Free access to thousands of high quality people who make $40K or more, really? Yes, there’s an app for that!
TheLadders is one of the few high quality job boards who don’t charge employers fees for access and their model seems to be working well considering they’ve been around for over a decade and continue to grow profitably. After being in the job board business myself since the early 1990’s, I am not impressed by many job boards but I was impressed by what I learned and saw last week during their #JobMobile event in Philly.
The night started off with everyone getting high – 37 stories high in 2 Liberty Place!
TheLadders is on the last leg of their #JobMobile tour meeting up with clients and recruiters around the country. This stop in Philly was hosted in the impressive R2L with not only a great sunset view but also outstanding Hors d’oeuvres. Next stop on their tour is in Washington DC on March 12th – if you are a recruiter in the DC area you need to be there!that is!
The key things I found refreshing and impressive about their event:
- They brought in HR leaders who, in a panel format, shared their stories about mobile recruiting and how they are addressing other recruiting challenges
- Before and after the panel discussions their super friendly staff offered us individual hands on demos with their beta mobile app for recruiters
- They had made networking a priority, even over extending the panel discussion – wow!
The panel was moderated by their very own poised and polished Amanda Augustine @JobSearchAmanda who did a fabulous job. Each panelist had something interesting to share, if you missed the tweets here’s a recap:
Scott, Jen and Ed on JobMobile Panel with Amanda moderating – thanks for the photo @jmdixon15
- Jen Warne, SVP & Head of Talent for Lincoln Financial Group @lincolnfingroup
- “Lincoln Financial Group’s traffic increased 130% after optimizing their site”
- “Recruiting needs to be part of everyone’s job.”
- Scott Bass, Director of Marketing, Communications & Sales Operations for CDI Global Staffing Services @MRINetwork
- “If you don’t have a mobile optimized site, start with social media. it’s a great communication vehicle”
- “Sending out video clips along w/ the text of a job: The play button is very addicting and helps convey credibility”
- Ed Mamrak, Managing Partner for PrincetonOne
- “Glassdoor is easily found by candidates when googling the company”
- “Offering valuable content to job candidates is key to engagement”
Amanda is so talented that while she was moderating the panel she was somehow tweeting out some great industry stats (she must have had a helper?):
- 40% of customers have turned to a competitor’s site after a bad mobile experience. Don’t let that be you
- As of 2013, 1 BILLION job searches were done per month on a mobile device
- “It’s not about “going mobile,” it’s about being where the best talent is”
To get their job seeker app, already downloaded over 500,000 times, visit your mobile app store. More info about their apps is on their website here.
A quick review of their mobile app for recruiters (due out for iPhone in a few weeks, Android ASAP):
- Ease of use: having never used it before I was impressed how easily I could move around it with very little guidance. Well, I needed some mainly because I’m not an iPhone guy (my Galaxy S4 Rocks!).
- Productivity: they added some awesome swipe capabilities – after pulling up a candidate I could swipe their profile to the left to mark as “interested” and swipe to the right to flag as “not interested” (or maybe the other way around – did I mention they had an open bar?).
- Innovation: in some ways their mobile app is easier to use than their web site! They designed it to quickly filter down to the skills and location and other key data points to bring up a short list to flip through. The touch screen approach can really help you move more quickly than a desktop mouse or touch pad.
Summary – if you’re not already using TheLadders to recruit you should be, not only is it free to qualified employers but their (forthcoming) mobile app makes it just plain fun!
Bonus: Amanda interviews Jen Warne about HR Tech!