In many ways, the basics of hiring have remained unchanged for years: Prospective employees submit resumes or portfolios to an employer. The employer reviews them, vets the candidates and calls in the best applicants for interviews. The standout earns the job. Pretty straightforward stuff. Except that hiring never has been that simple. In fact, most companies aren’t very good at it. Which means employers should seek out every advantage that may give them an edge over their competition to acquire top talent and particularly reach contractors. One area they should consider leaning into immediately: mobile.

It might seem at first that there isn’t much for an employer to lean into. Every professional job applicant, almost without exception, has a cellphone, right? And roughly the same percentage of modern websites have been optimized for mobile. If you have every applicant’s mobile contact info, what more is there to do?

Start with a talent cloud. A platform like PeopleCaddie empowers an employer with the full scope of mobile capabilities to stay connected with, reach contractors and come to an agreement quickly. 

When recruiting in highly skilled industries, it’s rare that an employer expects a contractor to begin work the next day. Still, every hiring manager should feel an urgency to plug into the contractor pipeline through on-the-go communications. Today, everything is geared toward the mobile experience. We all crave convenience, connectivity, quick response times – to the point that instant connection has become the expectation on both sides of the hiring equation.

If a client has a key deliverable they can’t miss, they need resources as quickly as possible. Seasonal cycles and increased demand for specialized talent can put pressure on hiring managers to act fast. And because modern job seekers are more open to sharing information and transacting business over the phone, it’s in a company’s best interest to make those options available to avoid missing out on desirable candidates.

A talent cloud offers that ability. Employers still rely on some version of the traditional vetting-and-interview proceedings, rarely deferring altogether to a staffing agency in that regard. But the talent acquisition steps preceding and following the employer’s interview have shortened. Although there remains a level of scrutiny on resources, contingent labor agreements are happening at a more rapid pace – including in the tax and audit spaces. The result: companies that can’t keep up get left behind. And that means relying on efficient ways to reach contracts can be a boon to a business’ bottom line. 

There’s no reason for panic, though. The mobile revolution that has touched almost every aspect of business is little more than the latest optimization of professional processes, the next phase of technology adaptation. With a talent cloud, the tools are there for any hiring manager to pick up and put to use – and they’re simply too valuable to ignore.

Check out how PeopleCaddie helps businesses reach contractors using a mobile device.