Times have clearly changed and so should our recruitment strategies. Today’s professionals have evolved and are on the go. We have become a society obsessed with staying connected, both while we work and while we play.  A 2010 Mobile Workforce study from iPass revealed that over 94% reported that they stayed connected either always or occasionally during vacation. In addition, iPass also discovered that over 96% of mobile employees carried two or more mobile devices, with almost 50% carrying three or more devices. Society’s addictiveness to mobile technology, pervasiveness and sheer dominance gives it a pivotal position as a next generation talent attraction and engagement channel.

According to the CTIA, there were over 302M U.S. wireless subscriber connections as of December 2010. With U.S. wireless penetration now over 96%, employers clearly have a unique opportunity to leverage this vastly untapped recruitment channel. For job seekers, the mobile device serves as an ideal channel for remaining discreet while actively (or passively) exploring the latest career opportunities. Whether a job seeker joins an SMS campaign, views a position on a mobile career site, or responds to a position through a job app, the convenience of exploring new jobs anytime, anywhere, offers an advantage.

Mobile is the one communication and marketing channel employers have been very slow to adopt. However, forward-thinking corporations are finally beginning to recognize that they must innovate in order to effectively compete for the best possible talent. Extensive research from organizations such as Nielsen, iPass, Comscore, Pew Internet, etc., all point to the pervasiveness of mobile. There is no doubt that mobile has the greatest worldwide reach of all mass mediums. It is time we move beyond the question of whether mobile recruiting makes sense. As employers, our focus should now turn to how we create meaningful content for attracting and engaging our target audience. Mobile as a standalone solution is not the answer.  However, by integrating mobile as part of our overall digital recruitment strategy, we are setting the stage for engaging the new workforce in the way they want to be reached.

This post also appears on TalentMinded’s blog. View it here

Enjoy!

Question about my mobile recruiting slideshow? Use the contact form or set up an appointment to chat live.

Glenn Gutmacher, Vice President for Arbita’s Consulting & Education Services (ACES) division, recently pinged me regarding a great article posted by Liz  Myers at Adobe.  In her post, Liz cites a recent Gartner report in which they predicted that “mobile web use will outpace desktop browsing by 2013″.   If you are an avid mobile enthusiast and follow the trends then you will agree that Gartner’s prediction is not far off from becoming a reality.  Although Liz’s article was written primarily for mobile developers, she presents some fantastic information that I believe is equally relevant for any organization considering a mobile recruiting strategy.

Here is a recap of the six important characteristics offered through mobile:

1.  Mobile devices are deeply personal. The phone is something that belongs to just one individual. It’s private, personal, and likely to be carried with you everywhere you go. We like to customize our phones and they have become a symbol of social status. The phone I carry, and the content I have, become part of my personal brand.

2.  Mobile devices are hyper-social. The phone holds all of your contacts and allows you to do much more with them. Basic communications include voice calling, text messaging (sending a message of 140 characters or less. SMS or Short Message Service was the first Twitter), multimedia messaging (sending video or photos along with text messages), and e-mail. Beyond the basics, you may want to consider online presence, physical proximity, or relationship strength, to allow for more “contextual communications.”

3.  Mobile devices are location-aware. Even if you don’t know exactly where you are, your phone does! It can also help you discover what is located nearby, get directions, or even interpret what is right in front of you. If your friends opt-in, you can display their present location. This is one of the most powerful features of mobile devices and one that, until recently, was reserved for native applications. However, the most recent versions of Fireworks, Chrome, and the Android browser, now have location APIs as well.

4.  Mobile devices promote quick focused usage. Assuming that one is on the move, I will stop to navigate my phone when I need a vital bit of information like my shopping list, current traffic, flight arrival times, stock prices, or recent messages. The exception to this is entertainment. More and more, mobiles fill those empty spaces when we’re standing in line, waiting, or sitting for long idle periods — we reach for our phones to watch our favorite podcasts, scan tweets, listen to music, or immerse ourselves in a good film.

5.  Mobile devices are sometimes connected. When planning your mobile offering, it’s important to develop for both the online and offline scenarios. Sometimes your users will be riding the subway, on a plane, traveling abroad or otherwise unable to connect to the Internet, their home network, or both. Although unlimited data plans do exist, they’re not as prevalent as you may think. So if you want to avoid costly phone bills you need to consider how users will engage with your content when they’re offline.

6.  Mobile devices support a spontaneous lifestyle. Carrying all of your PIM (personal information management) data means you can respond to events as they unfold and share new data in real time. For example, if traffic is blocked, I can meet my party at a different restaurant. If I’m standing in line at the cinema and tickets sell out, I can quickly locate an alternative and have my friends meet me there.

