As the number of people searching for jobs on their mobile devices increases, their tolerance for companies that do not have mobile-friendly career sites seems to be decreasing.

Nearly one-third of CareerBuilder.com’s traffic each month comes from mobile devices; however, CareerBuilder tracking shows that as much as 40 percent of mobile candidates abandon the application process when they are notified they are about to encounter a non-mobile friendly apply process.

Companies who are mobile-optimized have a distinct advantage. A recent CareerBuilder survey found that, of the 20 percent of companies who have mobile-optimized career sites, one in five applications come through mobile devices. Nearly one in ten companies said mobile accounts for at least half of their applications. 

These findings should be a wakeup call for the 28 percent of employers who have open positions for which they can’t find qualified candidates – not to mention the 23 percent stated they have lost revenue due to extended vacancies (according to CareerBuilder research): Making it easier for candidates to apply via their mobile devices could be key in preventing applicant drop-off and bringing in more of the qualified candidates who are using mobile job search tactics – at an exponentially higher rate.

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Question: Are you reading this from a mobile device? These days, I’d be willing to bet that answer is “yes”. According to a recent study from research firm Gartner, Inc., by the end of this year, mobile phones will overtake PCs as the most common web access device worldwide. Not only that, but eMarketer forecasts the number of mobile shoppers in the U.S. will increase by 24 percent this year and represent 62 percent of digital shoppers. These findings speak to the great impact mobile devices have on our day-to-day lives.

And it’s not just consumer who are relying on mobile to make decisions: more and more, job seekers are using mobile devices to search for jobs and research potential employers. In fact, as of October 2012, 25 percent of CareerBuilder’s traffic comes from mobile devices – and that number is only growing.

As mobile technology becomes more ubiquitous as a job search tool, it becomes increasingly important for employers to embrace mobile technology as a recruiting tool. Unless of course, you believe the following myths about mobile recruitment:

1. Creating a mobile-friendly recruitment website is more hassle than it’s worth.

A mobile website helps generate even more traffic to your site, because it provides improved rankings on mobile-friendly search engines such as Google and Yahoo, and also allows placement in a growing number of mobile and local directories. Thus, creating a mobile-friendly website is single-handedly one of the easiest ways to increase traffic to your career site and the likelihood of candidates applying. Moreover, a recent Google study reveals that over half of smart phone users (61 percent) are likely to leave a site right away that doesn’t offer a user-friendly mobile experience. Even more (79 percent) say they’ll search for another mobile site to do the job. Given the similarities between candidate job search behavior and consumer buying behavior, employers would be wise to pay attention to these findings. If 20 percent of your traffic comes from mobile devices, and you do not have a mobile-optimized site, you could be driving away nearly 80 percent of those candidates (which leads me to the next reason not to create a mobile strategy…)

2. Having a mobile-friendly website won’t increase traffic.

Okay, this myth is only half false. You might not necessarily increase traffic to your website with a mobile-friendly career site; however, you do risk losing traffic if you don’t have one. Why? If your website doesn’t look good on a smart phone, users will move on to one that does – and they have plenty of options: A recent CareerBuilder survey shows that 57 percent of employers with 1,000 or more employees have mobile-friendly versions of their career sites. If you’re not among this group, you’re putting yourself at risk of losing valuable candidates to mobile-friendly competitors.

3. A mobile-friendly career site has no effect your employment brand.

A mobile website improves the user experience and satisfaction, ultimately creating positive feelings toward a company’s brand, according to recent research on mobile website usability. On the flip side, websites that are NOT mobilized can leave visitors with a poor impression of a company’s brand. According the above-mentioned Google study, 55 percent of consumers say a poor experience on a mobile site hurts their opinion of a brand overall, and 52 percent say it makes them less likely to engage with a company. Remember, candidates are consumers, too, meaning their mobile experience with your career site will have the same impact on your employment brand.

4. Mobile sites are ‘Bleeding edge.’ 

Having a mobile-friendly website is no longer considered cutting edge – the same way having a social media page is no longer considered ahead of the curve. Therefore, going mobile isn’t about staying ahead of the competition: it’s about keeping up, especially as job searches conducted from mobile devices increases. It is imperative that employers take the steps now to connect with the growing number of potential applicants who visit their websites from mobile devices.

Remember: The adoption of new technology is now happening faster than ever before. The World Wide Web changed everything, and since then, social media, smartphones, and tablets have had a profound impact on the way people share and consume content, and particularly the way people look for jobs. Consider mobile the next significant step in talent acquisition. One you need to embrace sooner rather than later – because whether you like it or not, that’s where talent acquisition is headed. The question is: will you be there with it?

For more information about CareerBuilder’s mobile recruitment solutions, go here, or download  The Evolution of Mobile Recruitment: What It Is, Why It Matters, and Where To Start.

Successful companies recognize the business benefits of providing stellar customer service. Not only does it generate referrals from satisfied customers and bolster customer loyalty, but it also differentiates them from their competitors.

Likewise, providing a good candidate experience tends to generate similar benefits for employers. According to the 2012 Candidate Behavior Study, the way people search for jobs today is very similar to how they make purchasing decisions. For example, candidates comparison shop, consulting multiple sources (between 14 and 15 on average, according to the Candidate Behavior Study) to help them evaluate their options and ultimately decide where to apply. As a result of having this consumer mentality, candidates expect companies to give them the same attention they give their customers: making the effort to win their business and turn them into brand loyalists.

For these reasons, companies like Amazon.com, Apple, Southwest, UPS and Google – all among the 2012 Customer Service Hall of Fame winners – provide the perfect model for employers who want to enhance their candidate experience and, in effect, their ability to recruit top talent. More companies are beginning to understand the positive business impact of providing a good candidate experience.  The following are some ways with which employers can apply the principles of good customer service to do just that.

