Bullhorn mobilepoweredselling

MOBILE-POWERED
Selling:

How Leading Recruiting Firms Win More
Business Using Mobile Technology

Table of Contents
3

Executive Summary

4

Introduction

5

The Mobile Megatrend

7

Recruitment Industry Rings in Mobile

10 Account Managers, Connected Any Time, Anywhere
11 Mobile Access, Fuels Staffing Sales Success
12 Mobile Hang-Ups Holding Firms Back
13 Unlocking Mobile Success
16 The Mobile-Powered Client Meeting
18 Conclusion
19 About Bullhorn

1.888.GOLIVE8 • SALES@BULLHORN.COM • @BULLHORN

2

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
• Mobile technology is changing the way recruiting firms operate and the way recruiting
professionals work. While it’s obvious that staffing and recruiting firms must evolve their
online presence to support candidates applying through mobile devices, it is far less clear
how mobile will impact their full-time employees, the recruiting and account management
professionals who work with clients and candidates.
• Mobile access to the ATS gives users the flexibility to perform recruiting tasks from
anywhere at any time, which is a huge advantage for recruiting firms. Bullhorn’s 2013
Staffing and Recruiting Trends Survey reported that 84% of staffing professionals consider
mobile access to their ATS/CRM to be important to their success.
• Bullhorn’s survey research suggests firms see the primary opportunity to leverage
mobile being within their sales function. One-hundred percent (100%) of the staffing
salespeople polled who spent more than half their time outside in meetings considered mobile
access important, with 86% considering it “extremely important.”
• Empowering sales and account managers with fully mobile-ready ATS and CRM
capabilities produces clear business benefits. Account managers and sales personnel
can spend more time face-to-face with clients and prospects, as well as showcase the firm’s
capabilities by having more timely and accurate data available during meetings.


3

INTRODUCTION

Mobile usage is
soaring worldwide.
Smartphone and tablet usage is on a trajectory to surpass the usage of desktop computers.
Like leaders in other industries, recruitment executives see potential in taking their businesses
mobile. While the need to support candidates — whether searching and applying for jobs or
logging time — via mobile is clear, how recruiting professionals can harness the mobile revolution
to improve performance of internal staff is not. Bullhorn analyzed the actual usage data of the
thousands of recruiting professionals using its fourth generation mobile product to gain insight
into how firms are successfully leveraging mobile technology.


4

THE MOBILE

Megatrend

Mobile is exploding. By the end of 2013, the number of mobile-connected devices is expected
to exceed the world’s population.1 What’s more, mobile devices aren’t just telephones anymore;
today’s smartphones are powerful computers in their own right, enabling constant Internet
connectivity. Global mobile data traffic grew by 70% in 2012, amounting to nearly 12 times the
size of the entire global Internet in 2000.2 Mobile Internet usage will surpass desktop Internet
use in the next few years.

Mobile vs. Desktop Internet Usage
INTERNET USERS

2,000
1,600
MOBILE
USERS

1,200
800

DESKTOP
USERS

400
2007

1,2

2009

2011

2013

2015

Cisco Visual Networking Index:
Global Mobile Data Traffic
Forecast Update, 2012-2017

5

The rapid adoption of
Internet-connected
smartphones and tablets
represents a fundamental
shift in the way people
access the Web.

traditional banking landscape; consumers can

This mobile megatrend opens up a whole

The mobile megatrend is impacting not only

new dimension for businesses, just like the

the U.S. but the entire world. In 2012, mobile

Internet did in the ‘90s, shifting the way

data traffic grew by 44% in Western Europe

many industries operate. Uber, Hailo, and

and 95% in the Asia Pacific region.3 Overall

other startups, for example, are transforming

global mobile data traffic is expected to grow

the taxi and car hire industry by enabling

at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of

riders to connect directly with drivers via

66% by 2017.4

check their balances, view transaction history,
and transfer money right from their mobile
devices. Also, companies like Starbucks
have rolled out mobile payment software
through prepaid cards, enabling consumers
to pay their bills at the register using their
smartphones.

mobile without the cost and hassle of using
dispatchers. Mobile banking has changed the

3,4

Cisco Visual Networking Index:
Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast
Update, 2012-2017

6

RECRUITMENT
INDUSTRY

Rings in Mobile
How is the mobile

on the recruitment industry

migrate more quickly due

megatrend

is in the way recruiting

to the inherent sensitivity

and staffing firms interact

of new employment-

with millions of candidates

related communication for

multibillion dollar

every day. Much of this

candidates already gainfully

global recruitment

communication has already

employed. It’s only natural

industry? Will mobile be

migrated to the Internet.

that candidates might

transformative or produce

Email now represents the

hesitate to use their work

smaller, more incremental

bulk of pre-placement

desktop when seeking new

changes? While it’s still early

communication, and

opportunities. Millennials,

in the game, it appears that

post-placement time and

mobile will primarily impact

expense management is

two aspects of the recruiting

increasingly handled via

industry: the candidate

online time cards. Much of

experience and sales/

this activity will naturally

account management.

shift to the mobile Internet

who are heavy mobile
users, will further
accelerate the shift
as they become 50%
of the employed
5
workforce.

impacting the

as part of this broad
The most obvious and

trend. In fact, recruiting

immediate impact of mobile

communication may

5

What Millennials Want,
Examiner.com, June, 2010

7

86% OF JOB SEEKERS
said they would use mobile technology if it
simplified the process of applying for a job.

