1. What is the
current state
of mobile
recruitment?

2. Colofon
December 13, 2013
Mieke Berkhout
Kristin Mellink
Julia Paskaleva
Geert-Jan Waasdorp
Tom Wentholt
Intelligence Group Maxlead
Maaskade 119 Rhijngeesterstraatweg 60
3071 NK ROTTERDAM
2341 BV OEGSTGEEST
T +31 (0)10 280 90 10
T +31 (0)71 542 53 06
www.intelligence-group.nl www.maxlead.nl
© 2013 - Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this paper may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from Intelligence Group or Maxlead.
What is the current state of mobile recruitment?
1

3. Mobile recruitment. Important or just another hype?
After 123Mobile 2012, the event for mobile and recruitment, questions were
raised about the state of affairs in mobile recruitment. We came up with the idea
to conduct an independent study of web traffic of the career websites/career
pages of various Dutch organizations to see whether the search for a job is turning into a mobile job search as well. We were especially triggered by something
that Nu.nl, a Dutch news website, shared at 123Mobile 2012. They discovered
a new mobile peak moment in their traffic. After dinner, people tend to watch
television with a tablet or smartphone close at hand and start surfing the Internet
with a mobile device. We wondered if we could identify such a moment for career
related websites as well and started designing a research plan to investigate these
and other topics.
2. An online questionnaire, filled out by HR and recruitment
professionals
To reach our target group of HR and recruitment professionals, we placed the
questionnaire on various recruitment related websites and on the (Facebook) page
of 123Mobile. After cleansing the data, 121 filled out questionnaires were found
to be suitable for analysis.
The study has been conducted by Intelligence Group and Maxlead and
commissioned by ‘Stichting 123Mobile’. Intelligence Group is a research
agency specialized in (global) recruitment intelligence. Maxlead is company
specialized in search engine marketing and web analytics.
We have used two sources for this study:
On behalf of Intelligence Group and Maxlead, we hope you’ll enjoy your reading!
1. Web data from the career websites/career pages of Dutch
corporate and non-profit organizations
We asked organizations that use Google Analytics to track their websites to
participate in the research. The seven participating organizations provided us with
access to the necessary Google Analytics profiles to collect the data. For technical reasons, we decided to collect data from September 15, up until October 15
2013. Whenever we needed to compare findings with previous years, we used
data from the same time period in 2011 and 2012. We classified the data into
smartphone, tablet and desktop traffic by means of advanced segmentation. Thus,
when we analyze mobile in this paper, we analyze smartphone and tablet traffic.
For general analysis purposes, we reviewed on the basis of visits while for detailed
analysis (e.g. related to job openings) we reviewed on the basis of page views.
What is the current state of mobile recruitment?
Mieke Berkhout
Kristin Mellink
Julia Paskaleva
Geert-Jan Waasdorp
Tom Wentholt
2

4. Table of contents
Management Summary
4
Current situation in mobile recruitment
• A few facts to start with
• Mobile visits doubled
• A quarter of the organizations have a mobile recruitment strategy
• The effect of having a mobile recruitment strategy
What is the mobile job seeker up to?
•
•
•
•
Three stages defined
The mobile job seeker reads vacancies and gets to know the organization
The mobile job seeker wants to apply for a job but is not facilitated
A new recruitment moment
5
5
5
6
7
8
8
8
8
9
What is the employer up to? 10
•
•
•
•
•
Mobile will become more important in 2014
Knowing your target group is the key to mobile success
Some thoughts about target groups
Few organizations know the behavior of their mobile visitors
The attitude towards mobile recruitment is positive
Promoters of this study
What is the current state of mobile recruitment?
10
10
11
11
12
13
3