6 Customer Service Strategies to Enhance Your Candidate Experience – And Better Your Business:

1. Make It Easy for Customers to Purchase: There’s a reason why Amazon created its “one-stop shopping” experience to make it as easy and as fast as possible for customers to complete a purchase. They know that the more steps customers must go through to make a purchase, the more likely they are to abandon their shopping cart. Job applicants are the same way: studies show that 34 percent of candidates who try to apply for jobs don’t complete the application process – simply because the application process is too much of a hassle. While it’s important to gain information from candidates and screen out unqualified ones – employers should do everything they can to streamline the process for job applicants, in order to eliminate applicant drop-off (and risk losing out on qualified candidates).
2. Enable Customers to “Try Before You Buy”: Another thing companies like Amazon do right is minimize buyers remorse by giving customers as much information as possible through product demonstration videos and on-site customer reviews. Employers can follow suit by providing content on their career sites and social media pages that help candidates “try before they apply”. Day-in-the-life videos or employee testimonials, for example, are a great way to give job candidates a peek into the culture of the company, hear first-hand from would-be colleagues about the work environment and understand more about the day-to-day responsibilities of various jobs. (Six Flags and Chipotle are two such companies using video to enhance their recruiting efforts.)
3. Provide Timely Status Updates: Consider the experience when you order something from an online retailer like Amazon: You immediately get a confirmation email telling you that your order has been processed, followed later by a notification that your package has been shipped, along with directions to track your package. Employers would be well-advised to adopt a similar practice, as job candidates today expect this same type of exchange after submitting an online application. Employers can take advantage of new technology that enables them to send automatic, personalized emails to let candidates know their applications have been received, along with information as to next steps in the application process. Candidates will appreciate knowing their resumes did not fall into some “black hole” – and this appreciation will likely be reflected in the bottom line. Research shows that 32 percent of job candidates are less likely to buy from a company that did not respond to their job application.
4. Make Them Subscribers: Many online retailers offer customers the option to subscribe to an email list to learn about upcoming sales or promotions. Employers can apply the same mentality for candidates whom they want to keep in their talent network by enabling them to sign up for job alerts – via email, mobile or both – so you can notify them of future openings with your company, as well as any job fairs you might be holding or exciting company news.
5. Solicit – and Listen To – Customer Feedback: The same way companies send out follow-up emails asking for feedback on a recent purchasing experience, employers can gain insight into the candidate experience they provide by surveying job applicants. The caveat here is that job candidates may hesitate to offer criticism (for fear that it may hurt their chances for future consideration); therefore, it’s recommended that employers utilize a third-party source to survey applicants and provide objective feedback they can later use to enhance their applicant experience.
6. Mind the Mobile Experience: Just as mobile devices have become a popular means for consumers to browse products, compare prices and read product reviews, they are also becoming a powerful job search tool as well. According to comScore research, 77 percent of job seekers use mobile apps to assist in their job search. And with mobile phone usage set to surpass desktop usage as a means to get online, it is imperative that companies consider the candidate experience – via mobile device. This can be as simple as creating a mobile-friendly career site that enables candidates to quickly and easily search for opportunities or sign up for mobile alerts. Is your career site mobile-friendly? All it takes is five minutes to find out.

I can’t emphasize enough the impact a good candidate experience can have on your ability to differentiate your organization from others in the eyes of job candidates and attract better talent. Taking those extra steps to invest in your candidate experience now will reap long-term benefits for every facet of your organization – starting from your employment brand and reaching all the way down to your bottom line.

Question: If you go to your company’s career site from your mobile device, what do you see?  It’s not a trick question.

“If it’s tough to navigate for you, if you’re frustrated by the user experience, I guarantee you job seekers are feeling the same way. And that’s going to end up hurting you,” says Eric Offner, a mobile recruitment expert with CareerBuilder. In a recent phone interview, Offner discussed the opportunities and advantages of mobile recruitment, and offered me his thoughts on the following concepts:

On why employers need to join the mobile recruiting space:
“That’s where all the people are. If you think about CareerBuilder, for example, when this company started, everyone was using print to search for jobs and advertise jobs. Then things started shifting to the web and by 2005, internet was the primary space. Now, more and more people are moving from web to mobile. The audience is even larger on mobile, so it’s important to realize what your audiences’ habits are and adapt to them. Just look at the way big businesses have started using mobile apps and mobile sites to make it easier for consumers to search for items and make purchases from their phones. Consumers are job seekers, too, and they’re starting to expect the same kind of user-friendly experience when shopping for a new job.”

On mobile usage’s remarkable growth in the past few years:
“The growth of mobile usage alone is phenomenal. Just look at Google’s numbers: In 2010, 4 percent of Google’s searches was generated from mobile devices. Last year, that number went up to 14 percent and by now I suspect the figure to be at 20-25 percent or higher. The numbers are becoming big fast, and it’s happening for career-specific behavior as well. Right now, CareerBuilder averages around 3.5 million page views per day across our entire mobile platform. When we first launched our mobile site, we quickly grew from 30,000 to close to a million users a month. In the last two years alone, traffic has increased tenfold.”

On the unique advantages and opportunities mobile recruitment provides:
“If you think about how people utilize mobile search – it’s so fast and so quick, it literally takes two minutes for a candidate to find out about an opportunity and apply.  The opportunity never existed before to reach people any time and so quickly, but now, candidates are always on their phones. It takes less than 120 seconds to grab people from offline media and send them to your opportunities online with QR codes, and immediately give candidates a glimpse into your brand or company.”

On why “waiting to see” just doesn’t cut it:
“I talk to companies all the time about mobile recruitment, and they’re hesitant to get started because they want to know, ‘What’s the ROI today?’ There are a lot of big questions and, because it’s so early, we don’t have all the answers yet, so right now, a lot of companies are just waiting to see where this goes.  The reality, however, is that those companies that adapt now will have the greatest advantage.  The time to take advantage of this opportunity is now. If even 1 percent of your traffic is from mobile users, get on it. We saw mobile traffic to CareerBuilder’s site increase from less than 1 percent to almost 10 percent in just 18 months – that’s incredible growth of very large numbers. A lot of people are migrating to mobile, and it’s time for companies to take notice and take advantage of that.”

On evaluating your current career site:
“Go to your career site from your smart phone. First of all, how long does it take to load? A good mobile site should load in three seconds or less. Most people are not going to stick around and wait for a site to load. Next, how easy is the site to navigate? If a job seeker really wants to work there, they’ll tough it out, but otherwise, they aren’t likely to stick around. If your site isn’t optimized for mobile use, go look at a careers site that IS and experience the difference. It’s significant.  All of these companies that are spoiling mobile users by providing easy navigation – guess what? It’s working to their advantage.”