There seems
to be a lack of
acknowledgement by
recruiting firms that
job seekers want to
interact with recruiters
and apply for jobs
from their mobile
phones. A 2013 Simply

applying via mobile.

While it’s obvious that

An iMomentous Fortune

recruiting firms must

500 Mobile Readiness

optimize their online

Report recently showed that

presence for mobile, it is far

only 33% of companies have

less clear how mobile will

a mobile-optimized careers

impact their employees and

section and just 3% have a

the way they do their jobs.

mobile apply function. The

These employees already

majority of recruiting and

rely heavily on software

Hired report found that

staffing firms seem similarly

that helps them automate

86% of job seekers said

unprepared. While mobile

the large number of tasks

they would use mobile

apps are convenient for

they perform each day. The

technology if it simplified

pre-placement activities,

average recruiter executes

the process of applying for

they can also be useful for

more than 300 clicks per

a job.6 Despite the fact that

post-placement functions

day in his or her applicant

mobile technology provides

such as time and expense

tracking system/customer

a fast and convenient way

management, which allow

relationship management

to connect with candidates,

employees to submit their

system (ATS/CRM)

many firms are unprepared

hours from the jobsite directly

according to Bullhorn’s

to support job seekers

from their mobile phones.

usage data, which is about

7

six times the number that

6,7

Recruiters – Why You Need a Mobile
Friendly Recruitment Website,
Web-based Recruitment, May 2013

8

the average non-recruiter executes. The ATS is

53% of respondents saying it was “extremely

used by recruiters to manage job orders and

important.”10

the large volume of resumes and applicants
they receive for each position, which produces

While mobile is considered to be important,

an average of 188 applicants per opening.

salespeople appear to be the only employees

8

fully leveraging mobile and the freedom

Ninety-three percent (93%) of

this technology has given them. Recruiters,

recruiting firms reported using

who are not on the road as often as account
managers, should still harness the power

an applicant tracking system

of mobile to improve efficiency and stay

(ATS) in 2012.

connected with candidates after business hours.

Mobile access to the ATS gives users the

But how exactly are recruiting and staffing

flexibility to perform recruiting tasks from

professionals’ jobs changing as recruiting

anywhere at any time, which is a huge

tools become accessible via smartphones and

advantage for recruiting firms.

tablets? What new ways of working might

9

emerge that better serve clients and improve
Indeed, according to Bullhorn’s 2013 recruiting

effectiveness and efficiency?

trends survey, 84% of staffing professionals
said they consider mobile access to their ATS/
CRM to be important to their success, with

Mobile Access

84% IMPORTANT
EXTREMELY

53% IMPORTANT
News and Trends in Management,
The Wall Street Journal, February 2012
9
2012 Recruiting/Talent Acquisition
Survey: Technology, Staffing Industry
Analysts, July 2012
10
“Two Steps Forward, One Step Back:
North American Staffing and Recruiting
Trends Report,” Bullhorn, Inc., 2013
8


9

ACCOUNT MANAGERS
Connected Any Time, Anywhere
Bullhorn’s survey research suggests that

While mobile currently provides a

firms see the primary opportunity to

strong advantage for sales and account

leverage mobile being within their sales

management professionals, it may have

function. Indeed, “mobile recruiting” looks

a limited upside for recruiters who don’t

to be a misnomer; “mobile selling” might

spend as much time out in the field. With

be more apt. One-hundred percent of the

the exception of executive search recruiters,

staffing salespeople polled who spent more

most recruiters spend the majority of their

than half their time outside in meetings

time working from their desks and don’t

considered mobile access important, with

often travel out of the office to meet with

86% considering it “extremely important.”

candidates. Although mobile may not seem

The survey results overall suggest
that salespeople are 24% more likely
to consider mobile access to the
ATS/CRM “extremely important”
than recruiters. Perhaps this is because

compelling to recruiters now, it does provide

salespeople travel to meet clients whereas
recruiters work almost entirely from the
office. Salespeople have always been early
adopters of technology. For example, they

them with the ability to perform interviews
after hours (when candidates are more
available) and review activity notes at home
or on the road via tablets. The

flexibility
mobile provides will bring more
speed and collaboration to recruiting
teams that take advantage of this
powerful business tool.

were the first to embrace smartphones and
customer relationship management (CRM)
tools,11 and therefore may be harbingers of
how the general business public will be using
mobile in the future.

