An interesting thing happened during a recent presentation to a group of CEOs and business leaders. Usually, people want to know how to use their website to drive revenue growth, increase sales, and get more leads, but they wanted to hear about recruiting talent to fill open positions at their company during this talk.
We spent more time talking about how a website and digital marketing efforts can be used to recruit talent rather than what they can do for the company’s growth. It’s the first time this happened in over 20 years of presenting to business leaders.
We are in uncharted waters when it comes to recruiting and staffing following the COVID pandemic. Companies are looking for help, and their website and digital marketing efforts are tools to attract qualified candidates. How do you go about recurring talent through your website and digital marketing efforts in these uncertain times?
Here are a few suggestions to attract and get inquiries from the best talent through their engagement with your website. Let’s start with your website homepage.
Your Website Homepage is a Recruiting Centerpiece
Your best job candidates will anonymously visit the homepage of your website, as it is often the starting point of their research into your company. The homepage must attract not only customers but also these top candidates.
The good news is the content on your homepage attracting the best qualified, prospective customers will also attract your best job candidates.
This happens by writing content centered around the benefits your company brings, along with the key mission and values of your company. Many websites focus on the company rather than the benefits to customers. It does not work to recruit team members or get leads when you mostly talk about your company on your homepage.
Here are a few key things to do on your website to perk the interest of qualified job candidates.
- Be very clear about the key benefits your company provides. This means a lot to job applicants and prospective customers. Do this before you talk about your company’s services and products.
- Your mission and values are represented on the homepage through your messaging, design, and how you write about benefits. Include more detailed content and videos about your company mission and values on your “about us” web page.
- Use photos of real people at your company. Avoid clipart photos. If you must use clip art photos, make sure to use quality photos as they are part of your brand.
- Use captions on photos to describe your company and include names with people’s faces. If possible, link to team member bios and their LinkedIn account. Prospective job candidates like to see who they might be working with.
- Place call-to-actions (CTAs) in the homepage banner to show you are hiring, along with the main navigation and footer.
- Make use of a professional and current homepage design. Well-designed websites with excellent content are also excellent recruiting tools.
Tell a Story on Your Careers Page
Your best job applicants will envision what it is like to work for your company when they visit the website careers page. How they move forward with your company is an emotional decision as much as a logical one. On the careers page, tell a story about working at your company, focus on the benefits and use photos of real people at work.
Use the careers page to make an emotional connection with the job seekers you want to work for you.
Here are a few additional tips to improve the career’s page on your company website:
- Include a link to your careers page in the main navigation.
- Place a clear and direct tagline in the banner of the career’s web page about why you are recruiting, what you are looking for and what it is like to work at your company.
- Focus on the key benefits and value people get from working at your company. Use bullet points and icons to communicate these benefits.
- Ask your employees to list the top three reasons why they work for your company and use what you find as key messaging on the careers page.
- Put the careers page in multiple places on your homepage, including the main navigation, footer navigation, and feature a link on your homepage.
Showcase Your Services in Products around Benefits
Reading about the benefits of your services and products gives job candidates a better understanding of the value they bring to customers through their work. This matters to people and motivates them to do good work, and gives purpose to their job. It also helps them better understand the type of work they will be doing and the end result.
By providing benefits and purpose, you will help attract the best candidates to your company and get them excited to work for you.
Give Candidates Multiple Ways to Contact You
Don’t assume your best candidates will be comfortable going through your typical recruitment process. Make it easy for them to call you, submit an online form, or send an email directly to the hiring manager. The best candidates have options and may not want to jump through hoops to reach you. Also, make it easy for people to refer employment candidates to your company on the careers page.
Summary
It’s an incredibly competitive job market, and taking extra steps on your company website to find talent is essential. This strategy takes thought, great content, and solid images. Get started improving your website to better recruit quality applicants to your company in the same way you attract new customers.
Here is a great article to learn more about the changes in hiring happening after COVID.
