It’s hard to find good help these days. Is your website doing enough to attract—and retain—talent?
Labor shortages are affecting every industry and are touching businesses that have limited options to address the problem head-on. Higher wages and more robust benefits may bring more applicants and increase employee retention, but not every budget can accommodate this. Is your businesses one of the many without boundless resources that need creative solutions to fill open positions?
Job seekers as an audience
Defining the audience is one of the essential steps of every content marketing process. Until recently, job candidates were an afterthought for most businesses. Their top priority, especially for their website, was appealing to potential customers.
Not anymore.
In 2021 we have seen recruiting become a top priority for many businesses. Today’s website designs are rejecting the traditional approach of treating the careers section as something that can be buried in a footer. At a minimum, the careers page needs the same attention as a company’s services pages. That means rich content, impactful imagery, and careful attention to what job seekers are after.
What do job seekers look for on a website?
Most people looking for a new job are already spending a lot of time online. Their brains are wired to ignore clichés and stock imagery. Instead, they seek authenticity.
- Who would they work for?
A company’s leadership team needs to be represented on its website with more than a dry summary of a career. Professional headshots are a fine start, but the more an individual’s personality can be infused into the site’s content, the better. Consider including short videos of the leadership team talking about topics of interest to them.
- Who would they work with?
Cultural fit matters. Candidates look for evidence that they will mesh with the team that’s already in place, and helping them find it requires a deliberate approach. Replace stock photos of models pointing at nonsense on a whiteboard with real snapshots of the team at work. Wherever possible, include a diverse mix of people to highlight the company’s inclusive mindset.
- What are the perks?
Be sure to brag about the benefits of working for the company. A competitive wage and good insurance coverage aren’t the only potential advantages to highlight. Do employees have flexibility to work around family needs? Does the team hold regular events, like catered lunches? How about birthdays and holidays? The best content about perks is often direct quotes from real employees.
- How to apply.
Make submitting a job application a seamless experience. First, provide a fillable form and guidelines to follow invites candidates to begin the process immediately. It’s also a good idea to provide meaningful contact information: a real person’s name, title, working email address, and phone number. This way, candidates don’t get the impression that the company is trying to hide.
Going beyond the basics of a careers page
As a form of owned media, a company’s website offers boundless opportunities for delivering content to its audience. A contemporary but conventional approach to site design provides a foundation, but businesses shouldn’t stop there.
To get the most from your company’s site you need to invest a sustained effort over time into building and refining content. A careers page is a particularly important space where focused effort will pay off. Here are some ideas:
- A blog focused on careers. A company’s blog needn’t be a single bucket. A monthly post covering open positions and sharing news about employees gives candidates insight into the company’s growth and culture. Simple gestures like celebrating work anniversaries and important achievements can signal to candidates that the company cares about its people. Careers posts can be configured to display on the jobs page in addition to the corporate blog page.
- Video. Many people prefer to get their information through video rather than text. When a candidate sees a person speaking about the business, that person’s words gain extra credibility that text alone can’t provide. Video can be accomplished without a huge investment of time or money, and the payoff can be significant.
- Focus on employees. A small, regularly updated feature such as an employee of the month or a recurring performance award keeps a steady spotlight on current employees, which helps retention. It also gives candidates numerous insights into the business, answering questions we covered above, like who their coworkers would be, along with illustrating how success is measured and celebrated.
Turn to the content experts
The recent shift toward greater emphasis on internal marketing and external recruiting has expanded the content marketing playbook. It’s a trend we’re having fun with at Red Mallard. Is your business ready to take the next step? Send us an email or give us a call to get started.
