Voice search has become a nearly ubiquitous part of our existence, moving from the margins to the mainstream so quickly it’s hard to believe that just two years ago, only 41% of American adults over the age of 18 reported to having used what had already become a widely available (if not widely adopted) functionality.What a difference a couple of years make; Apple’s recent announcement that it was opening up its popular Siri platform to third party developers was only the most recent signal in this seismic technological shift from typing to talking. With its OK Google platform, the world’s biggest consumer tech property has only driven further adoption and innovation in developing voice command as a core component of UI/UX.
And let’s not forget Amazon’s hit Alexa-powered Echo platform, which should be popping up under most of our Christmas trees this holiday season, if early sales are any indication. Even venerable Microsoft has gotten into the act with its Cortana platform, making it a native feature of every Windows 10 instance, mobile or otherwise.
It would be easy to dismiss voice controls as just another passing tech fad, akin to Palm Pilots, Google Glass or AOL Chat Rooms. All evidence, however, points to the contrary. Not only is voice search here to stay, but with Siri opening up its platform (and competitors inevitably quickly falling suit), this technology will quickly become even more embedded in even more aspects of our everyday lives.
That includes the job search, too.
Siri and the Future of Job Searching: Why Voice Search Matters for Recruiting and Hiring.
Voice search is more than a new means of extending the existing web; it adds new functionality that changes the search. More to the point, this functionality will change how people find jobs.
We don’t search “How much does an IT support manager make at IBM?”; instead, we generally search for something more like “IT support salaries IBM.” But on our phones, we are much more likely to ask the first question because it is more conversational.
Siri and the like use more natural language support to take something that sounds more conversational and turn it into something more query-like.
Voice Search & Sourcing: Two Sides of the Same Coin
This means that searches will be very different on a phone voice search. Siri will be interpreting what you meant, rather than what you said.
In voice search, do you want ten thousand results? Or just one? This changes things.
Speaking of conversational, voice searches take into consideration what you just asked previously. If you go to Google and type “Where is Paris, Texas?” and then ask “What’s the best restaurant in Paris?“, it will ignore the first question and deliver restaurant recommendations for Paris, France. Text searches are almost always 100% independent of previous searches. Voice searches will not be.
This means that the process of finding and narrowing down results will start to become more natural as someone requests IT jobs in their area, then starts to filter those jobs based on qualifications or years of experience or management criteria.
The last major change coming with voice search is what people’s intentions usually are. For example, when you search Google and you get 10,000 results, you feel like there’s something helpful for you in there somewhere.
You just have to make adjustments to your query to fine-tune the request until you get something useful. And you’re comfortable clicking three or four links in order to find what you want.
Do You Hear Me Now? 3 Voice Driven Job Search Tips Every Recruiting and HR Pro Should Know.
In voice search, do you want ten thousand results? Or a hundred? What you really want in a voice search is a single result that answers the question and completes the request. Combining that with natural language queries means that people will be relying on longer and longer queries, usually referred to as “long-tail queries” because they don’t get a million searches a week, they get ten. But they get ten a week for years.
So if your prospects are going to be using voice commands to job hunt (and they will), what does that mean for recruiters?
1: Stop Relying on “Words” and Focus on “Natural Phrases”
Your job descriptions are optimized for specific keywords. Usually they are your job title or career area with some geographic information thrown in. What happens when someone searches “What are great entry-level jobs nearby?”
They won’t find your job titles.
2: Tell More Stories.
Telling stories forces you out of the SEO-keyword-stuffing model. No one tells the story of Romeo and Juliet in a bulleted list. The form of a story dictates that you write in a more natural way, something that will better connect to the manner in which people talk to Siri.
On top of that, stories tend to use longer phrases and sentences than standard job descriptions do. This aligns more with how people ask questions and limits search results, increasing the likelihood that a searcher will get a handful of results rather than tens of thousands.
3: Answer More Questions.
People ask Siri questions that start with queries such as Who and What and Where. Building content in a question and answer structure not only helps you connect to voice searchers, it actually supports conversion rates, as people who are on the fence after reading your job descriptions will feel more comfortable applying because their questions are being answered.
These changes and additions to your jobs and career site will drive more voice search job hunters to you. Luckily, they align with a lot of the things you’ve been thinking about lately (employer brand, using content to differentiate, answering questions, etc.).
The rise of Siri should give you more motivation to change the way you are marketing your jobs online, because if you’re not already embracing voice driven search as an integral component of your overall search strategy, then chances are, you’re already falling behind your competition. The good news is, it’s not too late to turn talk into action and transform the literal voice of the job seeker into real recruiting results.
Hope you’re listening…
Read more on the Meshworking blog from TMP Worldwide.
About the Author: As the VP of Inbound Marketing at TMP Worldwide,James Ellis has been a digital strategy thinker of the MacGyver/Mad Scientist school: hacking disparate digital ideas together to serve a strategic business objective.
Whether it was bringing Bucky Badger to the social world or content marketing to the pharmaceutical space, James pushes boundaries regardless of the industry. He currently helps Fortune 500 companies attract and retain the best employees.
Connect with James on LinkedIn, follow him on Twitter@TheWarForTalent or check out his work at SaltLab.
By James Ellis
James Ellis is an authority on employer branding, focusing on companies who think they have no choice but to post and pray for talent. He is the principal of Employer Brand Labs, a bestselling author, keynote speaker, practitioner, and podcaster with a wealth of experience across multiple industries for almost a decade. You can find him on LinkedIn or subscribe to his free weekly newsletter The Change Agents.
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