In today’s tight labor market, hiring has become a top issue for HR leaders and even CEOs. Career sites are a crucial tool in the fight for talent. ​​Traditional career sites used to be static web pages with a nice video and job listings, but that’s not good enough these days. I’ve seen countless examples of companies spending lots of money advertising open positions to find great candidates, but falling short when candidates visit career pages that are hard to navigate and boring. Month after month, this leads to low conversion rates while pressure continues to grow for hiring teams. 

A strong career site is the front door to a successful recruiting strategy. It’s where Hiring Success starts. The site creates a first impression, representing the company’s brand and culture, and giving candidates a sense of what it’s like to work there. The problem is that career sites have typically been an afterthought; sometimes they are delegated to an overworked website team who don’t prioritize recruiting needs, or companies deploy the basic career site functionality that comes with HCM software. That might work for the simple task of posting jobs, but it doesn’t help with breaking through on the search engines or getting candidates to push the apply button once they do arrive.

That’s why I’m excited to announce that SmartRecruiters has acquired Attrax. Attrax is a leader in career sites, and has worked with customers to improve candidate traffic and conversion, with some amazing results. They do this by providing simple to use but powerful site building tools that recruiting teams can use directly. The resulting sites have dynamic and personalized content, and jobs can be automatically indexed by major search engines to make them easier to find. And, when candidates are truly engaged from start to finish, return on investment becomes that much higher. In this war for talent, we’re ready to help our customers win! 

But for me, the possibilities get even more exciting when we integrate these powerful Attrax career sites with the SmartRecruiters applicant tracking system that TA teams use to run the recruiting process. Just think, we can use information stored in SmartRecruiters, such as job posting priorities, hiring budget, or even candidate profiles, and update the career site in real time. We can take the data that we are collecting at each step of the recruiting process, including what we learn in the marketing phase, and get a better understanding of what is working and what is not. We can streamline candidate interactions, creating 1-click experiences to express interest or apply or even schedule an interview. The possibilities are endless. The integration of Attrax and SmartRecruiters will allow for the first time true Intelligent Career Sites that are optimized based on activity taking place in the ATS. 

Today, the first impression of a candidate is usually not a handshake, it’s your career site. You have the opportunity to inspire curiosity and action. To showcase your employer brand, the impact of their potential role, and the social mission of your company. To create a connected experience from the first moment they meet you (“Hi”) to the moment you make a successful hire (“Hired”). I look forward to seeing what we can do together.

To learn more about SmartRecruiters Attrax, view our product page.

Putting your best foot forward isn’t a platitude for these organizations doubling-down on attracting candidates through company websites that are intuitive and sleek!

If the eyes are the windows to the soul, career pages are the open door to a company’s moving parts. With 75 percent of job seekers researching company social media pages, Glassdoor reviews, and company branding before applying to jobs, it’s critical that your career page conveys your company values, principles, and mission statement.  Make sure your messaging speaks to your prospective talent.

Company career pages are now a point of pride for many businesses, and the effort put into the page layout, design, and messaging demonstrates how many organizations rely on their career page to attract the right talent to them. To that end, we scoured the internet to showcase 10 of the most compelling and attractive company career pages for 2018.

1. Oath

Flying under the Verizon banner, Oath’s mission is to “build brands people love”, including Yahoo! AOL TechCrunch, HuffPost, Tumblr, Makers, and #builtbygirls. Oath produces digital media content for consumers, as well as digital advertising solutions for brands across the globe.

The Oath career page boasts a slick, 360-degree video tour of their 80+ offices around the world, and features an interactive map that shows available jobs at each location, driving home the message that “opportunity is infinite.” The layout is clean and attractive, the messaging is clear, and the delivery is well-executed.

2. Spotify

Spotify wraps its product into the company career page without feeling shoehorned in. The bold declaration to “join the band” and links to “go backstage” to find out more about employee diversity statistics feel fun while staying on brand. Whether navigating by location or department, the site’s navigation is simple and enjoyable, and feels familiar to anyone who has used the music streaming platform.