5. Management Summary
Mobile traffic has doubled every year since 2011
Since 2011, the amount of mobile traffic on career websites/career pages has
doubled every year. This means that on average 22 per cent of the total amount
of traffic was made by a mobile device in 2013.
A quarter of Dutch organizations have a mobile recruitment
strategy
In 2013, only 26 per cent of the Dutch organizations had a mobile recruitment
strategy. On the other hand, organizations are positively oriented towards
mobile recruitment since it will become a focal point in 2014 for one out of
three. Furthermore, the organizations saying that mobile will not be a focal
point are decreasing in number.
A mobile recruitment strategy has a positive effect on mobile
traffic
Organizations that have a mobile recruitment strategy see that their mobile traffic
rises after implementing this strategy. On the other hand, 40 per cent of the
organizations that implemented a strategy do not know whether their mobile traffic has increased, decreased or stayed the same. Even fewer organizations know
what mobile visitors actually do on their career websites. This means that
it will be unclear to these organizations whether the goals of their mobile
recruitment strategy are being met.
The mobile visitor gets to know the organization and job openings
Mobile visitors use their devices to read about the organization and about job
openings the organization has posted. On average, 40 per cent of all visitors that
read information about the organization are mobile visitors, while more than one
third of the total amount of visitors that read job openings are doing this with a
mobile device.
What is the current state of mobile recruitment?
Mobile visitors intend to apply for a job, but websites do not
facilitate them
Almost one out of ten mobile visitors show they intend to apply for a job but not
even one per cent actually does apply on a mobile device. This is because the
website does not facilitate the mobile user to apply.
The rise of a mobile moment
The mobile job seeker is mostly online after four o’clock in the afternoon, and
early in the morning (until 6 o’clock) they even dominate traffic on career pages.
This gives employers a new opportunity to communicate with talent and potential
candidates. When organizations are not ‘mobile- ready’ they will lose a chance to
connect with the part of their target group that is mobile active.
Organizations have little insight into their mobile visitors
While a whole lot of organizations do not know how many mobile visitors their
career website attracts, even more organizations do not know what their (mobile)
visitors are doing on their career websites. This study shows that knowing your
target group is the key to designing and subsequently evaluating a mobile
recruitment strategy. Therefore, we advise each organization to track its website.
Organizations have a positive attitude towards mobile
recruitment
The number of organizations with a mobile recruitment strategy is low, as is the
amount of knowledge about web visitors. However, judging by the positive answers submitted by HR and recruitment professionals on this topic, organizations
do generally believe that mobile recruitment is important. For example, more than
three out of four are of the opinion that mobile recruitment should be an integral
part of recruitment.
4

6. Current situation in mobile recruitment
A few facts to start with
How important is mobile for the recruitment industry? Mobile is definitely something that needs some research attention to find out what is the state of affairs.
To create a context for this paper, we start with a few facts about mobile devices:
•
•
•
•
•
The penetration of smartphones in the Netherlands was 72% in
Q3 2013 (Telecompaper, 2013)
The penetration of tablets in the Netherlands was 44 % in the second
half of 2013 (Gfk, 2013)
47% of the Dutch smartphone users use mobile Internet (CBS, 2012)
Smartphone users are generally younger than 35 years (comScore, 2013)
Mobile users are generally higher educated (Telecompaper, 2013)
Even though we do not want to suggest that every organization should adopt a
mobile recruitment strategy immediately, we are of the opinion that these numbers show that mobile cannot be ignored. It is here to stay and it is becoming
more real every year, as the percentages have doubled every year since 2011.
The question is whether it is also here to stay in recruitment and if so, how
organizations can adopt mobile in their own strategies.
Mobile visits doubled
As shown in Figure 1, the percentage of mobile visits has been increasing since
2011. From 2012 to 2013, the percentage has even doubled: almost a quarter
of all visits are made by a mobile device, be it a smartphone or tablet. The highest percentage of mobile visits is even more than one third of the total amount of
visits. While the difference between the lowest and the highest percentage was
not very big in 2011, it is increasing.
What is the current state of mobile recruitment?
Figure 1 I Percentage of mobile visitors in 2011, 2012 and 2013
(source: web data participating organizations)
14%
2013
7%
10%
22%
37%
16%
2012
3% 5%
8%
2011
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
Lowest percentage of mobile visits
Mean percentage of mobile visits
Highest percentage of mobile visits
We can point out two reasons for this increase. Firstly, an organization with a
mobile recruitment strategy is responsible for the highest percentage of mobile
visits. We know that this organization is dedicated to bringing its audience a
positive mobile experience on its career website. Secondly, the organization that
is responsible for the lowest percentage of mobile visits attracts a less mobile
target group. Target groups vary in their use of mobile devices. Thus, the career
website of an organization with a less mobile target group logically attracts fewer
mobile visitors than the career website of an organization with a highly mobile
target group. Lastly, organizations who have not made adjustments to their
website for mobile devices – a responsive website or the option to easily send
job vacancies to an email address on a mobile device - are lagging behind.
5

