Recruit Better Candidates Faster? Your Careers Page Plays a Decisive Role

Both in recruitment marketing and employer branding, an excellent job site or corporate jobsite is indispensable. Content, design and usability make or break your employer image, candidate experience and campaign results. Yet even today, we still see recruitment sites or job search pages that discourage candidates rather than stimulate them.

Do you want an edge in the job market? Then ensure an optimal candidate experience on the most easily influenced but also most important medium: your website!

A job website or job site shows an overview of your open vacancies, a separate page for each job listing, an easy application experience, and information about the application process.

A careers page goes one step further: it refines your employer offering and provides information about the organization, company culture, work atmosphere, and other factors that are important when choosing an employer. You show how things work in your organization, the values that are upheld, and the opportunities available for personal development and growth. It strengthens your employer brand by adding more substance, passion, and color.

Just about every average ATS (applicant tracking system) or other recruitment tool offers an easy and quick solution for organizations looking for a "job site. Unfortunately, the user-friendliness often leaves much to be desired and the application experience is of secondary importance. Logical too: an ATS is rather developed to manage, assess and simplify your recruitment and selection processes.

Of course, many organizations cannot do without it. Therefore, use the benefits of your applicant tracking system to facilitate your internal HR processes and integrate this tool into a candidate-friendly work-at-home site.

Every high-performing job site or careers page places the candidate at the center. A clear job overview and compelling job descriptions, each with an easy-to-fill application form, are essential. By sharing information about the application process in advance, you build trust and set the right expectations.

Your employer information showcases your company culture, growth opportunities, and other reasons why candidates should choose you as an employer. Employee testimonials add to this with personality,

Want to know more about the key elements of a work-at-home site?

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Interactive elements, such as the ability to save, forward or share job postings, can be a valuable addition to your work-at-home site. Additionally, it may be useful to add a form, a WhatsApp plugin or a chat feature so that potential candidates can easily and quickly get answers to their questions, possibly through a chatbot.

Email alerts and automated notifications about the progress of the application process can keep potential candidates informed about their application and any new job openings that match their interests and skills.

A virtual tour of the company or separate landing pages for each job group or location give potential candidates a better idea of the company and the position.

Other useful extras can include an application to apply later when the candidate does not have their resume handy, a listing of related jobs and a separate page that can be activated for job events.

An unattractive or overly creative design can distract from the content. Generic stock photos will deter candidates because they don't come across as authentic. A website that is not smooth and easy to navigate frustrates visitors and drives them away.

It's essential to optimize the site for mobile devices, especially for the application process. Make sure the site is not too complex or filled with too much information, as this can overwhelm visitors. However, don't skimp on content either, as that can also deter candidates.

Don't confuse your careers page with your corporate or product website. Focus on your employer brand and differentiate between candidates and other stakeholders of the organization, such as customers or investors.

The technology behind a careers site is crucial for optimal user experience and search engine discoverability.

For a careers site, we often choose between two platforms: Drupal or Webflow. We use Drupal for more extensive careers sites that need to connect with an ATS or are multilingual. For Webflow, we prefer it for less complex careers sites in one language. It's obvious that the development time for a Webflow site is much shorter than for a more complex Drupal setup.

Additionally, it's important to make the website SEO-friendly with crawlable links, meta descriptions, and valid robots.txt files. Google structured data is essential for good ranking in Google Jobs, but don't forget to meet the requirements of other search engines like Indeed and Bing. It's also recommended to use the Google Pagespeed Insights tool for website speed optimization, which is naturally included in our "go live checklist."

An ATS or CV database integration or data feed can help efficiently manage applications. Use smart tools that make it easy for candidates to apply, such as custom fields for the job or a LinkedIn plugin.

Lastly, it can be helpful to integrate social media plugins, allowing an automatic LinkedIn or Facebook feed of the organization to be added to the careers site. This way, potential candidates are always updated on the latest developments.

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Measuring the performance of your work-at-home site gives you insight into how candidates are using the site and where you can optimize. If you know how many people apply and where they come from, you can set up more targeted campaigns to attract more candidates.

Measurement can be done in various ways, for example with Google Analytics and various trackers. These tools offer comprehensive insights into visitor behavior on the site, such as how many people visit the site, how long they stay and which pages they view. With Hotjar or a similar tool, you can optimize the website based on user behavior.

Building a careers site can be a challenging process, but the right knowledge and approach make it an essential tool for attracting talent. Therefore, it's important to start by determining your objectives and identifying your target audience. Afterward, you can integrate the right elements into your website.

Every company is different and has different needs. For one company, this might mean a careers site with all the bells and whistles, while for another, a website needs to be set up in just a few weeks with a limited budget. Good news: we have a solution for both.