Why Your ATS Absolutely Must Accept Mobile Applications

If you were told that 88% ¹ of UK job seekers have used a mobile device to search for jobs in the last year or that 1 in 3 of all people interested in working for your company would prefer to search for vacancies on your website using their mobile device – would you feel confident that your site is mobile-friendly?

To reinforce mobile even further, 48% said they would use it to find out more information about a company, but yet, if your existing employer website wasn’t mobile-friendly, what would you do about it?

This is the situation facing many UK employers:

Recent research² has found that over 60% of UK businesses do not have a site that can be accessed by mobile and smartphone users. Not only does this potentially alienate a rich stream of potential talent it could also damage your employer brand too.

What, is even more concerning is that hardly any ATS’s allow the job seeker to take the most logical next step and actually apply for that job. The result of which means that those employers who fail to optimise their sites for both engaging with and allowing job seekers to actually apply for a job from their mobile device will miss out on a significant pool of candidates who they’re unable to reach which will – in effect – see them invariably become the eventual losers in the escalating war on talent.

With all this in mind, why are so many employers still falling behind in implementing mobile recruitment strategies? After all, given the anticipated rise in new roles being created in 2014 which by default will lead to increased competition between organisations to attract the best talent, can employers really afford not to embrace mobile and cater for their applicants’ needs?

Stand out companies who have harnessed the power of mobile recruiting – Experian, TUI Travel, Live Nation, Deloitte and Electronic Arts recognise the opportunities of enabling their ATS to accept mobile applications. Often increasing qualified applications by 25% without any increase in advertising spend.

Job seekers today will engage with those employers who make it easy for them to engage with via a multitude of channels, whether social media, smartphones, desktops, tablets or traditional formats such as print advertising and online career websites. By being too one-dimensional in how you present yourself could mean that your organisation’s employer brand struggles to appeal to the very talent that you seek to attract as a consequence.

Mobile is quite literally everywhere. With more than 7 in 10 people³ in the UK now owning a smartphone, employers have a powerful tool to add to their recruitment toolbox. Not only will mobile enable better targeted campaigns which yield quality returns, it can extend their reach to attract job seekers who are both in the market and on the market that they may not have been able to each previously using traditional recruitment methods.