Compliance And Data
How to create an attractive careers page: our checklist
Maelle De Francesco
HireHive
Maelle De Francesco
HireHive
Maelle De Francesco
HireHive
Maelle De Francesco
HireHive
Careers pages are essential to attract talent to your company. If you are a well-known company or if you get a good amount of traffic to your website, you should seize this opportunity to convert visitors into applicants.
What is the purpose of your careers page? Of course, it is to convince candidates to apply for one of your open vacancies. But in order to do this and to help you attract top talent, there are a few things you will need to check. Here is our checklist to have the most attractive careers page possible:
Think about the worst application experience you had when applying for a job. In my case, it was an application form with more than 15 questions. And when I clicked on 'Apply' after filling out the form, I got an error message... Realistically, I was not going to spend another 20 minutes just filling out the form again. So what did I do? I closed the tab, forgot about that company and kept looking. Lengthy application forms are daunting for candidates, so try to keep them as short as you can. If you need extra information from the applicant, consider sending them follow-up questions after they submitted their application.
If your careers page requires candidates to create an account or to log in to be able to submit their application, you probably are discouraging candidates to apply and missing out on top talent! I can't stress enough how important candidate experience is, so keep potential applicants in mind when you create your application forms.
A strong employer brand is essential in asserting your organisation’s status in the marketplace. Your brand may be stronger and more effective than any recruiting campaign. Building an employer brand is part of the long game and requires input from your whole team. Your careers page is the perfect place to show candidates what it is to work with you, as it is often the first place they will check if they are interested in working with your company.
[caption id="attachment13842" align="aligncenter" width="750"]
_The HireHive team at Web Summit - show your candidates what's happening in the company![/caption]
You need to check that the information about your company is authentic and representative. If a candidate responds well to your brand and your values, the likelihood of a good culture match is high.
Your careers page also needs to fit in with the rest of your website: make sure you can still see the company’s identity on the page. Explain your company's values and mission statement, and show potential candidates why they should want to join your team.
Try to make your careers as attractive as possible: why not integrate videos to your careers page to make it more attractive? You could ask some of your team members to record short videos talking about their job and the life in the company, this will help candidates understand what it would be like to work with you. Visual elements are a good way to help potential candidates understand your company better. For example, if you organised team bonding activities or retreats, add photos to show job seekers what they could be part of if they apply for one of your open positions.
Once the careers page itself is ready, you now have to focus on job descriptions. They are as important as the main careers page to attract candidates. Writing the best job description isn't an easy task, so we wrote a blog post to help you out.
Make it easy for candidates to find all the information they need to apply for the job. Make sure that everything is clear: are the tasks they will be required to carry out explained correctly? Are all the details about the position such as location, salary, seniority level, etc... included in the description? Does the voice used in the description match the company's voice, and more precisely the voice used on the careers page itself? If candidates need to upload documents along with their application, is it clear what they need to upload and where?
This is one of the most important requirements of this list as nowadays, candidates are more likely to be looking for jobs on their mobile phones than on a desktop. According to Indeed, mobile devices account for the majority of job search across most jobs.
So what if your careers page isn't mobile-friendly? You're probably losing a huge number of applications, and might be missing out on the perfect candidate. You might need to ask your technical team for their help on this, but it is essential that your careers page works well on mobile phones.
Keep in mind that job seekers don't want to be scrolling down for ages to be able to apply for the position. Don't forget to check that your job descriptions and application forms are displayed correctly and that the application process is as seamless as possible when applying on a mobile phone.
And last but not least: make sure your careers page is always up to date. This might not be your top priority as you might have about 100 things to do such as sourcing candidates or organising interviews, but keep in mind that your careers page is one of the first things candidates are going to look for when looking for a job in your company. You will need to keep your job vacancies up to date: if they see jobs that were published 5 months ago, candidates might be discouraged to apply for these positions.
If you follow these 5 steps, you will be ready to give applicants the best candidate experience possible!
“HireHive makes the team a lot more productive. We’d be lost without it. Team Leaders can do it all themselves if needed or jump in at the right time and know exactly where everything is and what’s happening.”
Hilary Dempsey Head of HR at Life Credit union