3. PayScale

PayScale offers real-time salary, benefits, and market compensation information to employees across a variety of industries by comparing user-submitted job profiles and salary data.  

PayScale isn’t shy when it comes to its style, which feel playful and self aware, as evidenced by the photo of an office dog at the top of its career page. The colorful layout encourages candidates to keep scrolling down the page, where company perks, EVP, and available jobs are prominently featured alongside more photos of happy employees. A final, personal touch is the option to click on an employee photo, which opens a popup that breaks down their personality type into various “fun fact” categories.

4. Square

Square keeps things simple and clear, emphasizing that “entrepreneurial minds thrive” at the company. Each of the company departments are neatly organized by teams and broken down into specific skills to “see where you fit in” best, immediately followed up by the company’s mission statement and future goals. The organization feels deliberate and exacting, which convey a high level of professionalism alongside the company’s desire for “curious, hard-working leaders.”

5. Refinery29

This digital media and entertainment company knows its target audience, and Refinery29 reinforces its commitment to “inspire, entertain, and empower” with its media-heavy careers page. Flashy visuals of young women hammers home the brand’s attention to female empowerment and advice on “how to live a stylish and well-rounded life.”

Big and bold headlines immediately draw you into the company’s about us and available positions pages. R29 refuses to sacrifice attitude or style no matter where you are on the company career page. If that’s not confidence then we don’t know what is.

6. Airbnb

In the same way that Airbnb entices travelers with countless possibilities for their next vacation accommodations, the company’s career page lures you down the page with an attractive balance of cleverly worded values, company benefits, and a clean aesthetic. It isn’t until you reach the bottom of the site that you can apply for positions, but this format suggests a linear flow that feels like a cohesive narrative.  

7. Scality

Scality is the industry leader for secure and high-volume cloud storage that powers digital businesses. The company features its motto and mission front and center, and showcases employee interviews discussing their experience working at Scality, drawing a clear link to company values like transparency and social purpose—all from the main career page.

Clicking away to the about section offers a careful balance of useful company information as well as videos featuring current employees outlining different facets of the company structure departments, and locations.

8. Ubisoft

Ubisoft’s career page is everything you expect from a video game studio that brought the Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, Watch Dogs, and Tom Clancy franchises into the upper echelon of entertainment. Like a video game, the company likens their employees to heroes, with behind-the-scenes video interviews that follow employees through their day-to-day lives with the company. An interactive map gives you a deeper look at Ubisoft’s international offices with photos, videos, and messages from company leadership that make each click on the company page feel like a quest.

9. Kickstarter

For a company that deploys a wide crowdsourcing approach to funding, Kickstarter’s career page feels much more intimate and personal in scope. The page is dominated by photos of the company’s bright NYC office and its employees, accompanied by conversational and friendly snippets of company information, values, and principles.

The open positions portion of the page is easy to navigate and continues the conversational motif with relevant information about where each role sits in the company structure, the key responsibilities for the role, and outlines what you as an ideal candidate could bring to the position.

10. Salesforce

Salesforce has its brand identity nailed down, from its color palette to the language used to describe the company’s family dynamic. Each department has its own page with employee testimonials alongside descriptions of what makes every team an invaluable part of the company.

Salesforce goes the extra mile by breaking down the nuts and bolts of their hiring process in a step-by-step chart. Clearly, the importance of transparency is not lost here, and establishing the company’s employer brand from the beginning is a feature not seen on most career pages.

As an employer, it can be hard to strike a balance. You want to present yourself as a great place to work to attract the best potential candidates, but you won’t always have lots of time to dedicate to the task.

Even if you already know how to write the perfect job ad, it needs to be presented as part of a strong, cohesive wider strategy of employer branding. How you introduce your company to potential hires should be a key part of your corporate communication plan.

It’s important to be proactive about communicating with interested candidates, and a very simple way to do this is through your company career page. Read on about why it’s important to have one, how much effort you need to put into it, and you can make the most of it to find the most talented people for your team!

What is the value of a career site?

Currently, job seekers can afford to be pretty optimistic about the jobs market, but companies now have to actively compete to attract the best talent. It’s not uncommon for those in high-demand fields – IT professionals are probably the best example – to be in the luxurious position of having their pick of the best job offers.

