I’m sitting in Carrie Corbins session at #ATCSM. She is telling the A.T.& T mobile recruiting story. The center piece of their strategy is having an independent career site that is optimised for mobile.
Content wise they started simple, listing the basic information that job seekers might want, without over doing it. 83% of the text messages they send out to their talent network are opened within one hour. A.T.& T are one of only 8 Fortune500 companies with a mobile optimised career site.
One quote that really stands out in her presentation is “we do our company a disservice if we worry more about cool than functional.” one example of this is the “browser sniffer.” this enables your career site to identify when a visitor comes by mobile and switches the destination to a more functional one.The sticking point at the moment is integrating with A.T.S.’s to allow job seekers to apply without having a stored profile. This technology is coming, and that will open the doors to mobile technology.A.T.& T’s goal is not to increase applications, it’s about offering an additional method of engagement.
They get 38,000 views to the mobile site each month with a 1000 views a day. There has been 30,000 opt ins to the talent network per month, with over 1Mn members of the talent network signed in to receive messages and jobs by text. Messages are sent according to location and job type. A.T.&T get 1 application per every 200 texts sent, and mobile applications are overtaking traditional applications by point of origin.
Carrie is using QR codes for video and competitions around the area of technology recruiting. The destination of these QR codes need to have a call to action. Theres no point going to a reference site that needs you to go elsewhere. (I need to change mine.)
The recruiters use an i-pad app to upload candidate details at careers fairs and message/schedule the follow up in real time. Because A.T.& T hire technical people, Corbin sees it as essential that the application process reflects this. I’m hearing more and more about the success of text over app’s, and I think this needs to be considered as a key point in mobile strategy.
Video content is built for video, taking in to consideration load and play time. This is because of the volume of video views by mobile. How many people loading video content consider how it plays out on mobile? It has to be a vital consideration.
I’m glad I attended this session. Mobile is clearly key to the talent network.
Bill
Norton Folgate: The Recruiting Unblog 