The current super competitive candidate-driven market requires businesses to really stand out to appeal to the best talent. If careers within your organisation are an uninspiring bullet point list buried in your website then you may want to read on…
We can show you
- Why having a dedicated careers microsite works better for you than a uninspiring jobs page
- What are the most important things to include when thinking about your talent attraction
- Who does it well – and why
So why is it better?
- Think communication
The communication and content you need to use to attract candidates is very different to your sales focused client communication. Candidates want to find out the personality of your business, tailored information and to see what it’s really like to work for you.
- Branding
A careers microsite is another opportunity to showcase your employer brand while acting as your job application portal. You can keep things consistent, on-brand and curate the information that candidates see. And it looks good – 64% job seekers think good careers page is a valuable resource when job hunting [ref]
- Optimise your online presence
Candidates tend to use common search terms when job hunting. A dedicated careers microsite can be cleverly optimised with targeted content to put you at the top. Bottom line – the best candidates will find your job first.
Makes sense, how does that work?
- Everyone and every brand has a personality; let it shine through when talking to candidates.
- Tell your story through representing your company culture, values and the work you do, showing candidates why it will be good to work for you.
- Looking to the future – what are your ambitions and plans for growth and expansion?
- Talk about where you have shown resilience as a company and what you are doing to protect against future market problems.
- Use engaging content!
This will all work to sell candidates the benefits of working at your company, making you stand out from the other businesses out there trying to fill roles.
The personality of your business is as much described by the visual feel and interactive media as wording.
- Make sure the design is on point.
- If the commercial brand guidelines are a little corporate feeling, perhaps there is an opportunity here to bend the brand rules a bit…
- Creating a sub-brand style for talent attraction that fits the personality of your company culture will give candidates a more authentic feel for how it will be to work with you.
What to include for a banging careers site
- Ask yourself and your team questions about what you would want to know about a potential new employer. Here are some to get you started when thinking about your business…
– Who are you?
– What are your values?
– Why do your employees love working for you?
– What’s in it for new starters?
– What makes you unique?
– How diverse is your company?
– How do you reward good work?
– What are your staff events like?
– What are the benefits and perks for employees?
– What are your plans for the future?
- Show your recent job hires, perhaps with a photo of the new recruit and a statement of how they are getting on.
- Staff profile videos – video tells a story like no other and personal testimonials are the most powerful way to do so. Make sure you film a diverse selection of people and job roles to demonstrate the inclusivity of your workforce and make it clear that all will be welcomed without prejudice.
- Virtual tour of the office – show them around and give them an opportunity to imagine themselves in the office.
Good examples of careers microsites (in our humble opinion)
The vast majority of big successful companies have careers specific sites and now you can see why. Some who are doing it well include…
Why it’s great
Aviva’s career page highlights their dedication to creating a more balanced gender culture with their ‘Women in Technology’ programme. This demonstrates their inclusive work culture and works to incentivise applications from great female talent.
Why it’s great
EasyJet’s ‘Our Orange Spirit’ video demonstrates some of the day to day roles involved in the business and explicitly defines their company culture through employee soundbites.
Why it’s great
Microsoft show potential new talent what current employees think about working at the company with a really clear and prominent employee testimonial section. They include a diverse range of people and experiences in a very simple way.
Why it’s great
Royal London’s ‘Spirit of Royal London’ statement lays out the values of their company in a clear way and serves as encouragement to prospective talent highlighting that their values make it a wonderful place to work.
Why it’s great
GSK’s careers site leads with a mantra for how they want their employees to experience their company. ‘Be you. Feel good. Keep growing.’ The video shows the personality of various employees as well as highlighting their company culture and values, showing talent how great it is to work there. We can also see here how breaking the corporate brand guidelines – GSK’s sales website being more about serious science and health related content – works well to show the authentic people behind the work and therefore attract candidates to want to work there.
Why it’s great
AstraZeneca’s careers site has a whole page dedicated to employees’ experiences of working for the company called ‘Life at AstraZeneca’. Using video testimonials with key question prompts, potential candidates are given authentic insight into the company culture and values. This serves to answer the questions they may be seeking about the company before they apply.
So there we have it – some reasons why a dedicated careers site will work wonders for your talent attraction and some practical hints for how to do it well.
