This week I was amazed to read a blog by Dr John Sullivan stating that the career website was dead. RIP – Announcing the Death of the Corporate Careers Website
Dead?
The modern career website has hardly been born.
Maybe a better title should be announcing the death of Career Website 1.0 and the Birth of Career Website 2.0
In summary the reason for this pessimistic view can be split into two distinct areas, functionality and content.
The argument that content is not compelling, relevant and not personal is extremely true of many career websites, but is that surprising?
How many HR and Resourcing professionals have been given any training in recruitment marketing?
How many companies employ a recruitment marketing manager?
Even the simplest career website can be improved with good relevant content, but as so many career websites do not have a content management system which can be used by the recruiting team, the career website becomes two sites, the design orientated static brochure and the usability poor ATS job search and application.
Why do recruitment consultancies and job boards have better technology than our career website?
Why does my career website win awards, but I still source 70% of my applicants through recruitment agencies or RPO?
Lets Look at Some Basics
The most effective recruitment agencies integrate their ATS with their website, by transferring the vacancies to the website and maximising the latest search engine optimisation technology. This was discussed in detail in here in my Blog 'Your ATS is Stopping Candidates Finding Your Vacancies'
The example included at the head of this blog defines how a search engine optimised vacancy looks, as used in modern recruitment agency websites and job boards. A medium to large corporate will advertise more jobs than a medium sized recruiter. Make sure Google can find and index them.
Personalisation
As Dr John states, social media is a fantastic medium for attracting and engaging with potential candidates, but in the same way that Amazon personalises the user experience, career websites need to focus on this and make sure that content presented is both relevant and fresh. Content can be tagged based on the job family or area of interest in the same manner as online retail.
This offers an enhanced user experience by providing engaging and relevant vacancies, videos, blogs, employee profiles etc. the ‘you’ve looked at this job, you may be interested in this vacancy or employee profile, blog or news’ functionality continues to provide a positive online experience.
The image taken from www.pfj.co.uk at the top of this blog shows simplay how relevant content can be linked and displayed.
Many recruitment departments are now starting to get more involved in social media campaigns, however you should always back up your social media efforts and campaigns with highly focused landing pages, with clear calls to action. In fact every job, every blog post, every news page, every whitepaper, and every video page should be treated as a landing page in its own right. If you are doing well in publishing this content through social media and email campaigns, then conversion rates can massively improve as a result of a well defined landing page.
Well delivered pages of relevant content should provide ample opportunity for viewers to further share the links out to their networks. Even 3 or 4 shares, from the right people, can put your employer brand in front of whole new audiences.
You can read more about this in my recent blog on 'Making the Corporate Career Website Personal'
Add This/Share This functionality is common place in blogs and online retail, but is also easily added to a modern career website. Referral engines used in recruitment agency websites are available to corporate recruiters as part of their career website, which will instantly enhance the average referral scheme. It’s important to remember where your Facebook Fans and Twitter Followers will go when they land on your website; an area which was discussed in my blog on 'Where do your Facebook Fans and Twitter Followers go?'
Mobile Career Websites
Mobile is a hot topic at the moment with much debate about whether a company should develop apps or have a mobile version of the website. Consensus is beginning to show that a mobile version of the website which is accessible across a number of devices is the taking the lead, and over the next 6 – 12 months there will be more companies providing a full mobile experience for candidates.
Modern Career Website = Content Engine
The modern career website should be at the heart of every company’s recruitment marketing strategy. It should be where content is generated, delivered and sorted, by content theme, before being distributed through the relevant channels. Filtering and delivering relevant information to relevant people through the relevant channel. Whether this is Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook, mobile blogs or direct feeds.
The intelligent content engine is the secret to the new breed of career websites linking ATS, Social Media, Mobile and Website and providing an optimised and truly personal experience, which increase engagement and conversion rates.
In Summary
In summary to say that the career website is dead is far from the truth and is only true of the current web 1.0 versions in use by the majority of employers. The new breed of career sites are coming which focus on the visitor experience and embraces the three Cs
Candidate Attraction
Candidate Engagement
Candidate Conversion
Resourcing Professionals and Inhouse Recruiters need to look beyond their traditional media agency and look to technology and marketing providers who can allow them to deliver what their candidates want.
LONG LIVE THE CORPORATE CAREER WEBSITE
If you would like to discuss any of the content within this article, please feel free to contact me directly or comment.
David Johnston
4MAT
07854 162863
email: david.johnston@4MAT.com
