Does anyone actually apply through a company’s career page anymore?
Most companies have career pages, career sites or at least some where on their website where they can list their open job opportunities in their company, but how affective are these pages, how is applicant data managed and later used, is the “send your CV to jobs@companywebsite.co.uk” the way to do it in 2023?
A good careers page, ran with a great back office system, in my opinion, is an essential tool, especially in these challenging times of attracting talent.
How easy is it to find available jobs at your company?
So lets put ourselves in the shoes of someone visiting your site looking for work…they get to your home page…. they start looking for available roles….they look at the top of your site…looking for the “Jobs”, “Work For Us” or “Join Our Team” section…they cant see it…they keep looking…they start clicking on the drop downs…they then finally see “Vacancies” right down at the bottom of an “About Us” dropdown. How many potential applicants have you lost because your vacancies are hidden behind numerous clicks?
Tip – If your company is recruiting, you need to have somewhere on your home page, preferably in the menu tab, a link to your current opportunities – make it as easy as possible for visitors to your site to see your vacancies.
How do you search your company’s vacancies?
Once they are on your vacancy page what can they see? Can they do a word search? Can they search by location? Can they search by type of role? Can they search at all? Searching allows potential applicants the opportunity to find the roles they are suitable for without the need to go through 10’s of jobs which are of no interest to them. Make your search bar visible, accessible and usable.
Tip – Make your vacancy page as easy to use as possible. Search fields are essential, scrolling through numerous job roles looking for the one they are suited to will cost you applicants – how many people look at page 3 or 4 on Google when they do a search, people tend to give up after the first page. A search facility helps relevant people find relevant jobs.
What does your company’s vacancy look like?
How to write a job advert is a totally different topic and not for today but when you put an advert on your website what does it look like? Is it easy on the eye, does it look ok when you view it from an iPhone or mobile? Is it straight forward for someone to apply for a role? It’s a lot easier for potential applicants to apply for roles which have built in application forms/fields then it is for someone to write an application email which requires various pieces of information like ref number, application email etc keep in mind over 85% of job applications come via mobile devices.
Having unique individual job vacancy landing pages will increase your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) as well as providing you with a link which can be posted on social media.
Tip – make applying for a role at your company super easy, ask for only the basic info you require, make applying for a position as simple as uploading their CV, having individual vacancy pages will make it easier to share and post on third party sites.
When someone applies where does their application go?
It’s very rare to receive applications by post, most either come through by email or to your Applicant Tracking Software (ATS) (we love our ATS and have had been using it since 2011, we would be lost without it).
If you, like some companies we speak to, use Outlook or Excel to manage their applicants, I really feel for you, you have your work cut out.
These days a careers page needs to be connected to an ATS, it’s essential, not only to help you manage GDPR but also so you can utilise applicant data. There is only so much Outlook/Excel can do when it comes to managing your recruitment, for starters how can you search through your applicants? How do you record the shortlisting or progressing of a candidate? How do you manage the recruitment process across departments?
Tip – an ATS records all applications which can then be searched, shortlisted and managed, view historic data, contact those who have applied for previous roles, but most importantly build your database of applicants who have shown an interest in working for you.
Final Thoughts
A company career pages should be the main gateway for applicants, it might not be currently but the benefits of a decent page are hard to ignore:
- A well-made structured careers site/page gets optimised by search engines and other job boards for free – this is seriously a good thing and helps with your websites SEO. Do a search for your company and “jobs” on Google, if you don’t see your job on the first page your vacancies are not being indexed, they will be indexed if your careers page is structured correctly. Lots of free traffic which can convert into offers.
- Cost to recruit is reduced – a careers page is a cost-effective way to attract and capture applicants. All responses are yours to view, there are no hidden charges for downloads or views.
- Company career pages show your company brand – these pages are yours to showcase your company to prospective applicants, a strong brand is another reason applicants may apply, they can make informed decisions before they send their CV.
- A fantastic front end careers page is only as good as the back end supporting it, capturing and managing all applicant data will lead to more vacancies filled in the long term, an applicant might not be right for a role today, but they might be right for a role in the future.