There are more than 1.6 million people employed in the social care industry in the UK(1). According to The Guardian, approximately 340,000 social care employees leave their jobs each year and on any one day, there are 90,000 vacancies for social care jobs in England. That means a lot of vacancies, job searches and hires are being made. But shockingly just 35% of care businesses are delivering a decent candidate experience on mobile devices.
Our research
We’ve conducted research into the importance of a mobile optimised recruitment process. Using information from care industry company websites and Tribepad’s own data we’ve created this article to help give a better understanding of why you should make your entire recruitment process optimised.
But there are some important insights for organisations not in the care industry too. So do read on…
Why mobile matters
According to Smart Insights, more than 80% of internet users own a smartphone. We browse on mobile devices at every opportunity, whether it be for shopping, social reasons or hunting for a new job. So why are some recruitment processes still not mobile optimised? Why are we still in the mindset that people will go to a desktop computer to apply for a role?
1 – You’re losing out on thousands of applicants
Based on data from Tribepad clients within the care industry, 57.4% of all applications were made from mobile devices in 2016. That’s 59,000 applications via mobile in one year. If you scale this up across the whole industry of 2,500+ care companies in the UK, there could be more than 10 million applications on mobile devices!
It is therefore absolutely essential to offer a mobile-optimised application process!
2 – Your job ads are getting lost in Google
In 2015, Google released an algorithm that boosts websites in search engines that are mobile optimised. So if your site isn’t mobile friendly, then the amount of traffic coming to your site from Google will also be lower.
If you’re unsure about whether your site is mobile optimised, you can use the Google Mobile-friendly test to check.
Across the care industry, 22.5% of careers sites weren’t mobile optimised, which means those job ads are less likely to be seen in Google. So to compete for the best candidates you need to make sure your ads are as visible in web searches as possible.
3 – Your candidates are dropping out
Imagine you see the perfect job and have all the right skills and qualifications to be a strong candidate. You do your research and you’re certain that this company is just what you’re looking for. You click apply from your mobile, but after 10 seconds the page still hasn’t loaded. Finally, it loads and you start to complete filling in your contact details but you have to zoom in to even select the right field. Great first impression. You carry on determined to apply for this dream job, but after many failed attempts you’re put off and give up. You say to yourself that you’ll apply at a later date, but will you?
This is just an example, but it happens all the time. According to KissMetrics, ‘73% of mobile internet users say that they’ve encountered a website that was too slow to load’, whilst ‘48% say that they’ve encountered a website that had formatting which made it difficult to read’.
Our research showed that of care industry recruitment sites surveyed 42% did not have a mobile optimised Applicant Tracking System. Furthermore, 77% of companies within the care industry did not provide candidates with the ability to apply for a vacancy by parsing their social media account (I.E. LinkedIn).
A good candidate experience on mobile, makes applying for a job easy and stress-free, resulting in lower candidate drop out.
4 -You’re not delivering a good candidate experience
Mobile-specific features including maps, and click-to-call functionality can really help differentiate you from that of your competitors. Delivering extra functionality like this to candidates not only improves the application process but also builds on interaction levels, developing a greater relationship between candidate and brand.
This level of interaction has instantly improved the application process for mobile users and makes candidates have an improved image of the company.
Why you need to act now to optimise your recruitment process for mobile devices
- You’ll see an increase in candidates, as your job ad will be more visible on Google
- You’ll see an increase in candidates as the application process will be easier to initiate on mobile devices
- Fewer candidates will drop out of the application process
- You’ll have a greater interaction and relationship with candidates, delivering a better candidate experience
- You’ll have an advantage over your competitors who are seeking the same talent