[Source: Liz Myers , Adobe: "Getting Started with Mobile"]

Liz presents some pretty compelling points about mobile. You don’t have to be a mobile app developer to realize that mobile media and communication offers a huge advantage. Today’s technology now enables each of us to easily tap the mobile channel for engaging our target audience, anytime and anywhere. Integrating a mobile solution into recruitment doesn’t have to be complicated. It’s within reach. The key is to start by understanding the basics of building a mobile campaign and keep it simple.

Developing a mobile strategy is fast becoming a necessity. If you’re still trying to determine whether mobile is a fad or the future, consider this:

“Mobile is in fact, the fastest-growing Trillion-dollar industry in the economic history of mankind. That is why Google, Apple, Microsoft, Intel, Dell etc are all interested to get in. The fastest-growing Trillion-dollar industry ever.”

[Source: Tomi Ahonen, Mobile Consultant & Best Selling Author]

Are you or your organization positioned to take advantage of the mobile recruitment channel? There are a lot of options today. Mobile app, mobile web, mobile messaging, mobile barcode, mobile social, and the list goes on. Interested in building a mobile recruiting solution but still not sure how or where to start? Contact me and let’s talk…

Live Text-Message Demo…

With the help of my friends over at mResource, I was able to provide a live text-message demo. Webinar attendees participating from the U.S. were prompted to send a text-message with the keyword “SHOWME” to 90206. This simple demo helped to illustrate how easily text-messaging could be used to segment and pre-screen a target audience. The example included some simple questions, a call-to-action, and a redirect to a mobile-optimized landing page. If you are curious on how to piece this type of campaign together, make sure to read my post entitled:  “Mobile Recruiting: The Basics of Building a Campaign”…»

If you missed the ERE-sponsored webinar, you may now easily view the slides below, or download the presentation here.

Click here to view more presentations from Michael Marlatt…».

Watch the recorded version of the Mobile Recruiting webinar:

* Interested in leveraging text-messaging and the mobile web as part of your recruitment marketing strategy? Visit mResource to learn more…»

Margo’s question:

“What was the single most important take away for the #SHRM conference where you were presenting on April 26th?”

The single most important take away?  Wow, now that’s a tough one.  Margo’s question is very timely and deserves more than a simple one word response. With 91% of Americans now mobile subscribers, there’s no better time to discuss how mobile plays into HR & recruiting.

Here are FIVE TIPS for any employer considering a “mobile recruitment” solution:

Tip #1: Think Strategy before Tactics.

While we can agree having the right technology is important, an organization should first ask the all too familiar question:  What keeps you up at night?  Understanding the key “pain points” in your recruitment efforts is critical.  Next, ask WHAT do you hope to accomplish by deploying a mobile solution?  Will it help by filling a particular gap in your recruitment efforts?  As much as I like to talk about mobile, the reality is that maybe mobile is not the right solution for what you are trying to accomplish.  Clarifying the basics needs up front and having a clear goal will ultimately determine a number of other “tactical” considerations.  Avoid a cookie-cutter approach.  Like any other mass marketing effort, develop a customized solution that is in line with the needs of your organization and target audience.

Tip #2: Selecting a Mobile Platform/Provider.

Once a clear strategy & objective has been determined, it will be much easier to proceed with selecting the “right” mobile provider.  When selecting a provider to host your mobile recruitment campaign, you should take time to consider whether they offer the level of service you need in order to properly execute your desired campaign.  For example, let’s say you’re interested in deploying an SMS (text-message) campaign and also need a mobile web presence.  Your initial goal may be focused on building a network of prospect talent via the mobile channel that your company can later engage. Your company might be interested in sending SMS/text-messages related to employment surveys, job alerts, career event info, or other company related updates, etc.  To do this, you will clearly want to identify an organization with a proven track record of delivering SMS solutions. The good news is that there are many providers out there that offer SMS services with flexible two-way text-messaging capabilities.  In addition, many of these companies are typically able to help create a mobile optimized web site, which (in my opinion) is a must have for any employer.

Clearly, determining the tactical part will be much easier if you first understand what you want and hope to accomplish. Avoid the temptation of trying to run before you walk. For now, stay away from trying to integrate trendy technologies such as QR codes, Bluecasting, GPS, etc. While I fully expect providers of such services to disagree with me, my advice is keep it simple and consider your broader audience. When building your talent network, you don’t want to inadvertently isolate your audience based on the technology you select. Start with the end in mind before spending countless hours trying to figure out which is the “sexiest” mobile technology to deploy, or who is the best provider to manage your campaign.

