The days of the PC are numbered and mobile devices are to blame. The decline in PC sales, nationally and globally, has been well documented for quite some time now. We see companies like Dell, at one point the largest PC maker, doing their best IBM impression while scrambling to restructure its organization and develop new services. At Hewlett Packard, CEO Meg Whitman has the daunting task of cutting 24,000 jobs by 2014 due to the slump in PC Sales. Needless to say, PC makers are in trouble.
Conversely, people are consuming more data than ever. I formerly worked in the television industry and we always relied on TV being the number one medium. That trend is coming to an end. In 2013, eMarketer estimates that adults will spend more than five hours consuming digital media every day. This will eclipse the four and a half hours that we spend each day attempting to become a crispy Frito Lay – and signifies the end of an era. Mobile accounts for nearly 50 percent of the time spent consuming digital media, proving that it is one of the driving forces behind the decline of the PC.
So what does this mean for franchise business owners? It means that you better have a solid mobile growth strategy in place for both customer and employee acquisition. If your customers are searching for you via their mobile device, so are your future employees. It is imperative to engage with them on the device that they probably cherish the most.
Lets take a deeper dive into mobile usage and employee acquisition. Glassdoor, a career and community jobs site, conducted a study and found that 68 percent of active job seekers are using their mobile device at least once a week to find jobs. They also found that 30 percent of active job seekers are looking for new opportunities daily. If you’re not meeting them on mobile, you’re missing out on a significant portion of the applicant pool.
At gatherDocs, we focus on effective employee acquisition. Our value added proposition for franchise business owners is clear. We simplify the recruitment process while saving them time and money. We provide franchise business owners with an easy to use applicant tracking system that allows them to quickly create job postings, syndicate those postings to leading job boards (think Indeed and SimplyHired), collect resumes and applications, and evaluate candidates.
Currently, our clients are seeing that roughly 30 percent of their applicants are applying for jobs via their mobile device. Without a mobile hiring tool like gatherDocs, their applicant pool would be cut by a third.
As you can see, mobile is a very important factor in the hiring process. Here are five simple steps to launching an effective mobile hiring strategy.
Step 1: Make sure that your internal hiring processes are exactly what you would like them to be.
Have a solid understanding of who is responsible for recruitment, screening, and hiring. Before any gatherDocs implementation, we ensure that we know who does what in the organization. We recommend that you do the same as a first step to improving your hiring process.
Step 2: Make your job listings shine.
Be creative and create a job listing that comes from your company’s perspective. Far too often we see companies copying other companies’ job listings. You don’t want to do this. Try to stand out and provide some insights into your company’s culture by creating a well-crafted job description that is meaningful to your organization. Just because an applicant is coming to you on mobile doesn’t mean they won’t read about you.
Step 3: Go mobile!
Your customers are going mobile, you are going mobile, and your employees are probably on Instagram right now. Going mobile means optimizing your careers page for current smartphones based on popular mobile operating systems like iOS and Android. You don’t need to build a mobile app that will cost you lots of money. Instead, put a careers page online and make it responsive. This means that it will look different depending on the device that is accessing it. If you don’t know how to do this, contact your web developer or utilize a system like gatherDocs that provides these capabilities for you.
Step 4: Use an applicant tracking system.
I would love for you to give gatherDocs a try, but there are other options within the market. Any applicant tracking system will help you to centralize all of your applicants in one location, go paperless, and track them through the interview process. Look for an applicant tracking system that focuses on the retail and service industries to be sure that they meet all of your needs. Don’t be scared to test a few systems out. Many applicant tracking systems offer free trials. It is always best to test drive the horse and buggy before you hit the road.
Step 5: Continually iterate to make your process better.
I advise most retailers to map out a hiring strategy, test, and optimize. Nothing is perfect, so it is imperative to plan properly and improve execution. We constantly work with our customers on improving their hiring strategy. If you carefully search the web, you will find tons of FREE advice in the form of blogs and “white papers.” At the most, it will cost you being added to an email list.
Those are your five steps to developing an effective mobile hiring solution. Implement those five steps, improve your applicant pool, and take your franchise to the next level!
Happy Hiring!
Alex King is CEO and Co-Founder of gatherDocs, a mobile hiring solution for the retail and service industries. In this role, Alex is head of strategy and operations. Previously, Alex co-founded Defined Clarity, a design agency that specialized in web and application development. Defined Clarity worked with clients to improve their web presence and create beautiful experiences. Prior to founding Defined Clarity, Alex worked as an account executive at CBS Television/WPSG CW Philly 57. Alex holds a degree in Business Administration (Marketing) from Howard University in Washington, DC. Recently, Alex graduated from Goldman Sach’s 10,000 Small Business program.
For more information:
Email: alex@gatherdocs.com
Twitter: @gatherdocs