On the long-term effects of not going mobile:
“When I go somewhere from my phone, and I can’t navigate the site, I’m gone.  That’s what’s happening to job seekers. If you’re not making it easy for them, you’re losing them, and the effects aren’t just short term. Eventually, it’s going to have a negative effect on your employment brand.”

On the most important thing to keep in mind when it comes to mobile technology:
“Go for the user-experience. Don’t just put a Band Aid on it. Put effort into creating and maintaining a clear, clean, fast and easy-to-navigate mobile site. That is the perfect user experience. The user experience is what will set you apart and keep job seekers engaged.”

Have you started implementing mobile marketing techniques in your recruitment strategy? If not, what’s stopping you?

Is your recruitment process based on what you know about job seekers…or what you think you know about job seekers?

If there’s one thing over 15 years of in-depth research on job seeker behavior and perceptions have taught us, it’s that now, more than ever, experience matters when it comes to the ability to drive quality candidates to apply for your open positions.

A recent CareerBuilder and Inavero study revealed that top talent wants to engage with prospective employers and experience what it’s like to work for their company before they decide to apply to a position – and they’re increasingly utilizing emerging technology to do it.

How do job seekers really see you? Three questions to ask
If you’ve never taken a step back to consider the experience you offer candidates – from their perspectives – it’s time to do so now.  Below are three forms of emerging media candidates utilize today to find opportunities and research potential employers. In effect, they also provide employers the opportunity to interact with and engage with job seekers on their terms. The following exercises will help you see the experience you’re providing candidates – from their point of view.

• Are You Mobile Friendly? Try searching for jobs at your company from your mobile device. Is your company’s career site “mobile-friendly” and easy to navigate? Are the pages easy to view and read? Can you easily search for and retrieve opportunities and information about your company? The rate at which people are using mobile devices to exchange information is growing exponentially – and it’s showing no signs of slowing down. If you don’t have a ‘mobile-friendly’ website that enables easy navigation and viewing, you’re missing out on a crucial opportunity to reach the growing number of job seekers who search for – and share – opportunities and information on their mobile devices.

• Do You Engage on Video? Enter the term “work at [your company]” on YouTube. Then do the same for your competitors. If you were a candidate, which company would capture your attention more? As the fastest-growing medium for consuming content, videos have an ability to engage candidates and tell a more complete story that is unmatched by any other medium. They are also easy-to-create and can live on nearly any platform by which job seekers search for jobs (job boards and search engines, social networks, company websites, etc.). From “day in the life” videos” to employee testimonials, video gives companies an edge in offering job seekers a peek into the experience of what it’s really like to work for an organization.

• Are You Social? Enter the term “work at [your company]” on Google. If you were a candidate, would you be impressed by what comes up? Now do the same for your competitors. How does your company stand out in the social space? (Or does it stand out at all?) Social media is where all of the above come together. Social networking is now the number one reason people go on the Internet, providing employers the opportunity to reach job seekers where they are truly engaged. What’s more, they can utilize social media to reach job seekers on their mobile devices and share video content with them as well (as discussed earlier).

Perception is reality when it comes to your employment brand. Only when you take a step back and truly evaluate the experience you’re offering candidates the way they see it – especially as it compares to your competitors – can you then move forward and create a more compelling reason to drive candidates to your company.

Beth Prunier is an Area Vice President at CareerBuilder, LLC, where she is responsible for sales strategies and revenue growth within the Enterprise Sales Group. This includes field sales people as well as in inside sales team in Chicago. In her role, she covers a variety of Fortune 5,000 companies located throughout the Northeast.

Exclusive webcast: Join CareerBuilder’s Area Vice Presidents Chuck Loeher and Beth Prunier on Tuesday, December 6 at 11 am CST for Future of Recruiting: Are You Prepared for What’s Ahead? In this complimentary webcast, recruitment experts Loeher and Prunier will discuss the changing recruiting environment, how employers are responding and what you can do now to position your own firm for long-term, sustainable growth. Learn more or register here.

Want to recruit top candidates? Start imitating them.

A recent study conducted by CareerBuilder and Inavero indicates that over the past several years, job seekers have developed a highly complex, multi-faceted approach to the job search, in which they utilize today’s sophisticated technology to their advantage.

According to the study, job seekers today now utilize five specific methods to ultimately find their next job:

• Search engines to find company, industry and job-specific information.
• Vertical sites (such as job boards and aggregators) for jobs that fit their qualifications and have a great company behind them.
• Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to post and share content.
• Corporate and career sites to find relevant news and information about specific companies.
• User-generated content sites such as Glassdoor.com to get a better sense of what it’s really like to work for a company.

As evidenced in the Inavero study, job seekers today are accelerating their efforts, using the opportunities they find on job boards as the starting-off point of a more in-depth search to find the opportunities – and the companies – that are right for them. It’s time for employers to do the same. By taking a cue from job seekers and applying this efficient, proactive approach to their candidate searches, employers can create a more efficient, effective recruiting process.

Five things today’s job seekers can teach employers:

1. Go mobile: The fact that over 300 million Americans use mobile phones today – and that mobile searches are up 130 percent over the past year – indicates a significant shift in the way people search for information. Not only are job seekers utilizing multiple channels to search for jobs (as shown above), but they’re also using doing so – increasingly – from their mobile devices. This shift in behavior opens up a huge opportunity for companies to reach job seekers anywhere, at any time of day. One of the smartest things you can do now to prepare your organization for long-term success in capturing talent is to mobilize your careers website.
2. Clean up your online reputation: Well aware that companies now check social media to screen candidates, the smartest job seekers proactively make an effort to clean up their social presence. Companies need to do the same. Thanks to the information available through social media and search engines, companies are more transparent than they’ve ever been. Job seekers can easily get information about a company’s organizational culture, the experience of working there, and what other employees think about the brand. Thanks to the vast reach of social media, companies also have the opportunity – and the need – to see what people are saying about them (on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn, for example), become more robust in their employment branding efforts, and reach job seekers at every touch point.
3. Take ownership of the skills gap: : A CareerBuilder survey from earlier this year shows that many job seekers have begun going back to school to learn the in-demand skills that make them more desirable job candidates – and several have even switched careers. But the burden of closing the widening skills gap shouldn’t fall solely on job seekers. Companies have to take it upon themselves to reskill workers – and there are a number of (cost-effective) ways to do so. Consider just a few of the following options:  
• Create a mentorship program within the organization
• Partner with local colleges to offer training and recruit interns
• Set up a tuition reimbursement program or development program
• Promote from within the company
4. Focus on culture: The vast majority of job seekers (roughly 70 percent, according to the Inavero survey) say they would accept a lower salary to work for a company with a strong employment brand. Just as it influences a candidate’s decisions to accept an offer, culture should also play just as much of a role in an employer’s decision to hire. Author and business strategist Amber Naslund advises employers to “hire for culture, train for skills,” which means, hire people who truly believe in the mission of the organization and are passionate about its success. You can’t train for attitude, but you can train for skills. And what’s more valuable to the organization in the long run? (The added benefit is that these employees will likely end up being strong brand advocates.)
5. Do your research: The most in-demand candidates choose their employers wisely. As noted earlier, they not only have access to more information than ever, but they take advantage of it, too – by utilizing multiple channels to research the companies to which they apply. Whether they realize it or not, employers also have access to in-depth, accurate intelligence on job seekers as well. Data intelligence – if applied well – provides employers the insight they need to create a smarter, more efficient recruitment strategy. For instance, employers can utilize marketplace intelligence to pinpoint exactly where the supply and demand for people with their desired skill sets and experience levels are highest. In effect, they can find answers to such crucial questions such as, “Are we seeking talent in the right places? Is the talent we need even available? Who are we competing with for talent and what are they offering that we aren’t?” Without this valuable intelligence, employers simply can’t make the most informed recruitment decisions.

Bottom line: If what you’re doing now to bring in the talent you need isn’t working, you need to change what you’re doing. It’s as simple as that. In order to truly meet the demand for talent, today’s employers need a change in strategy. Perhaps Peter Capelli said it best in a recent Wall Street Journal article in which he calls for “a fundamental change in business as usual.” Because when it comes to recruiting in today’s job market, recruitment as usual just won’t cut it anymore.

Chuck Loeher is an Area Vice President at CareerBuilder, LLC, where he is responsible for sales strategies and revenue growth for companies ranging from Fortune 1000 to midsized businesses throughout the U.S.

Exclusive webcast: Join CareerBuilder’s Area Vice Presidents Chuck Loeher and Beth Prunier on Tuesday, December 6 at 11 am CST for Future of Recruiting: Are You Prepared for What’s Ahead? In this complimentary webcast, recruitment experts Loeher and Prunier will discuss the changing recruiting environment, how employers are responding and what you can do now to position your own firm for long-term, sustainable growth. Learn more or register here.

Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.

No words can adequately express our sadness at Steve’s death or our gratitude for the opportunity to work with him. We will honor his memory by dedicating ourselves to continuing the work he loved so much.

— Tim Cook, CEO of Apple

Yesterday, we had to say our goodbyes to a man who’s been described as “a mentor and a friend” (Mark Zuckerburg), “a great man with incredible achievements and amazing brilliance” (Larry Page), “a visionary” (Barack Obama), an “iconic entrepreneur and businessman” (Meg Whitman), “clearly the most effective and successful American CEO in the last 50 years” (Eric Schmidt), and so much more by leadership figures, Apple employees, and admirers: Steve Jobs. Photographs of Jobs over the years have been shared in force — even some showing a side of him we may not normally see. (via @mike_matas)

Personally, I felt a deep sense of sadness yesterday as I heard the news, and I wasn’t alone. The remainder of my evening was spent reading and watching outpourings of #stevejobslegacy tweets, remembrances, articles, and videos from so many people around the world. Like many, I came back to this video, his commencement speech at Stanford in 2005 (if you haven’t seen it, it’s worth the 15 minutes of your time).

An outpouring of admiration

Wired posted a lovely tribute on its home page, and memes of #iSad and newly created tribute designs popped almost instantly. Reddit comments on the post relaying news of his death at last check had more than 8,000 comments, many of which have been personal anecdotes like “I would always trick or treat at his house” (with the inevitable “he only gave away half-eaten apples” jokes to follow) or “I accidentally hung up on Steve Jobs once” and the recounting of how Jobs called back, laughing.

Many sent, and are still sending, their thoughts, memories, and condolences to rememberingsteve@apple.com. The New York Times asked Twitter to discuss the impact of Steve Jobs’ work using the hashtag #stevejobslegacy, and they published their favorites here.  @stroughtonsmith was one of those people, who tweeted: “People leaving flowers at Apple stores; what other companies would expect something like that for their CEO?” So very true.

There’s a reason he was named the “world’s best-performing CEO in the world” by Harvard Business Review and “CEO of the Decade” by Fortune magazine. People didn’t simply leave flowers, either — a brand new Tumblr page dedicated to Apple store memorials shows the love and admiration people have for Jobs by displaying the photographs, candles (or images of candles displayed on their iPhones), bitten-into apples, and handmade signs left at stores around the world. Millions of people have also reportedly changed their Facebook pictures to honor Jobs.

CareerBuilder employees on what Jobs taught them

When I asked co-workers to send their stories about Jobs and what his life and leadership meant to them, it became clear right away that his legacy isn’t the same for everyone; he affected even a small group of people in such vastly different, but important, ways. Below are remembrances of Jobs from some of our own CareerBuilder employees:

“I always think about his last line from his Stanford address “stay hungry, stay foolish”. Stay foolish enough to believe you can change the world and hungry enough to make it happen. I watched it again when he announced his resignation. I showed it to our company at kick-off this year also. It provides terrific advice on life and business from the greatest CEO of our generation.”

– Matt Ferguson, CEO

“Steve Jobs was all about focus. It’s true that he dreamed big and took all sorts of risks to deliver on his vision, but what made him successful was that he knew when to block out the background noise and never to waver from his goal. He didn’t believe in focus groups and he didn’t care what analysts thought about his financials. He simply wanted to take the ideas in his head and do everything in his power to bring them to life.”