Tip # 3. Develop a Mobile Web Presence

Creating a mobile web presence is important.  Based on your “call to action” (i.e., what you are asking your audience to do during your mobile campaign) – you will ideally want to redirect users to a final landing page.  That landing page could be a mobile version of a company’s site (or a mobile app) that might include a brief “how to engage us” form, a specific job to view, a “click to call” number, or other relevant information a company wishes to display.  While this may sound a bit complicated, just remember, you do not (and should not) have to go it alone.  Keep in mind, there are companies that can help you build and launch your SMS campaign.  Some companies, such as Jobing, are equipped to create a fully functional mobile web version of your career portal.  If you prefer the mobile app route, you should consider AllTheTopBannanas (a company founded by Dave Martin).  Dave’s company is based out of the UK and has a strong track record of rapidly building out “a fully branded iPhone application for your business“.  In addition, they are scheduled to be on Android by the end of May then Blackberry by the end of June.  Definitely keep your eye on this company as you will likely hear more of them soon.

Tip #4: Time, Place, & Relevancy

My friend Mike Galyen said it best:  Time, Place, Relevancy is key with mobile.  And, you know what? He is spot on.  I could write an entire blog on this topic alone; however, suffice to say it’s important that we keep the audience in mind when developing a mobile  campaign.  If we fail to deliver information to our target audience with the proper context of time, place, and relevancy in mind, we will not likely see the level of return (or engagement) we expect.  Why is that?  Well, if you are running a mobile campaign targeted at attracting sales professionals, you clearly would not want to send text-alerts related to software development, project management jobs, etc. Keep it relevant and you’ll keep them engaged.

Oh, and remember this…

There are no short-cuts in mobile marketing. Everybody starts at ground zero when building a mobile network.  With mobile marketing, the success can often be attributed to the fact that it is 100% permission-based.  Mobile phone spam is illegal. Shally Steckerl (at Arbita), produced a very easy to understand post for recruiters on the topic of SMS-spam. There are strict regulations that govern the practice of mobile marketing and the fines for sending commercial text spam are often very severe. A single violation can potentially set you back $11K! So what’s the point? There are no quick fixes or short-cuts when deploying an SMS campaign. It requires planning, patience, and hard work. We all start from scratch and build our mobile network one “opt-in” at a time. If a prospect candidate is opting into your mobile “talent” network it’s because they want to engage with your organization.  We all know that the mobile is a personal device so it’s important we don’t abuse this channel.  Candidates want to engage with your organization and are waiting for you to communicate with them. By keeping the delivery of your content relevant, you are far more likely to engage the candidates successfully and retain their interest long-term.

Tip #5: Remember to Integrate

Mix it up!  Although mobile SMS is the most widely used DATA application on the planet, mobile as a standalone solution will not work. Consider fully integrating your mobile campaign across a wide variety of media channels (e.g., print, radio, tv, internet, etc).

Need real examples?

American Idol

Back in 2005, American Idol gave viewers the option to SMS (text) in their vote when selecting a favorite singer.  Amazingly, 41.5 million responded to this “call-to-action” and voted via SMS.  In 2006, the number of votes via text-messaging totaled 120 million.  The integration of SMS (text-messaging) with live TV was a success and certainly a history-making event.  They nailed the time, place, and relevancy concepts – hence the amazing results.

Obama Campaign

The Obama camp experienced great success in their use of SMS to communicate and engage their opt-in followers.  This was especially evident when Obama announced his VP selection via SMS. An estimated 2.9 million text messages were sent, which is the single largest mobile marketing event in history.

Although both examples above are above the norm, you don’t need to have a large budget to advertise your mobile campaign.  Think viral.  Start by advertising across the standard online channels such as a company careers site, a Linkedin page or group, a Facebook fan page, your company Twitter site or Youtube channel, podcast, etc.  Of course, don’t forget to rally the recruiting team and educate them on the mobile campaign.  Each Recruiter can also serve as an ambassador by advertising the mobile campaign on their signature, Linkedin/Facebook profile, personal tweets, etc.  If you are attending a professional conference as a speaker, make sure to add your SMS campaign to your presentation signature (front or last page).  Include the URL to your mobile site, or point them to where they can download your company’s mobile (careers) app.  Bottom line, advertise and promote wherever possible.  The idea here is to be creative and don’t allow budget to be a constraint.

