Mobile is the way we do things online, from looking for information to shopping. Searching for a job is no exception. A mobile-first approach, therefore, is not only for web design and marketing teams but also for the HR department.
Adjusting recruitment strategies to reflect these realities is essential for consistently hiring top-level talent. By capturing and analyzing data on mobile-specific job market trends, you will be able to do just that.
The rise of mobile job searching
With the introduction of smartphones, many online tasks have become convenient enough to perform on your phone. Job seekers can now scroll through postings at any time, from anywhere.
For the younger generation of workers, especially, it is natural to explore the job market first on mobile. Workers who have already been in the job market when mobile phones started becoming commonplace may still see the desktop as better-suited for profession-related tasks.
Once you get used to it, exploring job options while waiting in line or commuting is convenient and efficient. There is every reason to expect mobile to continue its dominance as the number one way to search for jobs.
Key mobile-specific job market trends
The growing use of mobile phones to search for a job is itself a trend that has been ongoing for over a decade. It tells recruiters that their efforts should also be focused on mobile users first.
Data-driven recruitment professionals may want to go beyond this simple observation, however. Here are some additional mobile-specific trends to consider for your hiring strategy.
The increasing preference for job search apps
Alongside the general trend of job searches on mobile devices, there is a preference for job search apps over desktop websites. Many of the major platforms, such as LinkedIn or Indeed, have introduced apps long ago. Emerging job search services sometimes don’t even bother with the website.
Optimization for mobile
Demand dictates supply, and so the major platforms are optimizing for mobile. Investments in apps and mobile websites are essential to ensure a top-notch user experience, which is the only way these service providers can stay competitive.
For recruiters, this says two main things. First, prioritize mobile-optimized platforms because that’s what job seekers do. Secondly, optimize your own website and content for mobile job search.
The growing role of social media content
The line between professional and casual social media is becoming increasingly blurred. At the end of the day, content is still the king, whether it’s on LinkedIn or Instagram.
Successful employer branding and recruitment depend on the ability to create content that users won’t just scroll through as they ride the bus or wait for coffee.
Simplified applications
Mobile-first approach has also boosted the development of options for quick or even one-click job applications. Desktop users might be willing and prepared to upload a CV and even tailor it for a specific job opening. Mobile users, especially passive job seekers, are more likely to apply when there is a convenient option to do it on the go.
The importance of skills-based hiring
Over the past century, employers have traditionally prioritized formal education and years of experience in a particular field. In the digital age, what matters most is whether you possess the necessary skills and can prove it with certifications or a trial task.
For mobile hiring, this means that data-driven HR professionals need to track what skills job seekers advertise on platforms. Recruiters want to target particular talent with a particular skill set with their mobile-optimized ads and campaigns.
Capturing the trends to improve your recruitment strategy
Trends are constantly changing and depend on various factors, including time and place. Thus, one needs to constantly refresh their data and hiring strategy accordingly. Below are a few tips about how to collect and use data on mobile-specific job market trends.
Crafting strong job ads
Your job posting needs to be well-structured to attract a high volume of suitable applications. Some of the best practices that apply to all device types become especially important when targeting mobile users.
Job ads need to share the most important information clearly, easily catching the user’s eye. The job title and main responsibilities should accurately reflect the actual day-to-day tasks and be easily understood by the type of talent you are seeking.
The salary range and benefits should also be easily noticeable to the user skimming through your ad. Many job seekers have specific expectations and questions, and might drop your ad if they cannot find the answers quickly.
Highlight your advantages with appropriate subheadings. For example, let them immediately know about your outstanding brand reputation. Communicate what matters most concisely to make sure it is not buried in the text that won’t even be read in full by many potential candidates.
Use mobile proxies to capture mobile-specific labor data
Gathering mobile-specific labor market data requires access to a robust infrastructure of mobile proxies. Mobile proxies are intermediary mobile devices needed to collect geo-specific and device-specific content from apps or mobile websites.
Enhancing recruitment strategies with mobile-specific trends intelligence requires a lot of such data. It is needed, for example, to track regional hiring and job-seeking trends as they appear on mobile-first platforms and apps. Additionally, with mobile proxies, you can monitor competitor activity by tracking how their ads and campaigns appear to mobile users.
Verify user experience
Mobile proxies make another crucial aspect of data-driven recruitment possible. They allow you to check what kind of user experience (UX) your mobile-first websites and ads actually facilitate.
Gathering mobile-specific data on how your job postings, career pages, or ads are displayed will help you make improvements in a timely manner. Without such data, you may be able to identify friction points by where applicants tend to drop out, but remain in the dark about the underlying issue.
By verifying how your ads look from the user’s perspective, you can quickly detect issues, fix them, and see your ad conversion rates improve within days. Importantly, using mobile proxies will allow you to analyze how mobile UX depends on device type and operating system.
Analyze the influence of mobile identity on algorithmic feed
Someone’s feed on social media platforms is decided largely by algorithms. They factor in the users’ explicit preferences, such as the profiles they follow and the content they mark as irrelevant, but a lot of data collection happens passively.
However, which job ad of the two relevant to their skill set a user will see first also depends on their entire mobile identity. Their mobile IP issuer, the network they are using (whether it is 3G, 4G, 5G, or WiFi), and various other factors determine this identity.
A comprehensive HR strategy targeting mobile users needs an analysis of how these signals affect the algorithmic feed. Mobile proxies enable the simulation of various mobile identities, thus unlocking the exact feeds these users would see.
Test and iterate
Finally, capturing mobile-specific job trends is just the first half of the battle for talent. Analyze the data and test the insights extracted from it. Run A/B testing to check your hypothesis about potential improvements to your job ads.
Keep iterating and implementing new insights. And, of course, continue to gather new mobile-specific data on job market trends. These trends may shift suddenly. For the foreseeable future, mobile devices are likely to remain the dominant tool for accessing job listings.
Summing up
Mobile is king in job search. Recruiters have been trying to crack the code of capturing mobile users’ attention for more than a decade now. But the code is not static.
To stay up-to-date with mobile-specific trends, HR professionals must continually gather new data on the habits of mobile users and the entire labor market. Constantly adapting your recruitment strategy is the only way to consistently deliver great results.
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