-- Rosemary Haefner, VP of Human Resources

“Certainly Steve Jobs was a great innovator and visionary, but as a leader I think his ability to inspire his employees to demand the best from themselves to give the best to Apple customers is what enabled him to create the most loved products and most valuable company. Sometimes the tactics were controversial, but you can’t argue with the results and a legacy that leaves his employees continuing to ask “What would Steve do?

While most people comment on the design and ease of use of the device, for me it has impacted me more from the fact that so many people and organizations are creating content that can be so quickly consumed on the device.   Netflix movies, educational or zombie-based games for my kids, TED talks, industry news shared through my social and professional network, all of this is possible because of Steve Jobs’ vision and ability to execute without compromise. I’m enjoying discovering on my iPhone today quotes and favorite articles from my network discussing the impact Steve Jobs had on each of them and the world.

-- Hope Gurion, Chief Development Officer

“When asked about his favorite Apple product, I’ve always read that Steve said he was most proud of the work they didn’t do. Meaning one of the attributes of their success was not to spread themselves too thin chasing down every idea that they stumbled upon, but forcing themselves to only focusing on the products that they really believed could be ‘insanely great. ‘This is much harder to do than it sounds, because all great ideas are not created equal and resources are scarce, so being able to make a bet and pick the right thing to work on, at the right time, is an amazingly valuable skill.”

“Personally, 10 years ago iPod allowed me to reconnect with my music. At the time I had hundreds of CDs all over the place and the level of effort involved in finding songs I wanted to hear increased exponentially the more music I bought. It got to the point that I would get excited about hearing a song, but I would talk myself out of it when I thought about how painful it was to find the music. iPod changed that in a profound way. It put the songs back at my fingertips and helped me rediscover how important music is. How do you value something like that?”

 – Paul Simmons, Website Development Director

“Steve Jobs, both because of his own way of seeing the world and the people he has used to create Apple’s products and culture, has done more to bring the role of design beyond just making things pretty and into the role of how things work, what it’s like to use them, and why they exist in the first place than any other person. Maybe ever. This has changed everything for many of us, from the way we create things to the way we expect them to be created.”

– Jonathan Stegall, Interactive Designer

“You don’t need everyone’s approval in order to be a success; if you really believe in your dreams nothing else can get in your way. To me, he really is the only person that truly embodied that. He went through a lot of misfortune in his short life but saw all those misfortunes as opportunities. Way too often people get sidetracked by a bad day or a negative opinion. Jobs was an adopted child, a college dropout, was fired from the company that he created, diagnosed with cancer, etc… but never let any of that break him down. Your life is what you make of it and you have control over all the obstacles that come your way. That is something that I always try to remember and something far too many forget.”

– Susan Densa, Graphic Designer

“My background is in music. With the advent of iTunes the delivery vehicle of music changed from physical to digital. This had profound impacts for the preservation and revitalization of many great recordings, since many were presumed lost and/or out of print since manufacturers would not realize a return on investment to distribute them. With iTunes, many of these titles are available again. Wonderful!”

 – Michael Taylor, Senior Director, Client Support

I think we can all agree that Steve Jobs saw things a little bit differently — and that our world is the better because of it.

It’s Your Turn:

What will you remember most about Jobs?

Do you realize…

…one in two job seekers want to find and engage with companies in social?
…80 percent of companies use social media to recruit?
…12 percent of job searches are done via mobile devices?
…54 percent of job seekers are more likely to apply to your job at your company after they follow you on social media?

Yesterday, CareerBuilder’s Vice President of Corporate Marketing and Branding, Jamie Womack, along with CareerBuilder Area Vice President Andrew Streiter discussed these very findings in the featured webcast, Going Social: How to Leverage Social Media In Your Recruitment Strategy. 

In addition to these findings, they also gave practical tips for employers on the best ways to leverage emerging media to strengthen employment branding and recruiting efforts, including…

…the latest tools, trends and techniques for attracting top talent
…what emerging media are and what they mean for your business
…how to integrate emerging media into your current recruitment strategy

Missed the webcast? Download it now at www.careerbuilder.com/GoingSocial.

Keep the conversation going – use #CBGoSocial on Twitter…

During the webcast, participants were urged to join in the conversation by following and posting the hashtag #cbgosocial on Twitter! Visit Twitter and search #cbgosocial and put in your own two cents!

Related articles:

• Think Like a Marketer to Capture Top Talent
• Emerging Media: The Best Ideas You Aren’t Taking Advantage Of
• Why Video? 6 Benefits of Making Video Part of Your Recruitment Mix

The one change you need to make to get a better quality of candidates may just be your mindset.

If you really want to know what it takes to recruit today’s best candidates and stay competitive in the market for top talent, it’s time to stop thinking of yourself as a recruiter and start thinking of yourself as a marketer.

Why? Because essentially, as a recruiter, your goal is no different than that of a marketer’s: to convince others to invest in a certain product or service. When it comes to recruitment, your company is the product you want job seekers to purchase.

Marketing to Job Seekers
All job seekers are consumers; therefore, the way they decide which jobs to apply to and which companies to work for mirrors the way consumers today make purchasing decisions. With increasing frequency, they base their decisions on research and peer recommendations gathered from websites, social networks and various emerging media.

