5 Ways Mobile Helps Suppliers Increase Their Effectiveness

Across industries, workers are using mobile devices to improve effectiveness. According to one recent study, employees see a 34 percent increase in efficiency by using smartphones at work, including significant upticks in work quality, collaboration, speed of innovation and productivity.

At staffing agencies, perhaps even more than most businesses, speed of execution and decision-making is critical to success. For example, account managers and recruiters are constantly racing the competition to fill job requisitions. Of course, given that new requests from top clients don’t always wait until they’re conveniently seated at their desks, having mobile access to this information can help ensure a timely response. But historically, suppliers haven’t had access to a mobile app that would enable them to tackle such tasks.

This is just one reason that Magnit built the Wand Mobile Supplier App, the industry’s first mobile app created specifically for account managers, recruiters, sourcers and billing specialists. 

5 Ways Mobile Helps Staffing Suppliers Increase Effectiveness

In this blog post, we’ll look at five ways that mobile helps suppliers increase their effectiveness.

1) Staying on top of tasks.

Email is an essential work communication tool, but the reality is that the average worker receives more than 120 emails a day, roughly 50 percent of which are spam. As a result, open rates hover around 20 percent. In contrast, open rates for SMS messages stand at roughly 98 percent.

In addition, it takes the average person 90 minutes to respond to an email, but only 90 seconds to respond to an SMS. Put another way, receiving mobile push notifications about important work tasks in addition to emails helps ensure that you see and respond to these items in a timely fashion.

For staffing agency team members, this means having access to a native mobile app, where they can choose to receive push notifications regarding specific work tasks such as interview coordination, job requests and expense review. These notifications can help ensure they act quickly and ultimately increase productivity, especially if new requests are displayed immediately upon opening the app.

2) Scheduling candidate interviews.

One recent study reported that the average employee spends more than one day a week in meetings. Another report stated that middle managers spend about 35 percent of an average day in meetings, while upper managers are in meetings more than 50 percent of the average day.

With calendars already so booked, it’s easy to see how coordinating a candidate interview can be challenging, with availability shifting by the minute – and at all times of the day. This is why mobile access can be so helpful in enabling recruiters and sourcers to schedule interviews with just a few easy swipes and taps, helping ensure they’re getting candidates in front of clients as quickly as possible.

3) Tracking job requests.

As outlined in the intro to this post, new and urgent job requests can hit suppliers’ desks at all hours. The ability to access these requests via mobile device anytime and anywhere helps ensure account managers are always in position to respond, increasing the odds of filling these positions. With a few simple swipes and taps, a leading-edge app like the Wand Mobile Supplier App enables users to see key request details such as maximum rate and desired qualifications, and even forward the request to a recruiter.

For those occasional instances in which a supplier needs to opt out of request, mobile can provide an easy, fast mechanism for doing so that helps ensure that a supplier’s scorecard isn’t adversely affected.

4) Reviewing expense reports.

Depending on an organization’s contingent workforce management workflows, billing specialists at a staffing agency may need to review worker expenses. Overflowing inboxes and high-priority tasks can make it difficult to find the time to attend to these items.

But what if you could take advantages of a few minutes here or there – in a conference room before a meeting, walking out to the car after work, waiting on a latte at the coffee shop – to access these items via mobile app and respond with a few easy swipes and taps? Mobile access can provide another mechanism for viewing submitted expenses, perusing related receipts and confirming the expenses, thereby increasing efficiency.

5) Managing candidates.

According to a recent study, 80 percent of workers are “deskless” at some point in the work day. Given that communicating with and otherwise managing candidates is an important part of a typical day for recruiters, sourcers and account managers, ensuring that they have an easy way to manage candidates when away for their desks can significantly increase efficiency.

For example, with a few simple swipes and taps, a robust mobile app makes it easy for account managers to view candidates that have been submitted for a position and where they are in the process. Since candidate availability can change quickly, mobile access also enables users to update this availability on the go.

With Wand Mobile, for example, account managers and recruiters can easily reschedule or cancel an interview. If they need to withdraw a candidate from consideration, they can also do so on the go, helping avoid undesirable delays in this process.

Mobile Devices and Work Tasks: An Ongoing Trend

Nearly 60 percent of adults use their smartphone “very/fairly often” for business purposes according to another recent study, and more than the a third report doing so outside normal working hours. Given that people are viewing their smartphones more than ever – 52 times a day on average – that trend shows no signs of slowing.

For on-the-go, pressed-for-time account managers and recruiters trying to fill job requests and juggle related tasks, access to a powerful mobile app that helps them manage key action items via smartphone and respond quicker can help them significantly accelerate their success.

If you’re interested in learning more about how Magnit is helping organizations implement winning contingent workforce programs globally, please contact a Magnit representative at info@magnitglobal.com.

Disclaimer: The content in this blog post is for informational purposes only and cannot be construed as specific legal advice or as a substitute for legal advice. The blog post reflects the opinion of Magnit and is not to be construed as legal solutions and positions. Contact an attorney for specific advice and guidance for specific issues or questions.