies to employ in the market. For example, offering a fast and easy application process is important to ensuring an excellent candidate experience but this also affects how candidates view a company’s brand and culture. Your use of e-recruitment tools will affect your ability to engage passive job candidates, which have been shown to be the most qualified applicants. Lastly, your ability to collect and analyze data on job candidates will allow you to make data driven decisions, which has become increasingly more important considering the large increase in candidates per job posting.

New technologies are for the most part mobile centric because most people interface and communicate with the world through their mobile devices. Recruiting is no different as you want to reach and engage as many candidates as possible and the most efficient way is through mobile devices. Taking it a step further, how a candidate interacts with their mobile device is equally important in understanding their behavior, personality and skills. Mobile devices allow companies to collect useful data from a candidate that was previously unavailable, making them invaluable tools in recruitment.

Mobile recruiting is here to stay, as over 90% of job seekers use their mobile device to search for a job.  Mobile recruiting will continue to improve both the recruitment process for candidates and employers and more companies will adopt mobile centric strategies to deliver the optimal mobile experience to candidates. Companies that embrace mobile recruiting will be able to more effectively find, engage and hire better talent in this ever increasingly mobile world.