Career websites are important, in fact, research shows that 88% of candidates prefer to apply to jobs at an organization’s own career site.
When was the last time you looked at your career website from your candidates eyes? Your career website tells a lot about your organization and your employer brand. To truly differentiate your company from the competition your website needs to be engaging to capture passive and active candidates. Furthermore, it should be clear and concise with at most three calls to action.
Please find below our top 10 list on how you can make your career website awesome to attract top talent!
- Your Mission, Values and Employee Value Proposition need to be communicated in a simple and authentic manner
Your mission, values and employee value proposition are the basic foundations of your organization. Can candidates easily find and understand what your company does, stands for and how the employees feel about working there? Be creative when telling your story – the less words you use the more likely you are to capture the attention of prospective employees.
- Provide opportunities for candidates to comment on open positions
A great way to engage candidates is to allow them to comment on your open positions. By adding a comments section on your open positions this will increase the SEO making your jobs more visible when candidates conduct their job searches (75% of users never scroll past the first page of search results.)
- Develop relationships by engaging and helping candidates
Passive candidates may visit your website, and be intrigued, but may not be ready to apply for a job. How do you get those candidates to come back to your website and make a decision to apply for a job? Allow candidates the opportunity to ask questions without applying for a job and share with them valuable information to help them with their career. Lastly, update your website frequently so candidates have a reason to come back to your site!
- Job Alerts
As described above, passive candidates may not be ready to formally apply for a job, so provide the opportunity for them to sign up for job alerts for roles that interest them (add a referral feature too so that they can refer their friends!).
- Make it is easy to apply for a job
How easy is it for candidates to apply for a job? If it takes more than one click to apply for a job then prospective candidates may get frustrated and give up.
- Win those awards and brag about them
Employer awards are not easy to win but well worth the effort. Who wouldn’t want to work at an award winning organization? Take the time to fill out those studies because winning those awards could differentiate you from the competition and will help you attract, retain and engage top talent.
- Showcase CSR initiatives
Numerous studies have shown that employees are more productive when they see their companies acting in a socially responsible manner. Furthermore, consumers are more likely to buy from organizations that are good to their employees and the communities they live in.
- Use videos and images
When done right, videos are a great way to showcase your employee value proposition and employer brand.
- Ensure your website is mobile friendly
Research has found that although one third of job seekers want mobile versions of job boards, only 33% of Fortune 500 companies have mobile optimized career websites. With the primary use of mobile devices being for email consumption, we will see a significant growth of job seekers users mobile as part of their job search. What is the candidate experience through mobile like for your organization?
- Make your job descriptions more visual less wordy!
Lastly, despite the progress we have made in attracting candidates to our organizations, job descriptions have, for the most part, remained the same. Ensure your job descriptions are authentic and compelling – be creative in how you describe open positions. Check out Pinterest to get some creative ideas on how some organizations are visually communicating their open positions.
Sources: SourceCon, Wallstreet Joural
About Blu Ivy Group
Blu Ivy Group is a leading employer branding and employee engagement consultancy that aligns your organization with contemporary workplace paradigms. Blu Ivy Group’s mission is to help client’s build award-winning people practices, inspire extraordinary employee engagement, and cultivate unique and desirable workplaces.
Blu Ivy Group provides integrated solutions in employer brand and engagement research, strategic consulting, employer brand integration, creative and talent communications.
Blu Ivy Group is a trusted partner to many of North America’s most respected employer brands. For more information, go to www.bluivygroup.com