Don’t forget this when building your career site

If you’re still building your career site you’re in the perfect position to include some of the aspects many employers forget. Strong employer branding and clear messaging of your EVP is of course a no-brainer, but I’ve got a few other ideas you might not have thought about.

Last month we talked about how to drive traffic to your career site. But what if you’re not even there yet?

So let’s take a step back and look at what your career site needs to make it world-class.

…FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions are a great way to answer your candidates’ questions without them having to get in touch with you directly (which, let’s face it, they’re unlikely to do).

They also allow you to write more content, which is not only great for SEO but makes visitors to your page stick around for longer.

But that’s not the real reason you should include a FAQs section on your career site. FAQs perform well with Google’s Rich Text Snippets. This is where Google attempts to answer questions people have asked without them having to leave the search engine, by crawling other sites – like yours – for relevant answers.

It’s a powerful tool, so rather than trying to fight it, you may as well join in. A comprehensive FAQ section on your career site will automatically be picked up by Google and put your content top of page.

TIP: FAQs can be about anything from working hours to what a candidate’s career progression could look like. So don’t be shy – tell all.

…Video

We know that visitors to any type of website engage more with video than any other format. In fact, people spend on average 2.6 times longer on pages that contain video than on pages without.

So use it on your career site. Hearing and seeing someone speak about what their role entails and what it’s like to work for your company, offers a personal insight into your job ads. Candidates can see the sort of person who works at your organisation, what the office looks like and hear first-hand about the perks and benefits of the role.

And it’s easy to produce. Simply film short videos of employees talking to camera about their roles – and if you’ve got a spoken message from the CEO, even better.

TIP: Make your videos accessible by using subtitles, and include videos that specifically address diversity and inclusion e.g. about maternity leave, internal community groups or office accessibility.

…Location information

Location might seem less important than ever due to changes in hybrid working, but if the role requires any time in the office then candidates will want to know where it is, how to get there and how long their commute is.

When we surveyed employees at a client's company recently, location came up as one of the top reasons employees chose to apply in the first place. So make sure your potential candidates can see where your offices are and how this would affect them.

TIP: Make it personal by including a commute calculator using Google Maps.

…Your values (but be careful)

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for 10 years you’ll likely have worked on creating core values for your business. Including these on your career site is a great way to showcase what you stand for as a business and hire the right people.

But only if your values are true and authentic.

Here’s an example: If you’re in the care sector, having ‘compassion’ as one of your core values is nonsensical. Why? Because compassion is a basic requirement, not a value – in fact, it’s basically the job description. We call these types of value ‘permission to play’ values – in other words, if your employees don’t have them then they shouldn’t have even got through the door.

Instead, make your company values aspirational, a little bit challenging and something you can all work towards as a team. They’re what you want your company to stand for – not the basic requirements of the job.

So don’t put bland, permission-to-play values on your career site or your office wall and expect candidates to identify with them. Make values count.

TIP: If you need to do some work on your values, check out a couple of my podcasts: Values permission to play and Company Values part 2

…An easy application process

Like it or not, in the war for talent you can’t risk making your candidates work too hard to apply for your roles. So make sure you include an easy application process that doesn't require them to duplicate information they’ve already written elsewhere.

How? Well, consider enabling candidates to apply directly with their CV or using their LinkedIn profile – it’s easy, quick and can even be done from their mobile, which is how the majority of candidates are searching for their next role.

TIP: integrate your career site with your Applicant Tracking System (ATS) so you can build, test and improve your application processes easily.

In summary

Creating a top-of-class career site isn’t just about your employer brand. By including these must-haves you’re more likely to attract the right candidates, enable them to apply easily and optimise your site for SEO.

It really is that simple.