Solutions for recruiters on the move

07 July 2010

Despite mobile devices being a perfect fit for discreet jobseeking at any time and any place, mobile recruitment has been the subject of many a false dawn. As a report from the recent Future of Mobile Recruitment (FOMR) roundtable, co-hosted by Jobsite.co.uk and AllTheTopBananas.com neatly summed up, mobile devices and jobseeking have a synergy because of the “privacy, convenience and

immediacy” offered by handsets but consumer behaviour remains ahead of the industry.

The tide is starting to turn, however, and with a major acknowledgment to the Apple iPhone ’for kick-starting things’, those who attended FOMR from major companies such as Google, Microsoft and the Internet Advertising Bureau, declared that 2010 could finally be “the year of mobile”.

The emergence of cloud computing means accessing business software on the mobile is not just a reality but likely to become the norm

You don’t have to look far for further evidence. The National Online Recruitment Audience Survey (NORAS), undertaken by specialist recruitment advertising and research agency, Enhance Media, showed a 300% growth in the use of mobiles and handheld devices for jobseeking over the past three years. Giles Guest, director of Enhance Media, explains that while this shows a huge growth in the use of mobiles for searching, jobseekers aren’t using such devices to apply for jobs, highlighting that there are still major challenges ahead for developers in this space. “The big growth area for mobile jobseeking is allowing it to move from a browsing medium to a transactional medium - ie submitting applications,” says Guest.

While the desire to improve the mobile candidate’s experience is vital, if mobile recruitment is to fully mature sooner rather than later, this needs to be matched by a similar desire to address the needs of the increasingly mobile recruiter and hiring manager. The emergence of cloud computing and higher bandwidth networks mean accessing business software such as recruitment applications on the mobile is not just a reality but likely to become the norm.

Much more mobility
Research company Gartner predicts that by 2013 there will be more people using smartphone access to web-based applications than laptops while IDC reckons 1.2bn workers will be using mobile enterprise tools by 2011.

Derek Bluestone, vice president of product marketing at Kenexa, which launched Kenexa 2x Mobile earlier this year, points out that this figure represents around one third of the total global workforce and adds: “The next generation of computing is upon us and is fuelled by powerful mobile devices.”

Major players in the recruitment software market are now vying to secure their place in the all-important mobile space. Bond International Software will launch Apple iPad functionality for Bond Adapt in September and it says the aim is to enable the recruiter to perform “the vast majority of the core recruitment processes” while on the move, such as searching for candidates, updating job vacancies and submitting candidate details. “We are looking to realise the full iDesking potential,” says the company.

As to what recruiters and resourcing professionals can expect to be able to do while out and about will vary depending on the route taken by their software developer. Kenexa carried out research that found the vast majority of non-HR employees involved in hiring prefer to use their smartphones to review and approve job offers and requisitions so its primary focus has been on enabling them to be productive in these areas rather than trying to replicate all aspects of its desktop application for the mobile environment.

“Kenexa 2x Mobile is designed with the top 5% of recruitment tasks in mind,” explains Bluestone. “Mobile professionals want to get in and out of mobile apps quickly. Mobile user interfaces are not well suited for detailed administrative processes such as the design of workflow or reports.”

Chris Bogh, technical director of eploy, believes there will be “less and less” that you can’t do on a mobile device in the future and because its software is accessed on a standard browser hasn’t produced a cut-down version but rather allows users to access the whole application via a mobile phone’s web browser. “We thought about simplifying pages so users don’t have to scroll around so much but even this is becoming less of an issue now because users can zoom in and out,” he says. That said, it is from a contact management point of view that he believes mobile has its real strengths. “If you work in the emergency or temporary markets and need to find a candidate quickly, out of hours, you can do it without having to rush home and get on to the PC,” he says.

Craig Burton, managing director of the Works Recruitment Agency, an eploy customer, says that just knowing they can access the system from smartphones is a great benefit to its consultants and says he himself sent an SMS to 50 people from the system at 8pm in the evening while sitting in the pub with his iPhone. “Because the system and website is one and the same it’s simple to move consultants around and even home working is a reality in our business now,” says Burton. “They now have 24-hour access to the system 365 days a year from any fixed or mobile device with web access, and can distribute job alerts and CVs to potential candidates at a moment’s notice.”

Randstad Education implemented the mobile version of First Choice Software’s RDB ProNet recruitment database application and one of its consultants made two appointments on the first day of using it. First Choice Software managing director Roy Snart says when developing a version of its software for the Apple iPhone, it began by addressing the problem of clients having to take home a big list of available candidates. “We started off giving them access to their database and then took it forward,” he says. “In many respects, it is much more focused than the desktop app which by its nature is huge. This is geared to giving them the information they need when they are out.” The software also gives recruiters access to management reports and key performance indicators. “Anything they get measured on they can see on the mobile device,” he says.

Linking the mobile and static
Without doubt, for mobile to have maximum benefit for recruiters and their clients, there must be this link between what happens in the mobile space and the desktop.

Peter Linas, UK managing director of software company Bullhorn, says that the synching option it offers between its full system and a mobile device is increasingly popular with its agency clients and has a huge value to the business, as well as the user.

“Because the business isn’t losing these mobile communications and they are being recorded centrally, anything that happens on the mobile space automatically synchs with the customer relationship management (CRM) system,” he says. “For us it’s moved on from going mobile, it is about making sure there are the right levels of collaboration in place so if you’re doing something on your mobile it’s not standalone and it’s being picked up elsewhere.”

People aren’t going to be sat on a train all day recruiting but they could if they wanted to

Bullhorn offers a mobile version of its software but Linas points out that at the moment there is more demand for its synching option and says despite the mobile hype it is important to remember that many recruiters are deskbound. “But we are seeing more people enquire about Bullhorn Mobile and I’m sure over time our features and products will expand into this market,” he says.

While it is still early days for mobile recruitment software, rather than be passive users, recruiters and resourcing professionals can help move things forward by interacting with developers. To date, the recruitment sector via the likes of Harvey Nash, Orion Group and former recruiter Nik Burns, who built his own contact management app, has demonstrated plenty of innovation in the mobile space. Added to this, the launch of the iPad with, as Snart describes, “its extra real estate” and more tablets and netbooks likely to appear, there is scope to move yet more functionality to mobile environments. “Whether it’s iPads or netbooks, there’s going to be more mobility in general,” says Chris Bogh. “People aren’t going to be sat on a train all day recruiting but they could if they wanted to.”