7. Possible reasons might be:
As mentioned before, the percentage of mobile visits is increasing, which can be
explained by the general growth of smartphone and tablet penetration. We think
that yet another factor has a great influence on this growth, namely the adoption
of mobile recruitment by the market. Although a mobile recruitment strategy is
not high on the agendas, we do think that organizations do a better job in serving
their mobile audience. Last but not least, 4G networks make the speed of mobile
internet even faster, which we believe will also give an impulse to mobile
recruitment.
Budget
Budgets are tight, especially now that recruitment is not the biggest
priority because of the economic crisis. Why waste money on the things
conditional to successfully implementing a mobile recruitment strategy while
the website just had a restyle, or whatever else the case may be?
•
Priority
There are other priorities than mobile. For example, there are quite a few
organizations still struggling with implementing social media in their
recruitment activities. Why start with mobile when other things are still a
challenge?
A quarter of the organizations have a mobile recruitment strategy
•
Looking at the facts about mobile recruitment strategies, we see that 26 per cent
of the organizations has one (Figure 2). Concurrently, more than 75 per cent of
HR and recruitment professionals think that mobile should be an integral part of
recruitment. This raises a question. How can it be that three out of four HR and
recruitment professionals are of the opinion that mobile should be an integral part
of recruitment, while only a quarter of the organizations actually has a mobile
recruitment strategy?
Different point of view
Even if recruiters feel that mobile should be a part of recruitment, this does
not mean that everybody in the organization is of the same opinion. If this
situation should occur, it is helpful to have strong arguments advocating a
mobile recruitment strategy. One starting point is looking at the analytics of
the career website and evaluating what the amount of mobile traffic is, so
that your opinion can be underpinned by factual arguments. Owning this
knowledge about the visitors of a website will also help with formulating a
mobile recruitment strategy once the decision is made that the organization
needs one.
•
Technical knowledge
The technical knowledge is missing within the organization. Of course, an
external party can be hired to implement all necessary technologies, but
recruiters will still need to know how to deal with them.
Figure 2 I Do organizations have a mobile recruitment strategy?
(source: online survey)
•
69%
26%
5%
Yes
What is the current state of mobile recruitment?
No
I don’t know
6

8. The effect of having a mobile recruitment strategy
The study made clear that having a mobile recruitment strategy is conducive
to generating mobile traffic. For example, the organizations with a mobile
recruitment strategy have the highest percentages of mobile visits and the biggest
growth. Furthermore, more than half the organizations that have mobile recruitment strategies claim that the number of mobile visitors has increased since they
implemented this strategy. On the other hand, what is most interesting about the
organizations with a mobile recruitment strategy is the fact that almost 40 per
cent say they do not know whether their mobile traffic has increased, decreased
or stayed the same. This means that these organizations do have a strategy but do
not evaluate the parameters to check whether their efforts in the mobile area are
effective. Taking a look at the website traffic may help decide whether the goals of
the mobile recruitment strategy are met, or whether adjustments in the activities
need to be made in order to meet the goals the organization has set itself.
What is the current state of mobile recruitment?
7

9. What is the mobile job seeker up to?
Three stages defined
The mobile user can do a wide range of things online. Shopping, reading news
articles, browsing through social networks. The possibilities are numerous. For the
purpose of this research, we have defined three things that a visitor of a career
website can do.
1. Orientation phase: the visitor can read vacancies.
2. Information phase: the visitor can read about the organization. For example,
this can be corporate information, information about what it is like to work for
the organization or employee testimonials.
3. Application phase: The last phase is the application phase in which the visitor
surfs to the application page and applies for a job.
For each website, we defined which pages belonged to which phase.
The mobile job seeker reads vacancies and gets to know the
organization
Mobile job seekers are mainly getting information about the organization and
reading job vacancies when they surf to a career website (Figure 3). Actually applying for a job is not an activity they perform on their mobile device.
The mobile job seeker wants to apply for a job but is not facilitated
Applying for a job on a mobile device is topic of debate. Some people say that
mobile job applications will never be reality, since they are of the opinion that candidates will never do something so important on their mobile device. Other people
actually claim that a mobile job application is something the candidate wants since
he is just becoming more and more mobile. Without telling organizations what
they should do, we will enter some information into this debate.
What is the current state of mobile recruitment?
Figure 3 I Different phases of the online job seeking process defined by type
of device (source: web data participating organizations)
66%
Orientation
34%
60%
Information
40%
99%
Application
0%
25%
50%
1%
75%
100%
Desktop
Mobile
If we take a closer look at the application phase, it becomes clear that this phase
can be divided up into the intention to apply and the actual application. When
someone has the intention to apply, he visits the application page (with the
application form on it), while for an actual application the application form needs
to be submitted. While mobile visitors do surf to the application page, they fail to
submit the application form (Figure 4). The figure shows that 11.7 per cent of
the total number of visits to the application page is made with a mobile device.
Furthermore, 0.9 per cent of the visits that actually result in a submitted
application form is made on a mobile device. The explanation is simple: the
mobile visitor does not have the opportunity to apply online.
8