11

The Future of Sales Technology,
Inc.com, December 2012

10

MOBILE ACCESS

Fuels Staffing Sales Success
Empowering sales and account managers with fully mobile-ready ATS
and CRM capabilities produces clear business benefits. Most notably:
1. Better Client Service — Account managers and sales personnel can spend more time
face-to-face with clients and prospects, providing a more personalized experience. A mobile
application also enables account managers to have the latest up-to-date information before and
during each meeting so that they can get more things done.

2. More Timely and Accurate Data — Sales personnel can enter in jobs immediately
after meeting with a client, getting recruiters on the hunt before they even return to the office and
subsequently giving their firms a better chance to fill new job orders. A mobile app allows them to
enter in notes right after a meeting when thoughts are still fresh in their minds.

3. Better-Showcased Capabilities — The ability to look up candidate inventory
on the fly gives clients a more concrete sense of a recruiting firm’s abilities. According to
Bullhorn Mobile usage data, “viewing candidate information” is the most commonly used mobile
functionality. Finding and reviewing actual candidate information side-by-side with the client
leaves a strong impression.

4. Reporting Access — For executives, mobile access provides the ability to stay on top of
the business at all times. Mobile recruiting apps allow executives to view key reports that monitor
activities such as recruiter performance and provide insight into the sales pipeline.

“Mobile allows us access to
the most current information
available about our clients,
candidates, open job orders,
and placements. This allows our
staff to stay informed and enter
more relevant information in the
system in a quicker timeframe.”
— JON THEOPHILUS
Director of Information Technology
Brooksource


11

MOBILE HANG-UPS

Holding Firms Back
Despite the benefits of a mobile platform, many
recruiting firms have yet to adopt these tools
because they are being held back by a few challenges.

1 Functionality
Very few ATS/CRM vendors have provided mobile solutions that are capable of robustly
performing key recruiting functions. Many vendors offer mobile websites that are used for
information gathering; however, this doesn’t do much for salespeople. A credible mobile
experience should focus on only the key functions (e.g. entering notes or jobs) that a team
needs while on the road.

2 Usability
ATS/CRM vendors that do offer some mobile capabilities often just try to shrink their
existing Web software down to a mobile format instead of tailoring it to the specific
screen parameters and interaction properties of mobile devices. This doesn’t work, so it
doesn’t get adopted.

3 Workflow
Firms with highly specific workflow or terminology may need to configure aspects of
their mobile ATS/CRM interface in order to match well enough to generate successful
field adoption.

4 Old Habits
Experienced recruiters who have had success over the years using old techniques may be
hesitant to adopt new tools.


12

UNLOCKING
Mobile Success
Despite the challenges, some staffing and

picture of how recruitment professionals

recruiting firms already empower their sales

successfully leverage mobile recruiting

and account management teams with easy

technology to improve the way they work.

mobile access to the critical software tools
they need for better client support and
more successful sales calls. To understand
exactly how, Bullhorn analyzed anonymous

Mobile recruitment software usage is
surprisingly consistent across time of day
as shown in the graph below.

second-by-second usage data from

The busiest periods are morning and

thousands of Bullhorn Mobile users over an

afternoon business hours, with another peak

eight-month period. The results paint a vivid

in the evening.

The hard-charging nature — or perhaps also the insomnia-inducing stress
— of the recruiting industry fuels mobile usage deep into the night!

23%
20%

19%
14%

13%

11%

MORNING

LUNCH

AFTERNOON

EVENING
COMMUTE

EVENING

LATE NIGHT

6AM-11AM

11AM-1PM

1PM-5PM

5PM-7PM

7PM-11PM

11PM-6AM


13

Tasks Performed in Bullhorn Mobile
2% 1%

5%

Client Research

8%

Candidate Search and Review

43%
41%

Viewing Notes
Adding/Updating Notes, Jobs and Other Records
Reports
Client Site Driving Directions

Analyzing the specific

8% of all actions users

At first glance, the

actions users perform

take. Productively sifting

relatively small proportion

with Bullhorn Mobile

through a firm’s entire

of activity devoted to

yields further insight into

database using small

adding and updating

how staffing professionals

smartphone screens

records via mobile — once

are leveraging mobile

and keypads requires a

for every 17 times a user

recruiting technology.

careful UI design. Simply

views records — might

Aggregated into broad

repurposing desktop

suggest low importance.

categories in the graph

search and list viewing is a

But in fact, viewing

above, client research

recipe for user frustration

records is far more

and candidate review

and low adoption.

common than adding

represent by far the
largest amount of activity.

