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?