How long has it been since your organization updated the content on your career website? If it has been awhile, the process of getting started can be daunting and potentially overwhelming. Don’t worry, I am here to help! Below are five recommendations to enhance the content and messaging on your career website.
1. Create the Vision.
Build your career website so it serves as a window into the real employee experience, allowing candidates to actually envision themselves working inside your company. This can be accomplished through rich storytelling (including video and photography) that connects on an emotional level, driving excitement, anticipation and curiosity. Avoid the temptation of simply repurposing existing marketing collateral that does not reflect your business from an employment perspective.
2. Be Distinguished.
Through research, develop an understanding of the perceptions that current and potential employees have of your work experience. From this, identify if the value proposition you are actually offering (confirmed in the research) is in line with your desired employer brand. Leverage these findings to develop relevant recruitment messaging for your career website that both supports your employer brand and distinguishes your organization from the competition.
3. Segment Your Audience.
Recruitment marketing is most successful when it is driven by targeted and relevant content. To achieve this, customize your core recruitment message so it becomes uniquely relevant to each of the target audiences you want visiting your career website. For example, this segmentation of messaging may require the development of entire new sections of content or mere tweaks to existing content to better reflect a candidate’s geography, education, industry experience, career level, peer group, etc.
4. Prove It.
Candidates are savvy and understand a career website’s intent is to sell the employment experience by reflecting an organization in the best possible manner. Whether through employee testimonials, stories, photography, video or workplace awards, it is increasingly important that the promises and claims you make are backed up with substance. Simply put, it’s about authenticity, so be careful not to portray your organization as perfect at everything for everyone.
5. Care to Share.
Find ways to create ongoing connections with your candidate audiences even if you don’t currently have opportunities available for them. Show you appreciate their interest by sharing industry knowledge, by including them in your social networks and by offering continued communications. Remember, the impressions they take away from visiting your career website or gain from continued communications may influence them to return again (when you do need them) or to refer a colleague that may be a perfect fit.
- Korre Johnson