or updating records via
About half of client

desktop applications as

research (20% of total

well. And the immediate

Finding the right client,

usage) entails viewing

capture and sharing of

contact, or candidate

individual client contacts,

new job orders and other

relies heavily on

with the rest of usage

account information from

the mobile “search”

focused on reviewing

account managers in

function; about a tenth

client company records

the field provides their

of research activity is

(11%) and open jobs and

recruiting teams with

searching, comprising

placements (8%).

an enormously valuable


14

head start. Entering data

Only 2% of mobile activity

account managers means

immediately after meetings

spent viewing reports can

relatively smaller report

instead of hours later back

be attributed to managers

activity, though obviously

at the office helps users

staying on top of their

supervisors highly value

capture details that would

team’s key metrics, such

both the peace of mind

otherwise be forgotten

as placements, open jobs,

of knowing that group

and reduces errors

and activity levels, while

performance is on target as

introduced by less than

on the road. The smaller

well as finding out early that

perfect human memory.

number of supervisors

an issue needs correcting.

compared to recruiters and

Only

2% of mobile activity spent

viewing reports can be attributed to managers
staying on top of their team’s key metrics...


15

THE MOBILE-POWERED
Client Meeting

A powerful view into how mobile technology improves
account managers’ ability to prepare for, manage, and
follow up on sales calls emerges from detailed insight into
mobile recruiting activity and timing. This “playbook” can
serve as a starting point for almost any type of recruiting
firm seeking to better serve clients and win a larger share
of business.

First, mobile recruiting can help a salesperson find out
how to physically get to a client’s office. Integration
with smartphones’ GPS and mapping capabilities means
mobile recruiting software can automatically provide
precise directions to the client site. This process is less
time consuming than tracking down and printing driving
directions from a client website.

As usage data makes abundantly clear, one of the most
valuable benefits that mobile ATS/CRM access provides
is complete, up-to-date knowledge of account status. In
the minutes before the meeting starts, mobile-powered
sales reps can quickly look up the company as well as
individual client contacts to review recent notes, open jobs,
placements, and more. Reps can kick off meetings with
timely, accurate updates on current business and reduce
the chances of being blindsided by new client issues. As
successful staffing and recruiting firms know well, superior
client service sets the stage for business success.

Reduce the chances of being
blindsided by new client issues.


16

With luck, having a good track record with

gives recruiting teams a jump on rivals who

previous job orders can help salespeople

must wait hours for sales reps to get back

facilitate a discussion of a client’s additional

to the office or connect their laptop before

needs. Salespeople with mobile access to

they can start working on reqs. Furthermore,

their ATS/CRM system can demonstrate their

sales representatives can capture and share

firm’s capabilities during a client meeting

important meeting outcomes, issues raised,

by instantly sharing insight into the strength

and other pertinent information as notes

of their candidate database with clients on

before leaving the parking lot. Follow-up

the spot. This can further differentiate an

actions can commence immediately. The

agency from competitors whose salespeople

entire team benefits from an instantaneous,

respond to questions only with bluster or

accurate, and complete understanding of

promises to “get back to you soon.”

the client which enables them to deliver a
superior level of service. And in a business

After the meeting, effective mobile recruiting

where every minute counts, the extra speed

software gives firms further advantages.

delivered through mobile recruiting means

Submitting new job orders immediately

better bottom line results.


17

Conclusion
Mobile technology is changing the way recruiting firms operate and the way recruiting
professionals work. Mobile access to client and candidate data enables recruiting firms to work
faster and more efficiently. For any firms looking to incorporate mobile into their recruiting
strategy, start by rolling it out to employees who often work remotely like sales and account
management teams. However, before investing in a mobile solution, make sure it’s going to
deliver all of the functionality you need. For example, very few applications today offer the
ability to browse lists, search for candidates, add notes or job orders, view reports, and get
directions using a built-in GPS. These are all key capabilities that a team needs while on the
road. Managers may also want the ability to customize the workflow on their mobile apps
in order to mirror their team’s recruiting process. With the right features and functionality,
recruiting firms will quickly find success using mobile technology.

To learn more about Bullhorn Mobile, visit:
http://www.bullhorn.com/products/mobile-recruiting


18

About
Bullhorn
Bullhorn creates software and
services that help recruiters put the
world to work. For thirteen years our
innovations have powered the recruiting and
staffing operations of fast-growing start-ups up
through the world’s largest employment brands.
Headquartered in Boston, with offices in St.
Louis, Richmond, Vancouver, London and Sydney,
Bullhorn’s applicant tracking system, recruiting
CRM, and social recruiting products serve more
than 10,000 clients representing nearly 200,000
users across 150 countries.
Please visit our website at www.bullhorn.com to
learn more about Bullhorn’s full suite of recruiting
software tools.

Have an immediate question?
Speak with an expert: call 1-888-GoLive8.


19

Bullhorn mobilepoweredselling

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