Talent HQ

There has been a lot of talk the past few years about “the shift to mobile” from recruiting leaders, with a primary focus on effectively managing the mobile experience.

Examples of solutions have primarily focused on the mobile optimization of a career site to some larger employers building apps. While these and other areas are a start (and a strategy for a mobile experience is a necessity), they alone do not meet the changing demands of job seekers.

Many companies now report seeing 20%+ of their career site traffic come from a mobile device (and even higher in several industries). At the current rate of acceleration, 2-3 years from now companies will get more traffic from mobile than they will get from desktop.

The issue up until now has been with the actual application process. There is one company that is changing that, and their name is Mobolt.

I recently had an opportunity with a client to implement a mobile job application process by partnering with Mobolt, and wanted to share the overall implementation experience and the great things their technology delivers.

Mobolt is using their years of industry expertise to completely change the applicant experience in the apply process. To accomplish they have implemented such common sense changes in the apply process such as eliminating non-required fields, pre-populating applicant data from LinkedIn profiles to save keystrokes, and most importantly removing the ATS log-in screen from the front of the process to reduce drop-offs. They do all of this and still submit a completed application into your ATS just as if the job seeker had completed the application on a desktop.

The changes have delivered dramatic results for the early adopters of their technology. Some of the early results show:

• Over 60%+ of the job seekers on mobile devices that start an application in their system, finish the application (a significant increase compared to a desktop user).
• Over 90% of the applicants that submit applications via mobile are unique applicants.
• Over 96% of the applicants that finish an application and complete the Mobolt survey rate the experience as ‘Easy’ to ‘Very Easy’.

The dilemma employers face today with changing technology is nothing new to Scott Garrett, Mobolt’s Co-Founder and Chief Sales Officer – who has been in the online employment space since 1997 when he was an early employee of CareerBuilder. I had a chance to connect with Scott to get his insights and compare today’s challenges to those 15+ years ago. He shared,

“Back then employers were shifting from paper resumes being mailed or faxed in to soft copy resumes arriving by email. We are seeing the same sort of shift now as employers address how best to accept applications from mobile device. The big difference now is that this shift is being pushed by jobseekers. Back in 1997 most jobseekers did not have computers in their homes so employers could take their time making the move to accepting soft copy resumes”.

What I like about Mobolt’s approach is unique to anything else I’ve seen in the market. Their solution is customizable, quick to implement, and can be implemented globally since it is capable of handling postings and applications in any language. Other benefits of Mobolt include:

• They can work with any applicant tracking system.
• Their technology dynamically creates the ATS apply process for every job.
• They can auto-create the ATS User Login, even if login setup includes a ‘Captcha’ code.
• There is an option to move the ATS login to the back of the application process in order to prevent drop-offs
• They offer a Mobile Employee Referral solution that works unbelievably well with a mobile apply process.

While a vendor doesn’t own the problem of fixing a complex job application process at your company, Mobolt is a great partner to brainstorm options and they have proven their solution delivers apply conversions at a much higher rate than from a desktop.

In case you are wondering, no – this is not a sponsored post, I do not have a business relationship with Mobolt, and have not been compensated for this post in any way. After 18 years of recruiting leadership and 6 years of writing articles on Talent HQ, there are very few companies (vendors) that I have worked with that I would promote and put my reputation on the line for, Mobolt is one of those companies.

Any company that believes a job seeker should be able to submit a completed application in an ATS in as close to 1 minute as possible in order to deliver the experience that people have grown to expect from mobile, gets my vote. Especially a company that delivers that, like Mobolt.

Whether you call it a strategy session or an intake meeting – the initial conversation you have with your hiring manager is the most critical step in the recruitment process. In my experience, anytime there has been an issue with a search, it could be traced back to the strategy session. The success, or failure, of your search depends on how it begins.

This is the opportunity for us to not only gather key details for the position and build out a recruitment strategy, but we get to set the stage for the entire recruiting experience! Most managers do not hire that frequently, and given recruiting is what we do everyday, hiring managers rely on us (recruiters) to guide the process. So how do we do that? Here are some recommendations to get you started:

Before:

• Familiarize yourself with the hiring manager – how long have they been with the company, when was the last time they hired someone for his/her team, how long have they been in their current role?
• Review the position description. May sound like a no-brainer, but it is worth a reminder. Just because job titles are the same, does not mean the scope and responsibilities are.
• Identify the questions you need answered to ensure a successful search.
• Prepare your hiring manager for the discussion. Let them know the intent of the conversation and what questions you have.
• Review your plans from previous successful searches, including candidate profiles.

During:

• Identify not only the needs of the specific role, but look beyond that – what are the needs of the team, of the company? You can easily fill the chair, but the goal should be to fill multiple seats. Think bigger picture! Look for candidates that cannot only fit the role, but will fit the company so when the candidate is ready, they can easily move into other roles within the organization.
• Determine what sources and methods will be used to find and attract candidates – associations, colleges, groups, social media tools, networking, etc.
• Discuss company values, norms, behaviors. Are these represented in the job description? Determine how you will know if candidates possess characteristics that will ensure their success within the role, team and company.
• Outline roles and responsibilities. The hiring manager has a role in the process, what is it, what support do you need from him/her? Who will do what and when? When and how will the search be conducted? What is the method for candidate submittals and feedback?Who will interview, when, what format?
• Review your talent acquisition process from end to end, let the manager know what they can expect at each stage in the process and what you need from them. Agree on these expectations.

After:

• Provide your hiring manager with a summary of what was agreed to during the strategy session.
• Schedule a recurring recruitment discussions to evaluate the progress of the search.
• Recruit, recruit, recruit!

As with any process, planning is essential. Talent acquisition is no different. A solid recruiting strategy session is key to a successful search!

Talent is one of the most sought after qualities whether you are a coach looking for your next athlete, a movie director looking for a lead, or a recruiter on a mission to fill a job. Though highly sought after, it is often an after-thought for many recruiters.

A majority of recruiters I’ve talked to sit down in a strategy meeting with the hiring leader and spend 75% of their time talking about the skills needed for the role – and the dreaded job description. Of course a candidate must possess the basic skills to do the job, however the true fit is about aligning the right talents (soft skills) to the company and department culture, not to mention the motivational fit of the person ultimately.

If a hiring manager is driving the conversation and they focus on the job description and requirements, take a leadership position and challenge them by redirecting the focus of the meeting to get the information you need to be successful in recruiting and closing the “right” person. Examples to discuss include interviewing your hiring leaders about the culture of the group, strategic goals and finding out what sets their top employee apart from others on the team.

In your search are you looking to check a box to simply finalize the task? Is it most important to fill the slot or find the best fit?

As a recruiter you’re an impact player, every day you affect the future of a candidate and the direction of a department. Passionate recruiters take this role to heart coaching their leaders and candidates through the process, often driving a different hiring result than the leader initially thought they wanted. Taking time to put the right people in the right role, (it sounds cliché) is one of the most important things you will do in your day.

As emphasized in the book First Break all the Rules by Marcus Bukingham, the concept is simply that you don’t change people. Natural consequences might help a person decide to change, but most behavior change in adults occurs at the margin. Hire for what you need – don’t expect an introverted technologist to excel at sales and don’t expect a highly social networker to sit quietly at a cube for days on end drafting reports.

Challenge yourself to take the word talent seriously and consistently ask yourself if you have hired the best talent aligned to the position. After all, your role is to be a talent champion and the word talent is in talent acquisition for a reason.