Once you understand that your employment brand is your product and job seekers are your consumers, you can create your strategy around that. Start thinking like a marketer using the following steps:

1. Consider your audience as you create your selling point. There’s a reason CareerBuilder has put 15 years’ worth of time and resources into tracking and analyzing job seeker behavior. It’s the same reason marketers invest in focus groups and customer feedback surveys. Consumers make the call on what the latest trends are, not marketers. Marketers simply follow their leads. Likewise, as a recruiter, you have to understand how and where your candidates are searching for jobs and what they want from prospective employers. From there, you can create your selling point: a message that compels job seekers to want to learn more about your company, what benefits they gain when they come to work for you and what incentives they get for staying loyal to you.
2. Embrace emerging media. The most successful marketers recognize the power of emerging media. Emerging media are the various communication channels – such as social media, the mobile web and online video – that have surfaced in the last few years, but are yet to be considered mainstream. The rate at which users are embracing these channels, however, is unprecedented, underscoring an incredible opportunity for employers to reach job seekers at a faster rate, on a wider scale and on a more engaging level than ever before. But it’s not just consumers who are utilizing these technologies; increasingly, job seekers are utilizing these emerging media to research jobs and prospective employers.
3. Appeal to your audience’s emotions. Marketers strive to connect with consumers on an emotional level in order to earn their trust, business and loyalty. Employers can do the same with potential employees. Establishing an emotional connection with job seekers may sound like an unconventional recruiting tactic, but today’s job seeker experience has changed vastly over the last few years, and it requires a different approach to the recruitment process. Recruitment videos are one of the best ways to connect with job seekers on an emotional level, particularly when it comes to employee testimonials. Up-close-and-personal stories from real life employees captured on video provide a more personal experience for candidates, who get to witness what it’s actually like to be a part of something that’s bigger than them.
4. Allow your audience to take your product for a test drive. Creating an online recruitment video for job seekers is also like giving out a free sample of your product.  By seeing a tour of the facility, “meeting” the leadership team or watching employees as they go through their day and discuss their experiences, candidates get to see before they buy – in a more engaging and realistic way than flat copy in a job posting could ever provide.
5. Make their purchasing experience easy. Today’s consumers are used to “one click” features on sites like Amazon.com, which enable them to make their purchase almost immediately. While a job application might necessitate a few more steps, your online application process should still be as user-friendly as possible. The more hoops candidates have to jump through to apply for your positions, the less likely they are to complete the process. It’s also worth noting that retail companies always send post-purchase emails enabling them to review their orders and get updates on the statuses. Give candidates the same treatment: They’ll appreciate knowing their application didn’t just disappear into a black hole and it will save you the trouble of fielding calls and emails calls from confused and frustrated applicants.

Above all, the one thing you need to know about the marketer mindset is that consumer is king. When it comes to the most effective way to market your positions, it’s not about what you think you should be doing; it’s about what your target audience is doing. If you don’t know what your target audience wants – how they want to receive information and interact – you can’t put a strategy around it.

Understand your audience, and the efforts you make to recruit them will be that much more effective.

Jamie Womack is Vice President of Corporate Marketing and Branding at CareerBuilder, LLC, where she directs the development of strategic marketing for the corporate marketing team and focuses on the recruitment needs of employers of all sizes.

Exclusive webcast: Join Jamie Womack and CareerBuilder Area Vice President Andrew Streiter on Tuesday, September 27 for Going Social: How to Leverage Social Media In Your Recruitment Strategy, wherein they discuss the best ways to leverage emerging media to strengthen your employment brand and find the best talent for your organization. Learn more or register at www.careerbuilder.com/GoingSocial

Job seeker behavior has changed remarkably in the past few years. So why hasn’t your recruitment strategy?

In this competitive market for talent, it is imperative that employers be at the forefront of what job seekers find accessible. With today’s emerging technologies job seekers have come to expect a more interactive experience when it comes their job search. In order to meet the needs and desires of top talent, employers have to meet them halfway.  The smartest employers are taking advantage of today’s emerging media to connect with job candidates where they work and play, and deliver a more interactive and engaging job seeker experience.

Two forms of emerging media employers need to take advantage of right now are mobile and online video technology. Not only are mobile and video technologies surprisingly easy to implement into your overall recruitment efforts, but they are a must for any employer who hopes to remain competitive in the new recruitment landscape.

Mobile: The New Desktop
According to the latest findings from Pew Research Center, 83 percent of Americans currently own cell phones, nearly half of whom (44 percent) use their mobile devices to get access to the internet. This finding highlights the opportunity mobile devices offer employers to reach job seekers anywhere, at any time. The opportunities to use mobile technology for recruiting are vast, ranging from mobile-friendly websites that enable easy job searches on the go; to quick response (QR) codes that point smartphone users to job listings; to text alerts informing candidates about recruiting events and opportunities.

Regardless of size or industry, every company needs to take advantage of mobile recruiting opportunities. Increasingly, job seekers are using their mobile devices to receive job alerts, search jobs and research companies. It won’t be long until this behavior is commonplace, and those companies that do not embrace this technology are losing out on candidates every day.

Video: An Underutilized Advantage
For all of its power to influence and engage people, video is one of the most underutilized recruiting tools out there today. One thing CareerBuilder has seen consistently throughout our 15 years of research on job seekers is their desire to work for companies that care about their employees, work for the greater good and are at the forefront of innovation. Video enables companies to get this message across better than any other medium, because it enables candidates to really see and hear what the true employee experience is like. The evidence supports this finding, too: According to CareerBuilder internal data, job postings with video icons are viewed 12 percent more than postings without video. On average, CareerBuilder customers receive a 34 percent greater application rate when they add video to their job postings. At the same time, only 10 percent of job postings include video, underscoring a major opportunity for employers to take advantage of this technology and differentiate themselves from their competitors.

Dispelling the Myths of Emerging Media
Change can be intimidating, but companies that fail to embrace these emerging media are only cheating themselves out of the opportunity to reach the growing number of qualified candidates who utilize this technology for their job searches. If what’s holding you back is the fear that implementing these technologies is too expensive or simply more trouble than they’re worth, consider the following popular misconceptions about emerging media.

Myth 1: It’s expensive. It’s surprisingly inexpensive to send text messages, create QR codes or create a mobile-friendly career site. Likewise, video is also inexpensive to produce, and it can be as easy as creating a video yourself and posting it (for free) on YouTube. It may not be the most polished video, but it’s a way to start the process and see how much feedback it generates.  From there, you might decide to invest in a more streamlined production process to get an even better return. Implementing mobile and video recruiting efforts can be an investment, but when you look at the return, cost should be an afterthought.

Myth 2: It’s too complicated. Mobile technology can feel like somewhat of a black hole for employers; however, integration with mobile devices is surprisingly simple, and the time it takes to build a mobile website is minimal. The same can be said for video. As mentioned above, uploading video onto any online platform – from a video-sharing site like YouTube to the company career site – is increasingly easy.  When in doubt, consult a third party expert to help you navigate these technologies for the best possible ROI. You won’t regret it.

