Dive Brief:

• A couple of recent studies conducted by Phenom People and Yello reveal that job candidates expect the job application process to be as simple as choosing a movie on Netflix, and they’d prefer constant updates on their status via mobile messaging. Current job boards and very few application systems offer this type of candidate experience, said Andrew R. McIlvaine at Recruiting Trends.
• The Yello 2016 Recruiting Study of more than 7,000 recent college grads and current students found that around 20% have applied for a job using a mobile device but that another 20% refused to apply to a company because of a lack of a mobile-enabled website. The Phenom People State of the Talent Experience survey audited the websites of the world’s largest companies and found that less than half are optimized for mobile accessibility.
• "The problem is that most recruiting products are stuck back in 1994,” says Mahe Bayireddi, the co-founder and CEO of Phenom People. He also blames poor user design that’s too focused on process, rather than improving the candidate experience. 

Dive Insight:

While many applicant tracking systems were built on older technology, recruitment teams can take steps to improve the overall candidate experience. They can embrace new tools for sending updates to candidates using text messaging and emails as well as provide a more pleasant experience for candidates by making things more personal.

Mobile technology is here to stay and therefore recruitment and applications need to be able to keep up. The 20% of users who will only apply to a job using mobile did so because that was the best and most convenient option. Websites can be redeveloped to make them mobile friendly and easier to navigate to capture more talent.