howie schwartz at ta tech 2016: mobile is ruining your candidate's first impression

Mobile is Ruining Your Candidate’s First

ImpressionHowie Schwartz

CEO & Co-FounderCrowded.com

Why Am I Up Here?

In 2010, I Began Starting Up Companies

To Focus On The Coming Mobile Shift

I Sold Two Of Those Companies

Why Am I Up Here?

Along The Way I Learned How To Stop Scaring

Consumers Away From Mobile Devices!

And For The Past Year I Have Focused On Mobile Talent Acquisition With

Crowded.com

The iPhone Was Released in 2007.

9 Years Later And The Average Candidate

Still Struggles To Even Complete An Application On Their Mobile Device.

Shame On All Of Us!

Mobile Internet Usages Passed Desktop

Back In 2014 – Why Are We So Far Behind?

Your Mobile Candidates Feel Like This

How Big Of A Problem Is This?• 41% of adult smart phone (Pew Research)

users have used their device to research a new job (imagine how much higher the millennial percentage is today!)

• Mobile job board traffic will overtake desktop in the next 12 months!

• Only HALF of the job applications today are even mobile friendly (and only a handful are MOBILE FIRST)

How Big Of A Problem Is This?• The Scariest Stat In This Presentation . . .

And the scariest picture in this presentation . . .

• Mobile Conversation Rates are 70% - 90% LOWER The Desktop Conversion rates

• For every 10 desktop application conversions there would be only 1 to 3 mobile application conversions.

The Funniest Picture In This Presentation

How Big Of A Problem Is This?• Mobile Traffic Is Growing Super Fast But the

Conversion Rates Are Not Improving Fast Enough

• 70% of job seekers (Madgex Study) have NEVER applied for a job on mobile (even though they are actively searching for jobs on mobile!)

• We are scaring away our candidates

Why Should You Care?


• If you are a job board

• Your performance will drop (applications) as the percentage of mobile traffic increases your application conversion rate will decrease

• Clients will cancel contracts


• If you are an employer / staffing firm

• You will have an even harder time filling hard to fill positions as mobile is scaring away our best candidates!

• You will spend more next year for less performance

What About The Mobile Candidate?• The poor mobile candidate suffers!

• We all talk about the candidate experience – but do our actions really demonstrate that we actually care?

Why Hasn’t Our Industry Solved For Mobile?

• The employer thinks mobile is the ATS problem

• The ATS vendors don’t feel enough pressure or pain to fix it

• Who cares? Enough applicants seem to somehow make it into your ATS, but are they the RIGHT applicants?

Why Hasn’t Our Industry Solved For Mobile?

• Is there a PERVERSE thought in the back of our minds that the more painful that we make it for the candidate the more they ‘want’ the job so the quality actually increases?

• That is just CRUEL! Poor candidate!

• And I can tell you with confidence it is having the exact OPPOSITE affect.

And Its Making Candidates Want to Do

This With Their Mobile Devices!

What Types of Applicants Are We Scaring Away?

• You will never know the quality of applicants you are scaring away! (As they don’t make it into your ATS!)

• Our hard to fill positions• Candidates that are in demand will go towards

the path of least resistance and skip your terrible mobile flow!

What Types of Applicants Are We Scaring Away?

• Millennials – they are used to AMAZING mobile product flows• A crappy mobile flow is equivalent to millennial

bug spray! (it scares them away!)

5 Quick Ways To Fix Mobile Applications


1) Stop asking for resume uploads / attachments• When was the last time you ‘uploaded’ a file on

mobile?• Do you REALLY REALLY need an old fashioned

resume?


2) Test your mobile application process for YOURSELF• Does your application renders properly on

multiple mobile devices (not just the iPhone in your pocket)

• Don’t take your vendors word for it. • TEST it yourself!


3) Do you REALLY need to ask 40 questions?• What are the 10 questions that really matter?• Do you really require a full postal address vs a

zip code?• Do you really need the candidate to re-type their

email address twice to confirm it? (its not the first time today they typed in their own email address . . .)


4) Leverage ‘Social Logins’


5) Break up your questions into multiple shorter pages• This one step alone will increase your

completion rates by 3X• I have 6 years of data on this – TRUST ME

Breaking Up Your Mobile Application

Into Multiple Pages (3X+ Conversions!)

Crystal Ball – Mobile ‘Apps’ Matter Less• Mobile Apps (as in App Stores NOT candidate

applications) are becoming LESS important

• Mobile Apps are just too hard to promote (competitive) and get distribution (’discovery issue’)

• Job advertising isn’t video games – we don’t use native features of the mobile devices

• In-App notifications as an App benefit can be replaced with SMS and messaging applications

Crystal Ball – SMS Matters More• If you aren’t asking permission to SMS (text

message) your candidates – go fix that today!

• Candidate ‘initial touch’ response rates on SMS are 3X over email outreach

• Candidate ‘response time’ on SMS is 10 minutes vs. 10 hours on email

Crystal Ball – Email Is Dying• Read the previous slide

• Enough said

Crystal Ball – Messaging Platforms / Chatbots

• Mobile Apps (App Stores) are less important

• Email is dying

• Messaging Platforms are the FUTURE (Facebook Messenger, Slack, WhatsApp, etc)

• Chatbots are coming (Its not all about ’AI’)

Your Action Plan: Tomorrow• Nicely ask your ATS to improve the mobile

experience

• Test our own application on 3 different mobile devices

• Start planning your mobile candidate experience like it was Mobile First (or even better like it was Mobile Only!)

• Cut out 50% to 75% of your application questions (to what your REALLY need to evaluate quality)

• Question everything required on your application – do you REALLY need a resume at all ??

Your Action Plan: Next 30 Days• Yell at your ATS to improve the mobile candidate

experience

• Break your mobile application into multiple pages

• Add ‘Social Logins’ to your application flow

• Develop a SMS / messaging plan to nurture your candidates

Your Action Plan: Next 60 Days• Fire your ATS if they did not improve the mobile

experience!

• Actively SMS / message your candidates

• Watch your application conversion rates increase 3X

• If you are a job board watch your performance soar over your competitors (and make more $ on mobile)

• If you are an employer / staffing firm watch your efficiency sky rocket (and make more $ on mobile)

And The Most Important Step

You Can Do This Afternoon . . .

Thanks And I hope I Didn’t Scare Anyone . . .

Howie Schwartz, Crowded.comConnect With Me On LinkedIn

howie schwartz at ta tech 2016: mobile is ruining your candidate's first impression

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