Swipe right for mobile optimisation in recruitment

Forget the technical mumbo jumbo: mobile optimisation is a pretty simple concept - and one you've gotta try!

After all, almost 60% of folks use mobile devices to find new jobs, while 52% have used it to apply for them (and, even more would given the chance).

Mobile optimisation is all about formatting your job ads, career site, application forms, and social media to work perfectly on a teeny-tiny mobile screen. Here, we'll show you how.

What's all the fuss about mobile optimisation?

Candidates just love mobile recruitment, and - once you've wrapped your head around mobile optimisation – you will too.

This handy tactic can ramp up your applicant numbers fast, and help you discover talent you'd never have touched base with otherwise.

So, what exactly is it about mobile recruitment that makes candidates go weak at the knees?

• Accessibility: Candidates are always attached to their phones, so can easily fire off an application over lunch, during their commute, or in general downtime.
• Relevance: Work can fade into the background once you're home for the evening. Mobile recruitment lets applicants act on impulse and apply when they're feeling the pinch.
• Convenience: Job apps can be a pain when they're over-complicated. But, mobile recruitment tends to be super-simple and requires few (if any) uploads.

Sign me up! So, how do I get started?

People have written whole books on mobile optimisation, but here are the basics:

Process

Dial down on functionality to keep things swift and remove the frustration factor.

Every page, tool and graphic should be geared towards helping the candidate complete the next step - nothing more, nothing less.

Doing this helps clean up the layout and supercharges the chances that everything will work as planned on a dinky screen.

Candidates will also save heaps of time, and that'll mean you get a better hire. While topnotch candidates value their time, desperate applicants will slog through a tricky, time-guzzling application.

Pro tip: It's darn hard to upload CVs, covering letters and portfolios with mobile tech. Cut out uploads where you can. If you REALLY need them, ask your web guy to set up something that's compatible with Cloud-storage software, like Dropbox or Google Drive.

Layout

Your page layouts should be compatible with smartphones, a breeze to navigate, and fit on a single page (without constantly fiddling with zoom).

There are just too many screen sizes out there. So, do yourself a favour and choose a fluid layout that morphs to whichever phone the candidate is twiddling away on.

Once that's sorted, try:

• Ramping up your navigation using a search bar, links, and subheadings to classify related info
• Scoring a new PB in page-load time by compressing your HTML, CSS and images
• Making buttons and text fields a decent size and sufficiently well-spaced for even the most sausage-like fingers

If you wanna know more about layout, check out Apple's 'iOS Human Interface Guidelines' or Android's 'API Guides'.

The world's gone mobile. And, with this handy advice, your hiring process can too!