The Rise of the Mobile Job Seeker The Necessity of a Mobile Optimized Career Site

Imagine a world where applicants are eager to work for you. You receive streams of applications. You get the most talented workers in the industry and they stay with you throughout their entire career.

Yup! You’ve hit the jackpot of the position that most employers want to be in.

This position can only be attained by having an employers brand of choice. And the most crucial part of this is your career site.

So why do you even need a career site? For starters, Ads on job boards like SEEK, Monster, CareerBuilder are simply not enough. Most job boards and Applicant Tracking Systems drive all applicants to the company’s career site to apply for jobs. So it comes as no surprise that more than 64% of candidates (Jibe 2017) are visiting your company’s career site at some point in their application process. This means that it’s now more important than ever to have a mobile-enabled career site that reflects your company!

Now here’s another fun statistic! According to a recent study by Indeed, over 50% of job seekers search for jobs using their mobile. So it’s time to ask yourself some big questions…

Are your company’s jobs even discoverable on mobile search? Is your career site optimized for all devices including mobile? How easy is it for a mobile seeker to submit an application through your career site? Do you even have a career site? Or are you stuck in the old-world ways of recruiting?

Either way, it’s the 21st century and you’ve got to cater to the mobile job-seeker if you want to become an employer brand of choice. Having an aesthetically pleasing, mobile-enabled website is not just attractive for candidates but is NECESSARY in this day and age.

So here are 4 key points that your career site should address to help make your company an employer brand of choice while delivering an excellent candidate application experience:

1. Optimized Across All Devices – Make sure your career site is optimized for all devices i.e. mobile, desktop and tablet. One of the biggest challenges for mobile job seekers is that many career sites aren’t optimized for mobile. So remember that having an optimized mobile site will allow candidates to easily apply for jobs.
   
2. SEO Friendly – Now more than ever, candidates are turning to search engines like Google and Bing to search for jobs.  Yesteryear career site software are not SEO friendly leaving companies unable to appear on search results through customizable meta-titles and descriptions.
   
3. Allows For Easy Application Process – Have you tried to view and apply for one of your own company jobs with a mobile? Is the process easy? If not, get in touch a free applicant tracking system that does. Having an easy application process is crucial as it means candidates have a great experience and this also has a flow-on effect reducing drop-offs. Try to minimize the number of steps that a candidate takes once they appear on your site. Does your applicant tracking system require a candidate to create a login and profile before they can even apply for a job? If so run! Run to a new applicant tracking system like My Recruitment Plus that allows candidates to submit an application in minimal steps. Remember you are not the only company a candidate is applying to and the longer the process the more likely a candidate is to drop off from finished their application.
   
4. Reflects your Brand – Does your career site reflect your brand and other pages on your website? Or is it just a un-customized landing page that is boring and does not authentically reflect your brand in any way? Remember that candidates judge your company by your career site so make sure it reflects your brand as an employer brand of choice.