Web-savvy candidates are making more informed career decisions than ever before. They’re no longer just looking for a livelihood. They’re asking themselves questions like: ‘Is this a company where I would be happy to spend the next few years?’ ‘Do I share their objectives, ideas and vision?’ ‘Can I realise my personal goals here?’. Candidates can avail of a plethora of online resources to find out exactly what they need to know about the companies that interest them.

Through clever use of employer branding, companies can actively present themselves as they wish to be seen, instead of leaving candidates to do their own investigations. This saves the candidates time, and gives companies a golden opportunity to put their best foot forward.

One effective step towards great employer branding is to have a dedicated career page. The goal is to provide potential new employees with an authentic picture of the company and to make clear what you stand for.

A really good career site isn’t just about providing vacancy information – it’s even worthwhile for smaller companies that don’t have any jobs openings at the moment. Its purpose is to convey a sense of what it would be like to work for the company, and it doesn’t take a big investment to make this possible!

Of course, people who eventually apply will need to have the right skills and experience to be considered, but the primary goal of the career page is to encourage those who share the company’s vision and are motivated by the organisation’s goals to apply in the first place.

How to best structure your career site

Before you begin to build your career site, you should ask yourself some basic questions. Who are we looking for? Who is our target audience and what is important to them? Are they seeking job security or adventure? Do they place more value on flexible working hours or higher salaries?

It’s possible that you’ll end up with diverse target groups that need to be addressed differently. For example, career sites now often have sections specifically for tech candidates. At its most basic, the career site is an element of corporate communications that should be in line with the company’s presence on all channels including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and of course your company’s website.

The Basics

• Present your company’s vision and mission

What do we stand for? Where will our journey lead us? What values do we represent?

• Show off the office culture

What differentiates us from other companies? What makes us special? What kind of atmosphere do we have here? At this point, the motto is: “show, don’t tell”. Use photos, videos or your Instagram feed instead of bombarding people with reams of text.

• Brag about employee benefits

What do we have to offer? Are there flexible working hours, a company car, catering, gym memberships, internal or external training opportunities, etc.?

• Provide any pertinent company information

Who is the contact for applicants? Where is the office? Are there any other offices, and if so, where are they located? Who are the founders or managers? Has there been any relevant press coverage?

If you don’t have any current vacancies, you should briefly express that unsolicited applications are always welcome.

Nice-to-Haves

• FAQs

For those with time and resources who regularly advertise new positions, applicant FAQs can be worthwhile. There you can provide answers to common questions that potential candidates regularly ask. You can display information about who to contact for queries that arise, explain how the application process works, and what you want to see in the ideal application.

• Live Content

Live content is the icing on the career page cake. This content provides an insight into day-to-day work and the current state of play at the company. For example, Zalando has built a specific job portal for tech candidates which centres around a dedicated blog. The team reports there on their work, provides information on open source projects, offers tips and posts photos of team events.

However, not everyone has the opportunity to maintain a dedicated HR blog. A less time-consuming alternative is an integrated Instagram feed which provides an authentic insight into daily life at the company, and sticks to the aforementioned motto: show, don’t tell. However, if time and manpower are too tight to maintain such channels, they aren’t crucial. If you have the basics covered, you can leave them out.

A little goes a long way

Even just a little effort can really make a huge difference to creating an exciting, evocative career page. Ultimately, its most important goal is to get across an authentic picture of the company and the culture, in a way that suits the means at your disposal. Don’t forget to extend the influence of your company page through using supportive platforms like Kununu or Jobspotting so that you can reach great candidates wherever they’re hanging out online. Creating a fantastic career site doesn’t need a large budget, just a little careful planning, a few hours work, and a willingness to share a little info about your company!

Article republished from Jobspotting and updated Nov 14, 2017.

John Sumser “published” an HRxaminer article, Star Candidate Experience in 17 steps on Jan 25.