10. Figure 4 I Intention to apply and application by mobile
(source: web data participating organizations)
Intention
to apply
by mobile
A new recruitment moment
11,7%
40%
%
60%
Application
by mobile
0,9%
%
0%
2%
4%
6%
8%
10%
12%
14%
More and more mobile users are active on career websites in the evening. We
see that job seekers are using their desktop computers less from 4 o’clock in the
afternoon onwards, while we see an increase in mobile use from this hour (Figure
5). Early mornings are mobile moments as well. Although the absolute numbers
are lower at this hour than in the daytime, it is definitely a moment when mobile
job seekers are most active and could therefore be reached. This implies that both
early morning and after four o’clock are moments when an organization can reach
its mobile audience. When organizations are not ‘mobile-ready’, they miss out on
a moment to connect with the part of their target group that is mobile active. We
were wondering if recruitment-related websites would show the same shift we
saw in the Nu.nl traffic, and with these outcomes we can conclude that in recruitment this shift is also happening.
Figure 5 I Sort of visit by time of day (source: web data participating organizations)
Obviously, this is a missed opportunity for conversion, although it is not certain
that people who have the intention to apply on their mobile device are definitely
lost. It is very well possible that these visitors come back using their desktop
computer. Nevertheless, these findings indicate that mobile visitors are ready to
apply online, it is the job of the organization to facilitate them.
90%
80%
70%
60%
60%
Since it is the most cited focal point for 2014 in their mobile recruitment strategies, employers are also of the opinion that actual application on a mobile device
is something they need to enable. Almost 65 per cent of the organizations that
have mobile as a focal point for 2014 state that they want to facilitate mobile visitors to apply on their mobile devices.
40%
50%
40%
30%
Desktop visits
Mobile visits
20%
10%
What is the current state of mobile recruitment?
22
.0
0
20
.0
0
18
.0
0
16
.0
0
00
14
.
00
12
.
00
10
.
00
06
.
00
04
.
00
02
.
00
.
00
0%
9

11. What is the employer up to?
Mobile will become more important in 2014
Figure 7 I Five most named mobile focal points for 2014 (source: online survey)
According to our research, mobile will be a focal point in 2014 for more than one
third of the organizations, while this was only true for a quarter in 2013. Furthermore, the percentage of organizations that say that mobile is not a focal point is
getting smaller (Figure 6). This means that − although a mobile recruitment
strategy is currently not on the to-do list of a lot of organizations − mobile is
becoming more important in recruitment. When asked to define the mobile focal
points for 2014, most respondents name applying on a mobile device, followed
by the development of a responsive website (Figure 7).
43%
36%
33%
2013
2014
44%
Knowing your target group is the key to mobile success
35%
23%
21%
25%
Yes
48%
In mobile ‘findability’ on
e.g. Google and Indeed
In the possibility to easily
share content on social media
through mobile devices
66%
64%
In the development
of a responsive website
In the development of a
mobile career website
Figure 6 I Will mobile be a focal point in 2014? (source: online survey)
0%
In the possibbility to apply
through a mobile device
50%
No
75%
11%
I don’t know
As shown in the previous chapter, mobile job seekers have the intention to apply
for a job on their mobile devices. Furthermore, the rise of new mobile moments –
namely early mornings and after four o’clock in the afternoon – means that
organizations at least need to be visible to this group. On the other hand, the
needs of each target group may vary.
A marketer will search for a job differently than a software developer. For
example, one target group does want to have the opportunity to apply on a
mobile device while another target group just wants to use their mobile devices
to send the vacancy details to their personal email address. This means that an
organization needs to know its target group by heart before deciding what it
What is the current state of mobile recruitment?
10

