PageUp Finds Southeast Asia’s Biggest Companies Slow to Embrace Mobile Recruitment

SINGAPORE, HONG KONG, and KUALA LUMPUR (26 May 2015) – New research released today by multinational Talent Management Software provider, PageUp, found Southeast Asian employers could be missing opportunities to hire the best talent by failing to let job candidates apply and search for open roles from their mobile devices. 

The findings appear in PageUp’s latest white paper, “Mobilise Now: Southeast Asia,” which examined the career sites of 50 of the largest companies across Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand. Findings indicate 90 percent of companies surveyed do not have a mobile-optimised career site, despite rapid mobile adoption in the region, signalling a gap between candidate expectations and employers’ mobile recruitment strategies. 

Smartphone penetration is driving the need for mobile-optimised recruiting strategies. Mobile device use in Southeast Asia has skyrocketed, with as much as 87 percent of the population of Singapore, and 80 percent in Malaysia, using smartphones. Mobile device ownership in the region is higher than the global average, as many individuals have skipped over the desktop computer and moved straight to mobile device ownership. As mobile devices continue to serve as the sole source of internet access for a large portion of the population, job candidates throughout Southeast Asia increasingly rely on those devices in their job search activities.

 Despite the growing use of mobile technology, PageUp’s findings highlight that many companies have been slow to address this shift in their talent acquisition strategies, missing a significant opportunity to meet candidate expectations for a streamlined, mobile-optimised application process. 

Key findings from the research reveal:

●     The vast majority, 90 percent, of companies do not have a mobile-optimised career site. Given 25 percent of job seekers will not apply for a job if a company’s career site is not mobile-optimised, companies are turning away a large number of potential candidates.

●     For 40 percent of companies surveyed, applying for jobs on the go is not an option for candidates – career sites had no mobile-enabled online application process.

●     Only 10 percent of Southeast Asian companies allow candidates to share a job via social media, despite the region having the highest social media penetration globally. Even fewer (6 percent) provide job seekers with the ability to receive job alerts, representing another missed opportunity in engaging talent through their mobile devices.

●     98 percent do not provide the ability to pre-populate application forms using social media profiles or resumes, creating additional burden that can result in candidates dropping out of the application process.

“Our research shows a significant gap in the adoption of mobile technology between job candidates and Southeast Asia’s biggest companies. Job seekers expect a significantly better mobile job search and application experience than employers are currently providing,” said Karen Cariss, CEO and co-founder, PageUp.

“These findings should spur employers in the region to act now and develop robust mobile recruiting strategies to address this new reality. Hiring talent will only become more competitive across Southeast Asia in the future and a mobile-optimised approach to talent acquisition is key to hiring success,” Cariss added.

The PageUp Research White Paper “Mobilise Now: Southeast Asia” is available for complimentary download from the research section of the PageUp website: www.pageuppeople.com/research.

About PageUp

PageUp helps multinational employers strategically align their talent resources to execute corporate strategy across borders, business units, cultures and languages — maximising employee value and business results. The PageUp SaaS-delivered solution unifies Recruiting, Performance Management, Learning, Compensation, Career Planning, Succession Management and Advanced Workforce Analytics to help global employers overcome the talent management challenges that are inherent to operating across multiple geographies.

PageUp solutions support large multinational organisations, including several Global 500 employers and more than 100,000 HR practitioners operating across more than 180 countries from a broad range of industries, including financial services, retail, mining and refining, transportation and telecommunications. PageUp is headquartered in Melbourne, Australia with additional office locations in Sydney, London, New York, Hong Kong and Singapore. Learn more about how PageUp can help transform your organisation’s multinational HR initiatives by visiting www.pageuppeople.com.