A recent study from Mercer reports that this year, employers are investing more resources into improving the candidate experience. Considering all of the benefits that come along with providing a positive candidate experience, these investments will surely be worth it. That is to say, of course, if employers make the right investments.
This begs the question–what resources should organizations invest in to improve the candidate experience? One of the answers is a no-brainer: their corporate career sites. Having an effective can improve the candidate experience in numerous ways. In fact, The 2015 Talent Board Research Report found that career sites are the most valuable resource for candidates who are researching employers.
If you want to know exactly how an effective career site can improve your candidate experience, here are five examples:
Seventy-one percent of candidates start their job search on Google, and they expect to find relevant employers and jobs in their search results. An SEO-friendly career site can help your company and jobs rank higher in search results by leveraging complex features like clean HTML code and strategic keywords. Job seekers will find you more easily as a result, which creates a more positive and convenient candidate experience. Additionally, candidates will perceive your organization as a leading employer for the type of jobs they are searching for.
It’s true–most job seekers conduct research about your employment brand before they even apply to your positions. By launching an effective career site, you can give them the information they are looking for and more. Your career sites should share details about your employment brand, company culture, work environment and anything else that your candidates care about. It should also communicate these details in an engaging way so that your job seekers can easily understand them. By giving your candidates all the employment information they need and more, you can provide an extraordinary online experience that motivates them to apply.
Today’s job seekers want to know why they should work for you, and they prefer communication that is personalized. Fortunately, career sites can meet and even exceed both of these expectations for candidates. If you’re recruiting for diverse roles or departments (e.g. marketing, sales, and engineering) consider leveraging separate web pages on your career site. Use these pages to provide each candidate group with targeted communication that highlights the employee benefits they care about most. In return, your job seekers will receive more relevant information and a uniquely positive candidate experience. They will also learn exactly why they should work for you, which will heighten their interest in your career opportunities.
Now that 65 percent of people are using mobile devices to search for jobs, your candidate experience must accommodate mobile job seekers too. If you invest in a mobile-optimized career site, job seekers can easily engage with your employment brand and jobs no matter what device they’re using. The best mobile career sites also give job seekers the ability to apply to jobs on-the-go, which significantly enhances their experience. Some mobile career sites allow candidates to save job and apply later from a desktop, in case that’s what they prefer to do. If you launch a mobile career site with these features, both your candidate experience and apply rates are almost guaranteed to improve.
By including features like keyword search tools and position callouts, the best career sites make it really easy for job seekers to explore your available jobs. Once a job seeker finds a job that’s right for them, your career site should also allow them to apply. This functionality will significantly improve your candidate experience, and it is especially important now that 80 percent of job seekers prefer to apply through a career site. If you require candidates to apply through an Applicant Tracking System (ATS), you can implement a career site that integrates with it to lead candidates back into your ATS. As a result, you will be able to provide career site visitors with a seamless experience, regardless of your application process.
The bottom line is that job seekers want the candidate experience to be convenient, transparent and personalized. When you look at the facts, effective career sites can strengthen all three of these areas for your candidate experience. So if you’re wondering what resources you should invest in to improve your candidate experience, you just found your answer. An effective, world-class career site is the resource you are looking for.