12. wants regarding mobile recruitment. Developing a magnificent recruitment application while your target group is not interested in such an application might
prove disappointing. Knowing what a target groups wants can be accomplished
quite easily. The first step is to do an analysis of the web traffic. While this must
be one of the first steps for organizations that want to go mobile, it is also useful
for organizations that have already gone mobile. It is quite easy to find out how a
website is performing on mobile devices and what the target group(s) is/are doing
on the site. Moreover, it can be determined whether your target group is active on
mobile devices at all. The second step is to get more in-depth information about
the preferences of the target group. This can be accomplished by conducting
some focus group discussions or interviews.
Some thoughts about target groups
We did have a look at the target groups of the organizations that participated
in the research. Although we cannot make conclusive statements about general
target groups − since each organization has one or more different target groups −
we are able to share some of our thoughts.
•
•
•
•
Mobile visitors bounce more often than desktop visitors
Mobile visitors view fewer web pages than desktop visitors
Mobile visitors spend less time on a website than desktop visitors
Mobile visitors are generally younger
(source: web data participating organizations)
Each of the points above provide input for designing a website suited for mobile
visitors. This means that a mobile visitor leaves the website immediately or after
viewing one page. Thus, the landing page needs to be suitable for mobile devices.
When this is not the case, the mobile visitor will leave the website. Moreover, it is
very well possible that a mobile visitor lands on a page because of, for instance,
What is the current state of mobile recruitment?
a social link. Nevertheless, these visitors need to be provided with an attractive
landing page maybe even more, in order to keep them engaged. Secondly, mobile
visitors view fewer web pages in less time. This implies that the mobile visitor is
more of a fast viewer or leaves the website quicker. He comes to a website to
quickly get the information he needs. This means that for a career website to be
suitable for mobile visitors it needs to contain the right amount and sort of information. These are general points, but to know what the right amount and sort
of information for your target group is, it is absolutely necessary to identify your
specific target group. For example, we found that mobile visitors are generally
younger. This could be the case for your own target group as well, thus then the
information on your website should be attractive to them. Also, the majority of
your target group may be using mostly phones. Then you have to make sure that
your website is suitable for this operating system. Hence, a career website should
be tailored to the specifics of a target group. When mobile preferences of a target
group are known, the website can also be tailored to this group.
Few organizations know the behavior of their mobile visitors
When we take a look at how much organizations actually know about their online
visitors, we can conclude that only a small number of organizations are able to tell
who their visitors are and what they do.
•
•
•
65 per cent of the organizations know how many visitors their career
websites/career pages attract.
A bit more than half the organizations who do know how many visitors their
career websites/career pages attract, know what the desktop versus mobile
visitors ratio is.
Of this half, only one third has insight into what mobile visitors do on their
career websites/career pages.
(source: online survey)
11

13. The attitude towards mobile recruitment is positive
Although a mobile recruitment strategy is not high on everyone’s agenda and
knowing the profile of the mobile visitor is not a priority, we do see that the
attitude towards mobile recruitment is generally positive. Firstly, we can conclude
that mobile recruitment will be a focal point in 2014 more often. Secondly, we
see that people respond in a positive manner towards statements about mobile
recruitment (Figure 8).
In line with our conclusion that mobile recruitment is becoming more important,
the majority of HR and recruitment professionals agree with statements that imply
a positive attitude towards mobile recruitment. However, there are skeptics: 51 per
cent believes that mobile recruitment has yet to prove itself. We ourselves are not
skeptical, mobile is on the rise in recruitment. The number of mobile job seekers
is increasing at high speed, it cannot be ignored that mobile visitors are ready
for their job searches. It is for organizations to decide whether they are going to
facilitate their candidates now or wait until their candidates have already gone up
the mobile road. The last option is, in our opinion, the option where organizations
will miss out on great talent.
Figure 8 I Attitudes towards various statements about mobile recruitment
(source: online survey)
Mobile should be an integral
part of recruitment
76%
It is important to have a
mobile recruitment strategy
69%
I expect my organization to have
a mobile recruitment strategy
within three years
64%
Within two years more people
apply for a job with a mobile
device than with PC or laptop
58%
Mobile recruitment still has
to prove itself
Mobile devices are barely
used in the search for a job
51%
14%
Agree
What is the current state of mobile recruitment?
12

14. Promoters of this study
Maxlead is a Dutch search engine marketing agency. When your organization cooperates with Maxlead you benefit from the
specific knowledge of fifty online marketing professionals with years of experience, both nationally and internationally.
Maxlead uses in house developed campaign and lead management software to design your online marketing process most
efficiently. Apart from search engine advertising, Maxlead is also specialized in organic ranking and usability of your website.
Intelligence Group is a Dutch research agency specialized in (global) recruitment intelligence. Intelligence Group analyzes and
solves recruitment issues through innovative research methods. This can range from research reports and consultancy to all-encompassing solutions for recruitment, recruitment marketing and employer branding problems on both a national and an international level. Intelligence Group is a trendsetting partner of many employers and recruitment-related companies in the Netherlands
and many other countries.
123Mobile is an event on mobile recruitment for HR and recruitment professionals. Various mobile experts will share their experiences, which are both theoretically and practically very useful. The theme of this year’s edition – held on December 13 – is ‘Mobile
First’.
What is the current state of mobile recruitment?
13