How to recruit young, graduate talent with Mxit
Mobile recruitment is taking off worldwide with Google reporting that one in five searches (this includes job searches) are now done on a mobile device. In South Africa - where about 40 million people now own a handset, cellphones are a powerful marketing channel. With mobile access to the Internet growing, targeting talent on the go will become essential in recruitment strategies, and Mxit is the ideal platform to do this on.
Mxit is by far the biggest local social network in this mobile connected world, offering a low-cost instant messaging chat service with the added functionality of apps. Its 6.5 million active monthly users send 750 million messages per day. The core membership consists of South Africans between 16 and 24. On average, they spend 30 to 60 minutes per day on the network chatting with friends.
This makes this platform a great place to find younger, graduate-type professionals and candidates with non-specialist skills who are actively looking for jobs. The huge membership base’s strong peer following makes it possible to engage serious volumes of candidates on.
Mxit is still a heavily underutilised portal for graduate recruitment
Brands are starting their relationship with young talent much earlier so they can be the first employers that new graduates consider – some are already engaging with school leavers.
Another emerging trend is that companies are recruiting junior talent to shadow senior employees who have scarce skills so that the younger generation can replace the seasoned professionals in time.
3 Ways to connect with graduates on Mxit
1. Using chat room, connect with niche candidates in vertical discussions based on their interests, e.g. music, motoring or technology.
2. Get a Mxit company brand app to expose your brand and display jobs in a dedicated mobiportal that candidates can add to their contact lists:
- You can advertise jobs to all members through text alerts or with full-colour graphics.
- Companies can also create simple games for job applications that vet and score candidates.
3. It is possible to automate job placements from a career site to an Mxit brand app where candidates can then apply with credits called Mxit Moola. There are also apps, built on Wordpress, which make it easy to syndicate content from a career site to a company brand app.
You could be drowned in CVs!
To avoid this happening, make sure your recruitment message is highly targeted and your advert is very specific about the skills you need for a particular job. Ideally, also get an applicant tracking system in place to manage:
- Job applications,
- Pre-screening candidates, and
- Sifting out the right kind of applications.
To drive my point home: your company needs to get mobile, quickly, especially if you’re targeting graduate skills. With its enormous scale and loyal following, Mxit can give HR managers a very effective shortcut to a whole new marketplace.