I clicked to read it right away – intrigued – for candidate experience is not usually the focus of articles on recruiting strategy. The article was as you would expect from one of the oldest and most respected voices in Internet recruiting, John Sumser. But, 17 steps is a lot to remember. In fact, the 18^th step of the article reads, “and so on.” Then John wrote, “If this list seems familiar, it might be because it’s a seven year old piece,” which links back to a post published in July 2006.

Can’t we be more direct? Can’t we make it simpler? Can’t we make it EEEasier?

The three Es to create a great candidate experience on a careers page are: easy navigation, engage the visitor, and educate.

1. Easy navigation

All kinds of people visit your careers page.  Customers, investors, students, teachers, competitors, and, oh yes, people checking out your company to see if it’s a good place to work. Anyone who visits your corporate website may decide to check out your jobs. So, put the Careers link right up front. Don’t make people have to search for it. Don’t bury it in your “about” link, or “contact” link. If you have a great company, then, let your visitors know it’s a great place to work.

Your jobs should be searchable or listed by location, job title and job function. It should be easy to get to a specific job. Each job should have its own page ID, so that all those people who visit, are just “shopping,” but, then see the perfect job for their next door neighbor or cousin or boss and can email the URL and spread the word. Ideally your job ads should have one click sharing features to Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. It’s a key component of viral marketing. Don’t miss this opportunity to leverage web of mouth advertising.

2. Engage the visitor

The best way to engage people is with a story. We want to hear stories about real people who work there. In fact, we want to see real people. It’s easy to post videos of real employees talking about what they do and why they love working there. If you don’t have such employees, your problems won’t be solved by a great career page. Candidates want to see your people philosophy and strategy, what HR Influencers are currently called “talent management.”

Now, how do you get great stories? Engage your marketing department because recruitment is a marketing problem (to be discussed in a future article) and they understand how to connect the message to the receiver. Ask your employees to volunteer their stories. We live in a reality television age and everyone seems to be friends with the camera. Can you think of a better employee recognition program? Plus it’ll be fun (if you think making a company video can’t be fun, you haven’t seen Twitter’s Join the Flock viral video…)

Prospective employees also want to know about your products and strategy, so consider including interesting tidbits about a best selling product. Steve Jobs was a master at this. That’s why Apple’s employees are so engaged. They have a common goal of delivering game changing products.

In stories about your company’s leadership, toss the suits. Lose the formality. Theory X is passé, anyway. Show their human side with pictures and videos of them talking to employees in a real work environment. If you have great managers, let your employees brag about how much they get from their managers. If the number one reason people leave is their manager (some say, “People don’t quit jobs, they quit managers.”), what do you think is one of the biggest motivators to join a team?

3. Educate

 

This is a best practice for careers sites, and job ads. Be transparent.

It will save you lots of time later and get them on the right track, even before they get their badge. What to teach?

• Your values and culture, key for new hires to know.

• Something about your industry and the competitive environment is good, too. Yes, of course, the highly motivated job seeker will do their homework be viewing your Social Media Footprint and your annual report via Yahoo! Finance, but you need to think about what any new employee needs to know to be successful. It amazes me to walk into a client’s facility and discover an employee who knows exactly how his or her job contributes to the company’s goals.

• Keep your topics employee-centric, with information about benefits and career options.

• Information about the hiring process (don’t lie!) is great, too, so that people know what to expect.

The overall goal is to communicate why great people want to work at your company. Don’t muddy the message with HR compliance speak such as “we are committed to a diverse work environment” and “we are an equal opportunity employer.” If your HR exec insists on such messages, put it in the fine print at the bottom of the page. If you want a diverse workforce, then show pictures that prove your commitment to diversity. When candidates read the “commitment to diversity” blurb, then go to the “leaders” page and see and read little to no diversity, candidates will think the company is lying. If you want to attract the right kinds of people, then look for ways to broaden this depiction of your company culture. Don’t be afirad to ask your marketing department for help.

Pat Sharp, The Talent Architect blends strategy, technology tools, and assessment tools with marketing magic to create unique talent solutions. Past and current clients include: Motorola, Deloitte, TiVo, and Cloudscaling. Visit The Talent Architect or drop her a line at pat@thetalentarchitect.com.