Myth 3: It’s a trend. If there’s one thing to take away from this article, it is that emerging media, such as mobile technologies, social networking and video, is not going away. Consider the following statistics:

• In 2010 alone, the worldwide mobile phone market grew by 18.5 percent.
• More than 5 billion text messages were sent on a daily basis in the U.S. in 2010
• In the last quarter of 2010, smartphone sales surpassed that of PCs, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC).
• During the course of 2010 CareerBuilder saw over 400 percent growth in job searches on our mobile career site, and the number of job seekers storing resumes on their phones using CB’s iPhone App increased by over 350 percent.
• Web pages with video are 53 times more likely than pages with just text to show up on the first page of Google results
• Internet video is now 40 percent of consumer Internet traffic, and will reach 62 percent by the end of 2015.

These are just a few of the findings that underscore both the reach and power of emerging media, as well as the need for employers to adapt their recruiting efforts to keep up with mobile usage trends. As these technologies become the norm for candidates as they search for jobs and research companies, employers need to adjust their recruiting efforts accordingly to remain competitive. In other words, you might not be taking advantage of emerging media, but your competitors are. Don’t get left behind.

Andrew Streiter is an Area Vice President at CareerBuilder, LLC, where he is responsible for developing human capital strategies for organizations ranging from Fortune 1,000 companies to mid-sized businesses throughout the US.

Exclusive webcast: Join CareerBuilder Area Vice President Andrew Streiter and Jamie Womack, CareerBuilder’s VP of Corporate Marketing, on Tuesday, September 27 for Going Social: How to Leverage Social Media In Your Recruitment Strategy, wherein they discuss the best ways to leverage emerging media to strengthen your employment brand and find the best talent for your organization. Learn more or register at www.careerbuilder.com/GoingSocial

You might call it the biggest anticipated iTunes release since The Beatles…

Today, CareerBuilder announced the release of its CareerBuilder for Employers iPhone app – available for a free download on iTunes.

Job seekers have long been using CareerBuilder’s original iPhone app to search for jobs on their mobile phones, but now there’s a place in the app world for employers, too. CareerBuilder for Employers gives employers access to job candidates anywhere, at any time directly from their mobile device. The application, called CareerBuilder for Employers, is available for download at iTunes.

“Being able to reach potential employees wherever you are provides a whole new level of speed, efficiency and convenience to recruitment,” said Brent Rasmussen, President of CareerBuilder North America, in today’s release. “Our new app is designed to help employers quickly connect with the fast-growing population of mobile job seekers and get a leg up on the competition for talent.”

App Features and Benefits
CareerBuilder’s new app enables employers to sync directly to their existing CareerBuilder accounts and provides the following features:

• Employers can call, email, or send a letter to the applicant directly from their iPhone
• Employers can save a candidate to a folder in their CareerBuilder account for later review
• Employers can flip through applicants by swiping left or right on the application or use the page button at the top right
• Employers can receive push notifications when new applications are available for review

Best of all, the app is free to everyone who wants to use it.

Speaking of (Free) Mobile Recruitment Resources…
feel, ahem, free to download our new eBook, The Evolution of Mobile Recruitment: What It Is, Why It Matters and Where to Start.

Earlier this month, I discussed the ways mobile marketing efforts can enhance a company’s recruitment efforts.

For instance, not only does mobile marketing provide a fast, convenient way to alert job seekers to opportunities and stay in touch with them, but it also helps you stand out among those who aren’t yet using mobile means to reach job seekers…just to name a few.

Now, if you’re ready to take that very special next step in your recruiting efforts, here’s your quick-and-easy guide to the various mobile recruiting techniques you can try:

Four Opportunities in Mobile Recruitment

Quick Response Codes: QR (quick response) codes are barcode-like squares that, when scanned with the camera found on most mobile devices, direct users to a specific mobile website.  For recruitment purposes, they’re an easy way to direct job seekers to your careers site (just take it from Ernst & Young). Here are a few quick ways to get started:

• Cre­ate a QR code for your com­pany job board and print it on com­pany promo cards to dis­trib­ute to attendees at career fairs and networking events.
• Embed QR codes on company brochures, business cards, presentations, hand-outs, and other promotional items to drive prospective candidate to your careers website.

And thanks to the many free QR code generators online that let you simply type in a destination URL, creating QR codes is surprisingly quick and inexpensive.  (Note, however, that because not everyone has a smart phone that responds to QR codes, you should always pro­vide mul­tiple avenues for the dis­sem­i­na­tion of information.)

Text Alerts: Recruitment SMS alerts enable you to alert job seekers to new and open opportunities in real-time.  You can also use SMS notifications to communicate other recruitment messages, including the following:

• When a candidate has made it to the next round of the application process.
• When companies require an interview.
• When career events take place, according to where the candidate lives.

Companies like AT&T are using this technique already. Anyone can sign up on the careers section of AT&T’s website to join the company’s Talent Network and receive hot job leads via text message based on location and job type.

Mobile-optimized Websites: ERE’s Dr. John Sullivan recently argued that one of the reasons corporate careers sites are going the way of the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric is because they aren’t keeping up with mobile trends.

With over 300 million Americans using mobile phones – and mobile search up 130 percent over the past year – it’s increasingly important that organizations optimize their careers site for easier mobile viewing. Otherwise, they risk missing out on the millions of job seekers who are searching jobs and companies from their phones.

Creating an optimized version of your website should be simple and relatively inexpensive. Keep the content simple and focus on the most important content. Hyatt has optimized its mobile site to enable potential candidates to search for jobs, view mobile video from YouTube, link to the company’s various social media sites and read up on company information.

Apps: AT&T, Raytheon and Deloitte are just a few of the companies that have successfully implemented smartphone apps into their recruitment strategy.  While customized apps are ideal for bigger companies with a steady opening of jobs, employers of all sizes benefit from apps if the websites that advertise their jobs on have apps.

For instance, any organization with postings on CareerBuilder.com can potentially be found by job seekers using CareerBuilder’s job seeker app.  Additionally, employers can now use the new CareerBuilder for Employers app on their ends to find candidates, review their resumes and contact them - from anywhere at anytime - directly from their iPhones.

