Your Website Gives Jobseekers a View into Your Company. What Will They See When They Get There?

Competing for talent is a daunting task in today’s labor market.  It requires employers to ensure all recruiting efforts and tools are buttoned-up and positioned to garner the best possible results.
 

It should come as no surprise that the first place most jobseekers will look when learning about potential opportunities is a company’s website.  Therefore, it can’t be underestimated that the experience a candidate may have on a website could make or break the chance to attract the best talent possible.
 

When considering this, ASA members may ask themselves:
 

• Does my website promote our culture?
• Does my website provide a good candidate experience?
• Is my website mobile-ready?
• Can people easily find our website?

Answers to these questions and others can help begin to help companies understand if what jobseekers see and experience will encourage them to pursue career opportunities there or look elsewhere.

Defining a Good Candidate Experience

The candidate experience is the perception jobseekers have of a business based on their interactions at every point of contact during the exploration or application process.  This includes initial awareness of a company, its social media presence, the interview process, and any post-application communication.
 

When potential candidates visit a company’s career page on their website, they expect to find some basic elements which help create a good experience.  Features such as an overview of the firm’s vision and mission, information about its culture, well-written job descriptions, a clear application process, an intuitive and easy-to-use listing of jobs, employee testimonials among others help shape and define the experience.
 

Managing the candidate experience becomes even more critical when you consider Careerbuilder.com’s research that shows 68 percent of candidates think that a company’s hiring process reflects how it treats its employees.
 

A Mobile-Ready Website is a Must
 

Making sure a website and particularly the career section of a company’s site is optimized for mobile devices is another way to drastically improve chances to attract talent.
 

In 2021, almost 70 percent of job applications were made from mobile devices according to a recruitment marketing benchmark report by Appcast.  What’s more is the report also found that mobile application rates increased across the board compared to prior years and were especially significant in several sectors including manufacturing, warehousing and logistics where nearly 80 percent of applications were submitted via a mobile device.
 

Understanding the differences between a site being mobile friendly and mobile optimized is important when considering a candidate’s online experience.  Mobile friendly means that a site is designed for a desktop computer but can be viewed on a mobile device.  These usually offer users a less than ideal experience. Mobile optimized sites are those designed for smaller screens and will reformat itself for mobile users and provide users a much better experience. 
 

Can Candidates Find Your Site?
 

Unfortunately, in today’s online world there is no “build it and they will come.”  Building a great website with a beautiful design and solid content is simply not enough to get jobseekers to visit it.
 

68 percent of website visits begin with a search engine and 75 percent of users never scroll past the first page of search engine results.  While most people immediately think of Google when considering search engines, others such as Bing and Yahoo get considerable traffic.  Career related sites like Indeed, Zip Recruiter and Career Builder are also considered search engines but for jobseekers.  Google now has a site for jobseekers called Google Jobs.
 

All of this underscores the importance of developing and managing a website so these search engines see it and include it in search results.  The art and science of this is called search engine optimization or SEO.  To improve a website’s SEO performance it’s required that relevant keywords with good search traffic potential are included, compelling and useful content is used, and relevant links from high-quality sites are incorporated.
 

There are countless online resources and third parties that assist companies with their SEO efforts and it’s generally recommended that these services are considered given the technical nature of this very important element unless internal resources are available.
 

ASA’s Support of Members’ Local Recruiting Efforts
 

To help its members put their best foot forward with their recruiting, ASA recently held a live webinar to cover the topics covered above and more as part of its PROJECT TALENT initiative.  In addition to branding the industry, ASA aims to provide members with tools and resources to assist with their local recruiting efforts.  Many of these tools and resources can be found in the online Recruiter Toolbox including a recording of the recent webinar covering recruiting website best practices.  To access the Recruiter Toolbox members can visit asa.canto.com and click on “Access Request.”  There will be three more live webinars throughout 2023 on recruiting topics such as leveraging Indeed, the power of social media and a more detailed session on SEO.