Thought Leadership in Action

Increasing diversity within an organization offers multiple benefits that go far beyond simply being in compliance with federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) regulations. Employees who come from a variety of backgrounds, experiences and cultures often bring fresh ideas and perspectives to a company – contributing to its ability to innovate and succeed in the long-term.

What are the best ways for HR leaders to connect with a diverse pool of appropriate candidates? Organizations still relying on traditional technologies and methods could be using dated, less effective approaches. Instead, employers need to be aware of data showing that minority populations in the U.S. are currently accessing the web in record numbers, primarily from mobile devices. Simply put, companies can now quickly find and meet many new candidates where these potential employees are – on their mobile devices.

What the Research Shows

Pew surveys reveal that both African Americans and English-speaking Latinos are more likely to own any sort of mobile phone than Caucasians. Overall, minority groups also now use a much wider range of their cell phones’ capabilities compared to white cell phone owners. According to research from Pew, the use of smartphones by African-Americans and Latinos is now comparable to the national average for all Americans. A full one-third of minority adults lack additional methods for accessing the internet, so they rely on their smartphones as their sole resource for that access.

The research also shows that young people and minorities are increasingly using these mobile devices for employment information. They are searching for job openings, checking out employment branding messages and applying for positions online almost exclusively from mobile devices.

The implication is clear: organizations without a mobile-enabled career site and application process are missing out on a significant opportunity to connect with large numbers of diverse job candidates from minority populations. However, a surprising number of companies have been slow in providing user-friendly career sites optimized for mobile devices despite the fact that the mobile web became more prevalent than desktop internet in 2015.

In fact, IMomentous (a company that produces a mobile technology platform which enables organizations to interact with prospective and existing employees) conducted a study to evaluate the Fortune 500's presence on the mobile web and found that 90% of these companies do not have a corporate career site optimized for mobile devices.

Key findings of the "Corporate Mobile Readiness Report” include:

• Of the 141 companies with a mobile-optimized corporate site, only 23 have a link to careers or job openings.
• Only 65 Fortune 500 companies have a mobile-optimized career section, and just 11 of those have a mobile-optimized application process.
• There was only one company in the Fortune 500, McDonald’s, that met all criteria for mobile readiness (including a mobile-optimized corporate site with a careers link and career section, mobile optimized job application process, and a native careers app in the iTunes store).

"The results of our research show that very few of the Fortune 500 provide job seekers with a candidate experience optimized for their mobile devices. If the Fortune 500 is struggling to embrace the mobile web, it is likely that most other organizations are lagging behind as well," said Ed Newman, vice president of Strategy for iMomentous.

He advises organizations to look at their own processes, rank themselves against the Fortune 500, and determine the steps they can take to improve their readiness to engage the growing number of candidates using mobile technology.

Adopting a Mobile Approach to Recruiting

Employers can develop a more inclusive strategy that reaches the highest number of qualified candidates from diverse backgrounds by leveraging mobile technology in several ways:

• Career sites should be optimized for searches conducted by prospective job candidates who are using mobile devices.
• Mobile technology can be used to attract, communicate with and engage potential job candidates by promoting career sites through the widespread use and power of social media. Mobile strategies can include delivering email and text alerts to announce job openings and using social media sites to build talent communities. Job alerts can be posted on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other social media sites where they will be seen and shared by a large and diverse number of people seeking jobs.
• Companies should have their career sites and application processes optimized so that candidates can apply for positions easily using mobile technology and even submit their profiles through social channels.
• Using multiple channels, including social media, a mobile strategy can be used to convey positive messages about an employment brand to diverse populations.
• Digital interviews provide a convenient and user-friendly way for candidates to be screened and interviewed directly not only from their desktop or laptop computers but also from their smartphones and tablets.
• Using a digital interviewing platform can also benefit an organization’s hiring practices by helping HR departments ensure compliance with EEOC regulations. All candidates can be provided with a standardized set of screening questions and employers can use a multi-reviewer process to help ensure an objective and consistent interview process.