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Candidate experience is stepping further and further into the spotlight as the job market increases in competitiveness for employers. With job seekers holding the reins tightly, the candidate experience has become a major factor in an employer’s attractiveness. But while you might think of the candidate experience as the process of coming in for an interview, it actually starts sooner than that. Way sooner. It begins the moment they consider your company for a job. It begins at your career site.
When an organization has a bad career site, it's like inviting someone over to your house and having an overgrown lawn full of rusted junkyard parts. It doesn't matter if the house has diamond chandeliers and Italian marble floors, people are never going to step through your front door.
Whether your company is rocking a 1995-style site that was designed when the Macarena was still in style or a semi-attractive page with room for improvement, these DO's and DON'Ts can help you up your game:
Don't:
- Don't send potential candidates on a wild goose chase. If your organization has more than a handful of openings, add some search functionality to your job listings page. A simple drop-down that allows candidates to filter positions by location or job type can work wonders.
- Don't make the on-page candidate experience disjointed or confusing. Keep branding consistent throughout the main company web page and the careers page. I can't tell you how many times I've seen a beautifully branded company site link out to a haggard, black-and-white-Times-New-Roman-10-point-font job listings page. It's jarring for potential candidates and can cause them to wonder if they are even on the right website anymore.
- Don't turn away candidates at the door. Chances are good that job seekers are looking at your site every day. Even if you don't have a good opening for them right now, you might have one open up in the next few months. Make sure this early stage in the candidate experience doesn’t discourage them from returning. Include a general interest application or email address to passively collect resumes that could be worth their weight in gold in the future.
Do:
- Do give your candidates plenty of chances to connect. If a job seeker makes it as far as your career site, there's a good chance your organization has piqued their interest. Keep the flame alive by inviting them to follow your organization on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter.
- Do keep it short and sweet. Potential candidates are on your job listings page to check out current openings, not to read a novel about the history of your organization. Try to limit yourself to one or two brief paragraphs at the top of the listings page and let the openings speak for themselves.
- Do make it fun! Stand out by injecting a little personality in your career site. If you can weave company culture into the applicant experience from the get-go, you'll have a better chance of hiring candidates that fit in with the rest of the team.
Follow these simple steps and you'll have candidates knocking down your door in no time! This proto-step in the candidate experience is early but critical to attracting and hiring the caliber of applicants you’re looking for. To learn more about the difference ClearCompany can make in your candidate experience and how to streamline your hiring process, reach out to our experts today to get started with your free demo.
