The Mobile Secret to Recruiting Passive Job Seekers

You want to hear a secret? Many employed people are spending a significant portion of each day at work researching additional job opportunities.

A recent Adler Group study revealed that 83 percent of LinkedIn users out of 225 million registered users are passive job seekers. With a proven track record, on the one hand, and an eye for opportunity, on the other, passive job seekers are highly sought after by recruiters.

Although many try to determine how to reach this group, the path to success can be summed up in one word: mobile.

63% search for jobs on a smartphone

Passive job seekers check opportunities online throughout the business day. They are networking on LinkedIn, researching interesting companies online and checking job posts on Facebook. However, they can’t use their company-owned computer for this kind of surreptitious job searching.

They use their smartphones and mobile devices to search for job opportunities. In a recent mobile survey, 63 percent of the respondents said they have searched for a job on their mobile device and 72 percent want to receive career opportunity information on their mobile device. Smartphone usage grew by 50 percent from 2011 to 2012 and is still climbing.

For passive job seekers, being able to use a mobile app attached to their personal device is the only way to stay connected throughout the day. So companies who want to reach these candidates must invest in a targeted mobile recruitment solutions.

How to target passive job seekers with mobile

Use a fully mobile platform. If your company jobs page is mobile friendly, but as soon as you click on a link, it sends the reader to a regular webpage which is hard to read on a mobile device, you have just lost a potential candidate. Passive job seekers do not have the time or the interest in making an intense effort to read about potential jobs. If it is not mobile ready, they will not read or watch it.
No job boards. Employed job seekers will not spend hours searching through lists of available positions. They prefer to do their job searching as part of an overall interest in networking or learning more about their field. Make your mobile app both entertaining and informational, and they’ll check it out.
Must have super quick response time. Unlike the unemployed, most passive seekers are trying to fit their job search activities into their busy work schedule. Like most mobile users, if they do take the time to get in touch with a potential employer, they will only stay interested if there is some kind of response within minutes.
Have regular daily posts. Most passive job seekers search at regular intervals during the day, based around their work activities. Automated job posts that appear at certain high-traffic times will work best.
Offer a choice of SMS, email or other alert systems. Mobile users like options. Make sure to offer job posts and other information in a variety of formats including e-mail, social media and SMS.

As smartphone usage continues to grow, we can expect a total revolution in job searching. A whopping 91 percent of all U.S. citizens now have their mobile device within reach 24/7, replacing wristwatches and alarm clocks. I

t seems only yesterday, that we fully transitioned from paper to online searching. Now, we are immersed in the next move, from PC to mobile recruitment.

Most companies haven’t fully understood this yet. Some 90 percent of Fortune 500 companies don’t optimize their career sites for mobile usage. So, those companies designing a detailed mobile strategy are already way ahead of the game!