Final thoughts…

I realize this is way more detail than Margo had requested; however, I provided the deep-dive to help others who did not have an opportunity to review “Recruiting on the Run” or sit in on the SHRM-Mobile Recruiting presentation.  There’s so much more that could be said on each of the topics presented above.  However, I hope the high level provides a starting point for those who are considering a mobile option as a compliment to their recruitment efforts.

There’s a lot of buzz around this thing called Semantic Search, and for good reason. The real goal behind semantic search technology is to essentially enable the retrieval of accurate information via concept or meaning match. Semantic search doesn’t replace the traditional web but has the power to enhance it. I don’t deny that today’s major search engines do a good job at answering most search inquiries. However, the great hope with semantic search is that it may one day be able to go beyond the keywords that we type, and find exactly what we mean. This is good news if you are a recruiter and in the business of search. If your job is tied to sourcing on the web, hop over to Boolean Black Belt with Glen Cathy and check out his fantastic post on Semantic Search for Sourcers and Recruiters. One look at his site and you will quickly see why I believe Glen Cathey is a search rock-star.

Oh, and of course, definitely make sure to grab a copy of the amazing whitepaper authored by Shally Steckerl and Bryan Starbuck (CEO of TalentSpring). You can download a copy of their whitepaper on semantic search by clicking here. If you’re on Twitter, and like their whitepaper, make sure to follow @Shally and @BryanStarbuck and let them know your thoughts!

Now let’s take a look at the future. Your resume is not about where you’ve worked, but rather what you’ve produced. So, for example, your Twitter tweets, blog comments, forum discussions, YouTube videos, Flickr images, Facebook status updates, LinkedIn recommendations, Amazon book reviews, and any other content you choose are all aggregated. But here’s the key: This brave new resume, the cloud resume, doesn’t include everything you generate, just the specific granular items you choose to be included. Each time you leave a digital impression you decide whether or not you want to tag it for inclusion in your cloud resume.

Of course, challenges exist with this concept. Two come immediately to mind. First off, even if the aggregation website assigns a unique identification tag to each user, how will this be implemented on individual, non-affiliated sites? Obviously you can’t just put some visible code at the end of each thing you want included. If you did, anyone could use your code and threaten the integrity of your cloud resume. Though still in its relative infancy, the answer probably lies in an implementation of a technology called OAuth. At the risk of oversimplifying, OAuth allows an aggregation site to access some, but not necessarily all, of a person’s online data.

Second, how can you package this sort of cloud resume for distribution and subsequent storage in applicant tracking systems? Let’s face it, while some might claim that social media is fast supplanting the resume as the primary currency of the employment trade, that’s just not true. So, do you just send the standard biographical data with the links? Do you convert to PDF? Neither of these options is a very satisfying solution. Our systems will need to evolve.

Challenges aside, the cloud resume solves a number of difficulties with presenting oneself in a Web 2.0 world. Imagine never having to actually sit down and ‘write’ a resume again. We’re already documenting the sort of information that goes into a resume when we create each social networking profile. More important, we’re demonstrating our career knowledge each time we generate work-related content for the web. What we need is a site that can aggregate only the content we want, as we create it. While standard work and educational history can be included if desired, the cloud resume is certainly a more holistic and dynamic way to represent ourselves.

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Guest post submitted by Scott Hajer.

Scott Hajer, lives in Chicago and is a Senior Recruiting Professional formerly employed by Aquent IT Solutions. He is the Chicago Coordinator for Rope with Hope, a site dedicated to “assisting job seekers in finding meaningful work…” Scott is exploring new career opportunities in the Chicago area. Click the following link to view Scott’s Linkedin profile.

Questions on the post? Please contact Scott.

Why do I make this claim?  Consider this, there now 4 billion mobile phone subscriptions on the planet, with an estimated 6 billion subscribers expected by 2013.  According to Tomi Ahonen, six-time bestselling author and consultant on digital convergence and mobile telecoms, the future of mobile is strong and vibrant.  Not convinced?

Here are the latest stats on mobile usage:

• 4 billion worldwide mobile subscribers (vs. 1 billion PC’s).
• 3.4 billion actual mobile phones are in use and connected (vs. 1.2 billion fixed landlines).
• 3 billion users of SMS text messaging (vs. 1.3 billion eMail users, and 600 million IM users).
• 1.9 billion cameraphones in use.
• 1.7 billion consumers of various premium data services on mobile.
• 1.35 billion users of MMS 1.05 active users of browsing (“mobile internet”) on the phones.
• The total content industry on mobile is worth 71 billion dollars.
• Messaging on mobile worth 130 billion.
• Total data on phones worth 200 billion.
• Total mobile services, voice and data, worth 800 billion and the total annual revenues of the mobile industry including handset and network equipment sales, worth one Trillion dollars.
• Selling 1.18 billion new phones and adding 650 million new subscrptions last year, when the rest of the economy is in a downward spiral, mobile telecoms is a strong vibrant and healthy industry.

