Most recruitment agencies and jobsites have a smartphone friendly website that makes it possible to search for jobs quickly. The problem arises when you have found an interesting job that you would like to apply for. Although the apply button is easily found, filling in a subscription form is not that easy on a smartphone, with its small display and touchscreen keyboard. Most applicants will lose interest at this stage and change to a pc or laptop, while others may not continue with the application at all. Therefore, there is a chance that the recruiter will miss out on the perfect candidate.
I see recruitment as potentially ready for smartphones, but there is still work to be done to streamline the process. The Internet site Glassdoor published an interesting research article about online recruitment. It shows that 45% of the jobseekers are using their smartphones at least once a day specifically to look for jobs. 89% of the jobseekers believe that a smartphone is an important tool to search for jobs, and 48% of the respondents believe that smartphone recruitment will be the most common way to search for jobs in 2 years. These facts show the importance of smartphone recruitment currently and for the near future. Surprisingly this research shows that 90% of the Fortune 500 company career sites do not yet support a smartphoneapplication solution.
It is clear that while jobseekers are ready for smartphonerecruitment, companies are not making it easy. The result will be that companies who have invest in the necessary technology will have a big recruiting advantage compared to those companies who do not invest.
Recruiters may increase the number of potential candidates when they make smartphone applications more attractive. Potential job-hoppers can easily check their smartphones during working hours and send in an application during their lunch break without the boss getting suspicious. My expectation is that mobile recruitment will become the new standard in the coming years.