GUEST POST
Another wave of graduates are leaving college, embarking on the tough process of finding a job in a more-or-less recovering economy.
Despite the unfair reputation often placed on them, these millennials have serious career aspirations. A recent study of 1,000 college-educated millennials by Bentley University determined that 72 percent are interested in working for a big corporation. Just under half of them described their ideal career path as working at only one or two companies over the course of their careers.
Meet GenMobile, a term used in recent months to describe today's millennials. According to one study, GenMobile are so attached to their mobile devices that they are 15 times more likely to give up coffee and seven times more likely to say goodbye to their televisions than their smartphones.
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These are the future leaders of Corporate America and mobile is their currency, especially when it comes to searching and applying for jobs.
A 2013 study found that nine in 10 job seekers are searching for positions via a mobile device. The same study found that one in four of them wouldn't apply for a job if the company's career site or job listings were not mobile-optimized. However, the frustrating reality facing today's job seeking millennials is that roughly 80 percent of the Fortune 500 has yet to enable mobile applications.
It's well past time for Corporate America to realize the gravity of this issue and its impact on attracting the best and brightest. After all, if you wish to appeal to and attract millennial talent, you need a mobile recruitment process that mirrors their connected lifestyles.
Ultimately it all comes down to the experience delivered to candidates and how that reflects on your company's image. A stodgy career website that is hard to navigate from a smartphone is frustrating. Completing application forms using two thumbs and a touch keyboard is just impractical. And if candidates cannot upload their resume from a mobile device, well what's the point?
If you want to attract millennial job seekers, your company needs an efficient and seamless mobile recruitment process. Here are a few suggestions:
- Allow for up-front profile creation to save application progress and eliminate the frustration of having to re-enter the same personal information for every application.
- Present multiple, mobile-friendly resume upload options. Allow job seekers to easily upload their resume through platforms that might already house it like Google Docs, DropBox, LinkedIn or even their own email. A plain text resume is just plain terrible.
- Friends have benefits. Enable referrals by connecting applications to social channels like LinkedIn so potential candidates can easily see if they already know someone who works at your company.
School's out and eager millennials have career aspirations in mind. Make your recruitment process more millennial- and mobile-friendly to attract new talent, and future leadership, into your organization.
Joe Essenfeld is the CEO of Jibe, a recruitment technology company.
