In the current digital landscape, people will read and find out about your organization from a multitude of channels and places. But, there’s one place that nearly all applicants will end up: the careers page (or website).
Studies show that 77% of job seekers visit company websites to look for jobs, and career sites are the top source of hires at 27.35% (source).
With so many social media platforms and recruiting platforms, many companies neglect their career page. If you haven’t looked at your career page recently, this article is for you!
1. Eye-grabbing design will set you apart.
Your career page serves as the first impression of your company for many candidates. Not to mention that you are always in the competition for your viewers time and attention.
Nothing turns people away like a cluttered, unappealing design. Unfortunately, companies make a mistake and fall into the trap of overcrowding their careers page with information. We recommend you keep your career page simple and clean to capture the attention of top candidates. Focus only on the information that matters and gives a clear and cohesive visual experience.
Let’s look at a few ways you can improve the visual design of your careers page:
Keep the copy short and impactful: Convey your employer brand and company values with memorable, concise messaging. Here is where visuals (and we emphasize strongly that you use video) come into play.
Visuals are key: The photos on your career page should differentiate your company from your competitors. Pro tip: Avoid stock photos of anonymous employees sitting in a conference room. Showcase an accurate and unique picture of your company and the office culture.
Leverage the power of video: Videos are 5.33 times more effective than text in terms of keeping visitors on a site (source) and they can contribute to a successful career page. A video provides the best way to show candidates what your work environment really looks like.
2. Optimize your page for search engines.
A well-designed career site will only produce results if candidates can find it. That’s why search engine optimization (SEO) needs to be at the forefront of your strategy. SEO is a multifaceted strategy that takes a significant amount of time and effort to master. But, here are some basic steps recruiters you can take to optimize your career page:
Perform keyword research: Optimize the content with keywords top candidates are actively searching for by researching periodically the top keywords in your industry and optimize your page to include these specific words and phrases. This means the content will have to change, evolve and be adapted constantly as your positions and the job market changes as well.
Optimize for mobile: Online navigation is now mobile-driven, yet many companies have yet to catch up to this trend. Only 13% of companies are adequately investing in mobile recruiting, despite the fact that 52% of candidates use their mobile phones to apply for jobs (source).
Pay attention to website analytics: Google Analytics and other free tools can help you measure the performance of your career page using a number of important metrics.
3. Make it personal by featuring employees.
Let’s call it as it is, most career pages look alike. Since your ideal candidate will likely check out many different companies, you want yours to unique and to resonate.
By showcasing your employees you can add some personality to your careers page. Highlight specific employees through photos, videos, and brief testimonials where they explain what they love most about working at your company.
Pro tip: be honest and also use this moment to see exactly what are the elements your current employees value most. Speaking of that…
4. Consult current employees.
When building out your career page, it’s important to think like a candidate rather than a recruiter. After all, your goal is to attract the best possible candidates, so an employee’s perspective should factor into the content of your page.
Think about it, your employees were once candidates, and something about your employer brand convinced them it was a place they wanted to work. Talk to your employees and uncover the factors that led them to apply for and ultimately accept a role at your company. Then, you can use their responses to inform the content you feature on your careers page.
5. Provide an easy application process.
The ultimate goal of your career page should be to have a smooth application process for potential candidates. Yet, too many companies lose out on applicants because their career page doesn’t provide a quick and easy path to apply for an open role.
For this reason, you must clearly feature your open positions and explain the steps needed to submit an application. The application process itself should be brief and straightforward.
For example: don’t ask candidates to re-enter the information on their resume. Provide fields to submit their application materials (resume, cover letter, work samples) and leave out any unnecessary steps that will waste their time out.
6. Update your careers page regularly.
Your company career page isn’t a one and done project. Candidates will visit your page multiple times. They shouldn’t find the exact same content and design they saw a year ago.
Revisit your career page regularly so that it never grows stale or outdated. You don’t need to completely redo your page, but you should update it with new content throughout the year.
And the most obvious and important aspect, make sure that the job listings on your page are always up-to-date. Don’t create a poor candidate experience by listing positions that are no longer available.
Key Takeaways to Improve Your Career Website
An effective career page must accomplish many tasks at once. It must represent your company culture, set candidate expectations, and encourage ideal candidates to apply for open positions.
The more time and effort you put into this page, the more effective it will be. Remember, your company is unique, so there’s no template or formula for building a phenomenal career page. We say, don’t be afraid to get creative!
For any questions, support or help in building a better experience and pumping up the application rates of your page feel free to give us an email at hello@subsign.co
