Johannesburg, 21 Feb 2012
A corporate Web site is often the public face of an organisation. Annually, companies collectively invest millions in developing and promoting their Web presence in order to portray their company in a positive light to potential customers, says Rhett Davies, business partner, corporate recruitment solutions at MCI Consultants.
Unfortunately, many of them fail to deliver an attractive `Careers` page experience that will position them as the employer of choice for attracting new employees; despite human capital being the company`s most valuable asset.
Since an organisation`s careers page is the first, and in most cases, the only opportunity to make a lasting and positive impression on a prospective employee, there is an urgent need to incorporate a cohesive, well-structured and inviting careers page into an existing corporate Web site.
As the central internal candidate recruitment-sourcing tool, a careers page opens the organisation to a world of potential hires. By allowing visitors to obtain a positive view of the organisation in an intriguing and user-friendly manner, the careers page acts as a branding magnet.
The key objectives of a careers page are to maintain a high volume of hits and increase the conversion ratio between the number of visitors and applicants.
Here are a few essential elements that the careers page should have to help achieve these goals:
Ensure that the vacancy listings are current: It is vital that the vacancy list is updated as soon as a position is filled. Many companies leave outdated positions posted on their Web sites for months. This confuses potential applicants, as they do not know which vacancies are still active.
Always remember that applicants are valuable, and passive talent is even more so. If vacancy listings are not updated, the function and value of your page is undermined and this can result in reducing the number of applications that are received for other positions. If a position is proving difficult to fill, ensure that the post is updated regularly so that applicants can clearly see that the position is still available.
Provide an easy search engine: The internal search engine by which visitors browse available vacancies should be easy to use, all-inclusive and intuitive. Allowing visitors to search simple keywords significantly increases the probability of attracting more qualified applicants, who may otherwise have been turned off by a long and convoluted process.
Ensure that the application process is quick: This aspect is often a make-or-break for your careers page. In order to appeal to top talent and passive candidates alike, the application process needs to be a simple, no-fuss procedure. Whatever you do, avoid username and password facilities and do not ask candidates to rewrite their CV online via forms during the application process. Today, the average person has enough credentials to recall. No one wants to have to navigate through multiple pages just to submit their CV, especially not passive candidates who are not on the job war-path and are thus less motivated to jump through hoops just to apply.
Providing applicants with a one- or two-step process means you will receive more CVs more quickly, resulting in a better applicant pool to sift through in the long term. Consider incorporating the "Apply with LinkedIn" feature to your job listings, making it easy for candidates to apply for positions using their LinkedIn profiles.
Exploit social network widgets: Another great feature to add to a careers page is the ability for candidates to share jobs via their social networks. This type of feature, which is normally only available through utilising a recruitment system, is a terrific method of helping to spread the word to a greater audience and thus bring more CVs into your talent pool.
Avoid job portal-sponsored career pages: Corporates that utilise job portal recruitment software are often offered integration between the job portal and their Web site. This is a major stumbling block that does very little for an organisation`s employer brand.
In this scenario, if a candidate wishes to apply for a position, the link they click on often redirects them to the job portal`s Web page, where they will have to go through an arduous registration process first. This is bad news if an organisation is looking to fill its pool with passive candidates, as the latter will not take the time to do this. In practise, this process does more to enrich the talent pool of the job board as a whole than the organisation. It can also help competitors to recruit the very same candidate that applied for the position, as once they are in the talent pool, they may receive job alerts of competitors` positions.
While the ideas discussed here are very effective, the process of putting them into place can be challenging. Projects of this magnitude require much consultation and can, initially, be rather costly.
One method that can reduce the time, complexity and cost of putting a good careers page in place, is the implementation of an HR e-recruitment management system like Direct Hire.
Not only do e-recruitment systems assist in building and promoting a solid careers page, but they also help in managing and automating all aspects of your organisation`s recruitment life cycle.
To obtain more information about an effective HR recruitment software system such as Direct Hire, please visit: www.mcidirecthire.com.
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