Source: Tomi Ahonen, 7thMassMedia.com

The U.S. Mobile landscape…

As we can see above, mobile continues to dominate across the global landscape. It remains the most widely adopted of all the other mass media channels (e.g., print, recording, cinema, radio, tv, internet).  While the U.S. continues to lag behind Asia and Europe in mobile usage, we are finally seeing an increase in overall mobile adoption throughout North America. In fact, the U.S. currently has over 262 million mobile subscribers, contributing to 75 billion text messages per month. However, as ubiquitous and well entrenched as mobile has become in the U.S., some uses still have yet to catch on.  Such is the case with mobile recruiting through SMS.

Think SMS and Mobile Recruiting…

Online sourcing has become increasingly mobile, so has the need to use more targeted means of connecting and attracting qualified candidates.  There are clear advantages to leveraging mobile in recruiting. One of the most effective ways to quickly connect with a target audience is through Short Message Service (SMS), also known as Text-Messaging.  SMS (text messaging) is by far the most widely used data application on the planet.  For those who do not have the budget to invest in mobile marketing through Short Codes, there are many web-based SMS/texting applications on the market today.  A few of the more popular apps include Joopz, 3Jam, networkText, Tatango, and Trumpia, all do a good job of delivering group SMS messages either free, or, for a small fee. For Outlook 2007 users, there’s even SMSOfficer which allows users to send SMS messages directly from their Outlook inbox.  See video on How to use Outlook to send text messages.

That said, these are all basic examples and it’s important to remember that using SMS alone is not the answer.  An integrated approach that includes email, online ads, phone, SMS, etc., can help to maximize your recruitment campaign. Think of SMS as not a replacement for the email or phone (voice) but as an additional tool within a recruiter’s toolbox.  Recruiters, more than ever, are often connecting with professionals who are unable to answer their phones, huddled in team meetings, commuting, at the airport, away from their PC’s or laptops, etc. Using coordinated SMS updates, recruiters are able to seamlessly and non-intrusively manage multiple candidates through the recruitment process. Bottom-line, SMS is an effective tool for connecting with candidates anytime, anywhere, when email and voice are not convenient.

Mobile is our second shadow.

Morgan Stanley reported that now 91% of the planet keep the mobile phone within arm’s reach 24/7. Literally we take it to the bathroom with us and we literally sleep with the phone. As its our alarm clock, it is literally the last thing we look at before we go to sleep and again the first thing we see when we wake up.

Source: Tomi Ahonen, 7thMassMedia.com

The mobile phone is no longer just a phone; it’s our lifeline to the world.  Rarely does it leave our side, and rarely is it shared – even with our spouse.  Mobile is our second shadow, always ready to provide 24×7 access on demand, and it’s here to stay.  While I am not convinced mobile will reach a tipping point in 2009, I do believe mobile recruitment strategies will have a greater role in the way recruiters connect with new talent. Given the advantages and ubiquitous nature of mobile, doesn’t it make sense to consider mobile recruitment options?  For those in the talent acquisition business, does your company currently engage in mobile recruiting?  If so, I would love to hear about the creative ways in which mobile is being used as part of your recruitment strategy.

We often talk creative ways in which we can leverage mobile marketing in the recruitment process.  More Mobile Relations utilized an integrated solution that included print, ad, SMS, MMS, and email to recruit qualified candidates.  Here’s a case of a company truly “walking-the-talk” with great success.

This from More Mobile Relations:

The challenge

Attracting the best employees is a challenge in the best of times. A new generation of job seekers is more inclined to focus on value-based issues rather than a fancy title or fat paycheck. Corporate social responsibility (CSR), company values, environmental policies and so on are increasingly important factors in attracting employees. For these job seekers, company information and the way the company expresses its brand can be deciding factors.

More Mobile Relations Norway was hiring new employees in cooperation with Orion Search International AS. The first job recruitment ad (Dagens Næringsliv, on July 4, 2008) was very traditional in approach and had very low response, resulting in no qualified applications.

You can read the solution here: You’re hired! Cross-media job search nets qualified applications | More Mobile Relations.