If, like most companies, you have a website to showcase your product(s), have you thought about its role in showcasing you as an employer? Bearing in mind one of the first places a potential candidate will look for information about you is online, it's vital to ensure that you use your site in the best way possible to help the recruitment process. Of course, you'll be focused on ensuring your site attracts customers, but attracting candidates can be just as important.
This is an aspect of recruitment that is often overlooked by companies as they ted to view their websites through the prism of them making sales rather than providing information to prospective employees.
Your website should always have clear contact information and information about your company that potential job candidates will find helpful. This is not only something that will bolster the likelihood of job applications coming in, but you will also increase customer confidence in your brand if they can easily learn more about you.
We thought we'd provide a few handy tips you could work with to give your candidate attraction strategy a boost:
- First and foremost, make sure your site looks professional. There are still plenty of sites out there with broken links, shoddy-looking pictures, missing pages and poorly designed structures. Even for companies that do most of their business online, this still seems to be an issue and it is really something that is easy to sort out. Your website is often where first impressions are made, and candidates (as well as clients) will want to see that you have a professional site to reflect the professional image that you project in all other aspects of your business. The problem with some of the content management systems such as Wordpress is that they give many people the idea that they can do everything, and they try to take on tasks that are outside their area of expertise, often leading to an untidy and cluttered website that reflects poorly on the organisation. Web design services aren't too expensive nowadays - if you've had a bash at building your own site but aren't overly happy with it, get a professional in to sort it out, or at least ask for their opinion before you commit yourself.
- Make sure your site is mobile and tablet friendly! With a large percentage of people browsing from their handy gadgets, it's important to ensure your site is readable and looks good on a mobile device. Given industry metrics for online shopping etc, it is clear that a great many purchases are made via mobile phones or tablets rather than on desktop computers these days and you are potentially cutting yourself off from a lucrative revenue stream if people on tablets and mobile devices are unable to successfully access your website. Again, this is something that a website designer or developer can help you with and it is well worth talking to someone in that field to see what they can do to help you with this aspect of your website.
- Make sure you have an “About Us” page on your site so potential new recruits can read about who you are, what you do, and how you do it, as well as some valuable insights into the company's history. Let them see your company structure too, so they can understand where they might fit in. This page may also say a little about the company culture if this is something that you are looking to emphasise. If you have won any awards for such things, these should be prominently displayed on the website and featured on company letterheads etc and on business cards.
- Having a 'Working for Us' section on your site is always a great idea, where you can set out some of the important things candidates would find helpful to read, such as general terms and conditions and staff benefits. Just as valuable are testimonials, stories and quotes from current staff, talking about the positive experiences they have had working for you. In this section, it's also ideal to be able to list your current vacancies and explain the application process. Just as good an idea is to provide a mechanism for people to express an interest in working for you in case an appropriate job arises. You could even set up email alerts for those people so they are made aware of new opportunities.
- Make sure your site is current! It's a common mistake many make to build a site and then leave it alone for years. You should always ensure your site is up to date with recent good news stories, both staff and product-related; changing content from time to time is a good thing! One of the easiest ways to do this is to add a blog section and have an article or two written weekly, either by a staff member or a freelance blogger that you found via a freelance portal website such as Upwork or Freelancer. This will help your website to retain a current look but crucially will also help it to rank in the search engines as Google is focused on helping the websites that provide a good user experience to rank better, so those that are updated more often are the ones that will be found the quickest in relevant searches.
- Finally, don't forget to link your site to social media accounts, such as Facebook or Twitter. Whether you are a local or national employer, all online presence helps increase traffic to your site, and having a Facebook page which your target audiences can follow means more people will see your brand; awareness will grow, and you'll establish a positive online reputation. Be sure to update your Facebook and Twitter when you post a new article on your site as this will drive traffic to the website from those traffic sources and keep those interested in your company up to date with the latest information.
