Recruiting software – and recruiting strategy in general – needs to make the leap into the mobile age sooner than later.

The reason for this is simple: recruiters need to go where the candidates are. Thirty years ago, candidates routinely looked at the classified jobs section of the newspaper every Sunday. Now, they check their mobile devices every hour. And the numbers are staggering: over 4 billion mobile connections worldwide and over 500 million texts sent across mobile devices every day in the U.S. alone. (Do you have other statistics? Send them via a comment and I’ll post them.)

If a recruiter doesn’t make it easy for candidates to find the jobs they are looking for on a mobile device, some other recruiter will. In other words, the time to start thinking about expanding mobile recruiting is today, not next week.

Here are the mobile “must-haves” for any recruiting software and overall recruiting strategy:

• Regular Updates – for the recruiter and the job seeker. You want to know about new candidates and candidates want to know about new job possibilities ASAP. In other words, updates needs to be automated and sent daily.
• Connections Galore. It should be easy for you to tap into the social media networks of trusted recruiters anywhere in the world and to share information with them. Remember: referrals are the #1 way to find good candidates.
• Social Networking. You need to be able to easily send and receive recruiting and candidate information via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social media sites.
• Seamless Research Process. Allow candidates to research potential jobs and companies without ever leaving their mobile devices.
• Seamless Application Process. Candidates should be able to move from an email, text or LinkedIn message to an actual application process without leaving their mobile devices.

What’s next on the mobile front in recruiting software? As with everything in digital communications, the apps and other vehicles that are most user-friendly will be the most successful. Have a good idea or know of an interesting new social media based recruiting software product? Pass it along as a comment (below) and join our ongoing conversation about recruiting and staffing in the modern digital world.