The statistics are staggering. As of January 2017, Facebook tallied 1,871,000,000 active users. Instagram boasts 600 million users, Tumblr 550 million, Twitter 317 million, both Skype and Snapchat ring in at 300 million, Pinterest has 150 million users, and LinkedIn clocks in at 105 million users. Worldwide, it’s forecasted that over 4.7 billion people will have mobile phones in 2017. The Pew Research Center notes that about 95% of Americans own some sort of mobile phone, and 77% of these people have a smartphone.

Both smartphones and social media are omnipresent in many lives, personally and professionally. Social media sites, the children of CompuServe and Prodigy, have moved from cutting-edge technology to the communications mainstream. The incredibly high usage of mobile phones and tablets are redefining how companies reach out to job seekers and current employees alike. Both entries to the ever-expanding digital spaces are also tools for today’s smart HR pros and company managers to use for everything from recruiting and onboarding employees, to internal and external communications, employee education, long-distance collaborative work, marketing, promotions, and public relations.

Smartphones, Smart Companies: Talent Acquisition in the Mobile World

The April 1, 2017 installment of the top recruitment and career blog in the UK and Europe UndercoverRecruiter, notes the ever-expanding numbers and percentages tied into businesses looking for workers and job seekers interested in getting hired in the digital environment.

Some companies are wisely choosing to optimize their websites for mobile phone users. Why? Because 45% of job seekers search for jobs daily on their mobile device, whether it’s a smartphone or tablet. And 89% of job seekers think mobile devices play a crucial role in the job hunt. Businesses have responded to this huge upsurge by optimizing company websites.

A simple “fix” hiring managers can bring to a re-designing discussion is to determine what the key factors in a job application are, and how to streamline the process. Job search sites like SimplyHired, Indeed and LinkedIn are leading the pack for mobile phone usefulness.

Social Sites: Talent Acquisition Through Social Hiring

Recruiting talent though social media is not a novelty anymore – it’s a de rigueur tool in the human resources world. So how do HR people use social media to find the best candidates for a position?

Joe Budzienski, VP of Product & Technology at Monster.com, in an April 23, 2015 article for Entrepreneur, noted that 54% of recruiters use Facebook, 40% use Twitter, 8% use Google+ and YouTube, and 4% use Pinterest.

So what should canny HR managers do to create the best access for the brightest stars to join their company’s roster? There are three basic guidelines:

• Focus the “talent brand.” When a company’s mission and culture, in both words and images looks great, talent is attracted.
• Permit current employees to campaign for the company. Statistics are important, but word-of-mouth anecdotal raves by employees are extremely persuasive…everyone looks for companies that are wonderful to work for.
• Cultivate positive exposure. Celebrate your company’s culture, employees, products and services through words and pictures. Industry updates, company events, promotions, parties, projects and products, regularly shared with the public on Facebook, Twitter and Google+ will add an attraction facet to the jewel that is your organization.

Over 60% of recruitment managers now screen job candidates via social media – not for the purpose of “digging up the dirt,” but to discover more about a candidate than a pro forma cover letter and resume will reveal. Sometimes dirt is uncovered, at which point HR should sit down with Legal to determine what to do.

So what’s the bottom line? Screening and recruiting via smartphone and social media sites are here to stay.