Your company’s career page is the foundation of every recruitment marketing strategy. Most of your potential employees have come in contact with it, even if they applied through a job board. What does your career website say about you?
Creating a stand-out career page can be challenging. What do current candidates want to know about your employer brand and open roles? Will you need to revamp your company’s entire career website to make it more appealing to applicants? Most likely, a few small tweaks will make a big difference in modernizing your site and attracting top talent.
As you begin to recruit Generation Z, it’s more important than ever to invest in your company’s career page. According to the 2019 Yello Recruiting Study, more than half of Gen Z candidates value career websites when searching for jobs. Gen Z is looking at your career site, and they should be finding a page that blows them away!
So, let’s chat about what it takes to create a stand-out career page.
Make Your Career Page Mobile-Friendly
According to a Pew Research Center study, 43% of smartphone users have used their phone to seek out information about a job. Even more important is the fact that 18% of those users have submitted a job application on their mobile device.
Your website should be easy to read, and your job applications should be easy to fill out on mobile devices. Applying for jobs on a smartphone is a trend that will continue to rise, so your company’s website should be prepared for an increase in mobile activity.
Tell Your Employees’ Stories
Your best assets as a company are your employees. People join people, not companies. Your career page should make potential employees feel right at home. Your company culture will help you stand out above the competition.
Highlighting current employees on your career page isn’t as hard as it seems. Shoot quick videos that introduce key members of your team, describe your core values, and show off any extracurricular activities your company offers. Or, ask hiring managers to film a quick summary video describing open roles and include them in job descriptions.
Showcase Your Benefits
Next, think about the employee benefits you offer. How can you bring them to the forefront of your career page? With many of today’s employers offering an array of unusual perks, showcasing your benefits early in the hiring process can not only attract candidates but set you apart from the competition.
Gen Z most values family leave, student loan repayment, and tuition reimbursement — with gym memberships, company-sponsored social events and stock options falling at the bottom of their list. Highlight these areas on your career page by talking about the benefits your employees enjoy every day.
Keep Your Website Up To Date
Generation Z demands the use of modern technology. Does your career page look like it was built during the early days of the internet? If so, it’s time to give it a modern facelift. According to our research, you could be pushing away over 50% of Gen Z candidates if your recruitment technology seems outdated.
Creating an updated career page isn’t challenging. Focus on your candidate experience. Is it modern, light, and easy to navigate? Is it easy for candidates to find your current open roles? Is there a place to join your talent community so candidates can stay up to date on new open positions? A quick polish to address these key items will help attract better recruits.
Adding white space is another easy way to improve the look of your site. Not only will it make your site more mobile-friendly, but it’s also easier to read on desktop and tablets. Give your paragraphs some room to breathe and keep them short. Add in bullet points and numbered lists when appropriate to make your content even more skimmable.
Communication Is Key
In a world where candidates are, unfortunately, used to recruiters leaving them in the dark for weeks, communication will set your career page apart. How do you make communication an integral part of a static website? Simple — automation.
Add live chats, email subscription forms, and even a way to contact a recruiter on your career page. When you add communication tools to your website, you empower potential employees to make the first move. Giving them more options to reach out alongside an application helps them feel more confident in working with your company.
Build Personalized Experiences Into The Website
Personalization is key to a strong candidate experience. How are you creating content for the different stages of the career search process? Gen Z is starting to look for work as early as their freshman year of college. While your open positions may not be appropriate for students who are just starting college, make sure you’re capturing candidates who might be interested in your company down the road. Make it easy for interested job seekers to sign up for updates, and regularly keep in touch with recruitment CRM software.
Creating subpages on your career website dedicated to the special interests of potential employees is another great way to personalize the job search. Is your career site a hub for prospective employees or just a place for them to stop by? If you’re most commonly hiring engineers, IT professionals, and developers, create subpages that specifically speaks to why your company is a great place to work for each of those groups.
Create A Secure Career Page
Last, but not least, make sure that your career page is secure. Applications divulge personal information like addresses and past work history, and job seekers who are applying online want to know that their data will be protected. Generation Z understands the power of the internet, data breaches, and more. Make sure your career site feels trustworthy and that you’re communicating how you use applicant data.
Creating a stand-out career page is an investment in the future of your brand. As Generation Z graduates from college and enters the workforce, your career page will help you stand out from the competition and communicate what it’s like to work at your company. Generation Z is using your website to decide if they would enjoy working with your company long-term. What will they see when they check out your website?
