Corporate websites are common place now, but some are more effective and popular than others. Often this reflects whether the company is truly committed to online recruitment. If you are planning a new recruitment area on your website, or updating an old one, here are some golden rules.
First of all, you need to give it as much attention and love as the rest of your site, says Kelvin Newman, Creative Director at Site Visibility, and make sure it isn’t just a forgotten corner. He says it’s as hard to attract traffic and get the response you want on recruitment pages as commercial pages so you need to dedicate the same amount of effort. For a start, Newman believes that in order to attract the best candidates, the career website shouldn’t be hidden away in the footer of your corporate website, but be easily found. David Johnston, Business Development Manager at Hotlizard says a high percentage of people start their web journey from a search engine, so it is essential that your vacancies can be found. A well designed website should be developed to maximise accessibility, usability and optimised for the major search engines. Something that will annoy both recruiters and jobseekers alike is if the data on the site is unreliable, out of date or difficult to use. Daniel Richardson, Chief Technical Officer at Bond International Software says: “Intuitive navigation and easy to use tools work best for both job seekers and recruiters. Capture enough data so you can use push technology to send personalized and contextual messages and content to candidates so you can re-engage them later on if there are no applicable jobs available. They may only visit your site once! Automate processes so job seekers can set up alerts that can be emailed or sent via text message whenever positions open up that match their search criteria. It’s also helpful to display links to similar jobs on your job detail pages so you don’t lose relevant candidates.”
Not surprisingly, Richardson also believes that sites that link into strong Applicant Tracking Systems for the recruitment area typically operate a lot better than self-built corporate areas, saying that the level of functionality is typically richer and candidates are better served by the overall experience, (and suggests EasyJet has done this particularly well for attracting cabin crew candidates). James Saunders, Managing Director at 4MAT, believes that though job seekers shouldn’t have to navigate around the site too much, unlike a jobs board website, it is acceptable to ask candidates to make a few clicks before they get to a relevant job. Saunders says a company can then use the recruitment site content as a funnel to help quality candidates find relevant jobs and to weed out those that aren’t a good fit for the company, saying: “A small number of relevant applications will be more beneficial than a high number of poor quality applications. Candidates who don’t immediately find a relevant opening should be able to submit their CV via the site. This will allow a talent pool to grow organically. This pool will enable a company to cut recruitment costs such as advertising, paid CV searches, agency spend and should also shorten time to hire.”
Terry Baker, Chief Revenue Officer at Adicio advises that job seekers will be more likely to return to your site if they have a positive online experience. He explains that once they’ve found a position that fits their experience, they should be able to immediately apply online. To ensure the best candidates apply, Baker recommends that you clearly list your company’s work/life benefits, talent development, employee programs, training, and educational development opportunities, because job seekers want to know why they should work for your company. He says: “Your recruitment section should not only extend your brand and identity but reflect your corporate culture.”Companies can also reinforce their brand and maintain interest in their company and hence a return to their site via email alerts of company news, not just jobs.
David Johnston suggests that beyond the core essential features, additional ones such as campaign microsites, CV parsing, multi-posting integration, and mobile applications may be desirable. He notes that mobile websites are becoming even more important and have been forecast to be the fastest area of growth in 2010 – 2011, saying: “Whether your target audience use an I-Phone, a Nokia or Android, a mobile site should be cross platform compliant and offer a true mobile user experience, not just a small version of the main site. An I-Phone App may seem like a great option, but consider your target audience, not all of them use I-Phones.” As far as gimmicks go, Kelvin Newman says as soon as you move into video and audio you run the risk of being a little gimmicky but that doesn’t mean you should avoid it! He suggests: “Ditch the expensive Oscar-Wannabe production and spend £150 on a Kodak Zi8 HD camera and a tie microphone. Pass it round your team and ask them to record a day in their life. It’ll be much more genuine and really speak to potential candidates.”
All companies must be considering the use of social media by now, and Terry Baker advises if prospective candidates can connect with your company this way, they can keep abreast of new positions and company direction in the market. He recommends being active on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to get the word out about your job openings and get referrals. An intelligent use of social networking can help to grow a quality talent pool and encourage long-term interaction, agrees James Saunders. However, it can do more harm than good to a company’s brand if entered into halfheartedly. As Saunders comments: “Avoid blanket use of social networking ‘badges’ which have little thought or strategic direction behind them. If you’ve created an empty LinkedIn group with no content or updates, there is little point directing people to it.”
Terry Baker also suggests you may wish to provide scheduled chat sessions so prospective candidates can communicate directly with your recruiters, and if you are competitive, offer Payscale research tools, and skills assessment tools. Lastly, Baker cautions that you must ensure that your account information is secure so you do not violate anyone’s privacy.
What happens if you get it right?
“When you get it right you’re inundated with great applicants!” says Kelvin Newman. He adds: “Joking aside, you really need a strong and consistent set of measures in place before you try search or social media. You might think that there’s no industry standard in this area but there’s a growing consensus in the market about what’s a good measure and what isn’t. And you should always have in place a good old fashioned Return on Investment report in place.” Newman foresees that just as every employee is a becoming an unofficial representative of a business when carrying out their main business, you’ll see a similar shift in employee branding, you’re more likely to apply for a job at a company where you know their current staff, who you follow on Twitter, and have a good time. Conversely, he predicts you won’t apply for jobs at organisations where the staff have no social presence and appear to be robots.
The current economic climate is improving but is still challenging for all involved in HR and Recruitment, comments David Johnston. He reminds us that every economic slowdown will be followed by a period of growth and the inevitable skills shortage this brings, so it’s imperative that recruiters prepare for this in advance.
Why not take a fresh look at your website now and check it’s really working for you?
For more information on Recruitment Industry go to free onrec magazine.
