Despite predictions that 194 million new internet users will come online in Southeast Asia by 2020, 90% of the region’s biggest companies have failed to mobile-optimise their sites, a new whitepaper,
Mobilise Now Southeast Asia, by PageUp has found. This highlights a serious barrier to firms when it comes to securing new talent.
While most firms will optimise their career sites for desktops and laptops, they overlook the fact that almost 70% of the population in Singapore and Malaysia owns a smartphone. Percentages are also increasing in other countries throughout the region. “Mobile device ownership is higher than the global average and due to fixed-line infrastructure limitations, many have bypassed the desktop and gone straight to the mobile device,” PageUp writes.
PageUp looked at the top 50 organisations in the region and discovered the following key statistics:
- 90% don’t have a mobile-optimised career site
- 10% use social referrals to reach untapped talent
- 6% allow potential applicants to receive job alerts
- 16% have sites incompatible with iPads and iPhones
- 98% don’t allow pre-populated forms on their sites
- 30% require extensive data entry in the application
Even within tight talent markets in countries like Singapore, the top firms have failed to connect with this pool of talent. This is despite the fact that 25% of job seekers will not even start the application process if the ad is not mobile-optimised. “[We] can only marvel at this gulf between candidate expectations and the reality of mobile talent acquisition practices,” Sylvia Vorhauser-Smith, senior VP of global research for PageUp, said.
For firms who have yet to optimise their site for the mobile market, Vorhauser-Smith listed a few key qualities that were guaranteed to create a better user experience:
- Build a mobile site that allows job search, filtering and saving
- Include job alerts, friend referrals and social media sharing
- Streamline the process so it includes as few steps as possible
- Make application instructions clear and easy to follow
- Ensure someone can apply for a job in less than one minute
- Allow pre-filled applications through social media or resumes
- Let applicants upload their CVs and cover letters from the cloud
- Ensure compatibility on both Android and iOS devices
- Deliver an alert that the application was successfully submitted
“It is no longer enough just to have a career site; the site needs to be mobile-enabled and engaging. Complacency increases the risk of losing quality candidates to competitors,” PageUp writes in their whitepaper. “If the recruitment process is not relevant or streamlined, companies will fail to create an experience that engages job seekers. A poor recruiting experience can not only frustrate candidates, but also alienate them and their peers.”
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