Have you made changes to your recruiting strategy in light of the current mobile trend?

Confession: Until recently, every time I heard “mobile,” I would immediately picture Randy Quaid’s Cousin Eddie saying, “That there’s an RV,” in reference to the makeshift mobile home he’s just parked in front of the Griswold house in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.

Anyone else? No, probably not…

Lately, however, every time I hear the word “mobile,” I automatically think “recruitment” – thanks to the many conversations I’ve heard – and had – around the use of mobile as a recruitment tool over the past few months.

What these conversations often come down to is one simple fact: Employers and recruiters who don’t “go mobile” will simply get left behind.

Mobile technologies enable employers to reach the millions of job seekers who use mobile devices to search for jobs, research companies and connect with referrals. The sooner employers and recruiters realize this, the more competitive they will be in their search for top candidates.

Going mobile, however, isn’t about what you have to lose, but about everything you have to gain. In general, there are two major benefits to mobile recruiting:

• Convenience: Many of today’s mobile devices offer all the same speed and capability of a PC, but with almost unlimited accessibility.
• Immediacy: Mobile devices also enable users to  respond and react instantly.

5 (More) Benefits to Mobile Recruitment
If you want to delve even deeper into the benefits of creating a mobile recruiting strategy, consider these five:

1. Better Branding: When you’re mobile, you’re already ahead of those employers who aren’t. The ‘mobile movement’ also enables you to broaden your social media recruitment efforts, as more job seekers use their mobile devices to check and update their various social media accounts while on the go.
2. Better Targeting: Thanks to geolocation technology, employers and recruiters can target job seekers according to their exact location. No matter where job seekers are, employers and recruiters can locate job seekers anytime and anywhere, automatically connecting with them about real time job opportunities and career events in their area.
3. Low Cost: Sending messages is far more cost-effective than advertising via traditional media, like newspapers, magazines, radio or television.
4. Constant Engagement with Job Seekers: Gone are the days when people had to wait until they were at their homes or office computers in order to check email, search for information or log in to their social media accounts. Today, the first thing people do when they wake up is grab their phones and check their messages – and regularly check in throughout the day, right until they put the phone down to go to sleep. In short, mobile users are constantly connected.
5. Higher Response Rates: Mobile phone messages appear more personalized, so they enjoy a higher response rate than traditional media advertisements. Not only that, but because job seekers enjoy more privacy on their personal mobile devices, they feel more freedom to respond without fear that colleagues will find out.

Another not-so-little benefit to using mobile marketing recruitment efforts? Adding mobile marketing efforts only enhances existing social media recruitment efforts. With faster access to the Internet, mobile users are increasingly updating their social media accounts via this medium.

Does your organization employ mobile recruiting efforts? If so, how? If not, why not?

Beep. Beep. Beep. Your alarm goes off at 7 a.m., and your personal bot removes you from your bed, super scrubs your skin, slips on your socks (no need for shoes), flosses your teeth, makes your synthetic protein shake, puts you in your moving recliner, and programs your entire life.  Well . . . at least in the world of the creative geniuses at Pixar who created Wall-e. While we may not quite be there, yet, we are definitely heading to a technology-enabled mobile world where desktop computers, TV remotes, GPS devices, cell phones, e-readers, credit cards, portable gaming systems, and who knows what else will be on our e-device.

Indeed, mobile is taking off. Today, there are 91.4 million mobile internet users in the United States and this will jump to 132.5 million—a whopping 41.5 percent of the U.S. population—by 2015, according to eMarketer.  And of those folks who are already connected via a Smartphone, they are ϋber-connected, with 89 percent using their device throughout the day according to The Mobile Movement study by Microsoft.

 So what are all these Smartphone users doing online? When they connect, 77 percent are using a search engine and 65 percent are social networking. Tablet users do even more. According to Nielsen’s Q1 2011 Mobile Connected Device Report, 77 percent of tablet users now use the device for tasks for which they formally used their laptop or desktop computers. And it’s no surprise why. People are using these mobile devices because they help us with our daily lives. For example, you can now watch a TV show while talking to your spouse and ordering dinner. Still think we aren’t going mobile before 2020? Think again.

Our connected world is forcing companies to go where the people are and speak to them in short, yet engaging snippets of content in the form of video, tweets, text messages, games, status updates, and oh so much more. However, even though human resources departments are optimistic about social media and mobile, they are late adopters of technology, social media, and mobile computing. According to Econsultancy’s “Social Media and Online PR Report 2010,” 74 percent of companies have no integration with social media within their human resource departments and only a measly 2 percent are well integrated. And since mobile technologies normally require information technology support that social media does not, I expect human resources to be a laggard in the mobile movement, as well.

Even so, this lack of technology isn’t stopping talent from researching employers, connecting with brands, and searching for jobs. In fact, CareerBuilder has seen more than a 270 percent increase in page views on its mobile website, Android app, and iPhone app from March 2010 to March 2011.

Plus, there are a handful of techno-savvy human resources departments leading the pack for the mobile recruitment revolution. Here is a smidgen with mobile apps to get you thinking. (And if you know of others, please post them with their links.)

• PepsiCo Possibilities: mobile recruitment application for Android, iPhone, and iPad
• AT&T Jobs: mobile job search app for the iPhone
• Hyatt Careers: Android app for searching and sharing jobs
• CTCA Jobs: The Cancer Treatment Centers of America® Android app for searching and applying to jobs

And if you don’t want to create an app, don’t.  Just optimize your current web site so it is mobile friendly. Does that mean you just put the same content up there to fit the screen? No. Make it as simple as possible for people to take action – yes, that does mean you shouldn’t make them scroll (at least on the home page). Give them exactly what they need so they can read it and take action. Here are some of the companies that already embraced the mobile job seeker:

• Sodexo
• MTV Networks Careers
• Fidelity Careers
• Six Flags Career Portal
• Careers @ McDonald’s

Recruiting is marketing, and human resources needs to partner with marketing and technology, and get on board with the new communications revolution – short and sweet, where talent wants it, how talent wants it, and when talent wants it. To truly find the best people, human resources is going to have to hunt down the right candidates and capture them with content. Be the mobile bot that feeds them what they need and entices them to join your team – and start today.