The career website is the key element of your recruiting strategy. Different surveys show that a career website is essential for getting in touch with high potential candidates. And still there are career websites which should get more than a face lift. Therefore we have some basics for you how to optimise your career website and distinguish yourself in the war for talents:

Optimise your career site

1. Prevent death by clicking

Is it possible to find your vacancies at the first glance on your website? Don’t hide them in a submenu but place them centrally so everyone recognise them right away.
The rule is: If a candidate does not find your open jobs with just one click (yes right, just one!), you probably already lost him. First of all it is about finding your jobs. Even if you have a link to your career site on your corporate website the interested candidate has to click through several pages to find your jobs. Of course it is important to present yourself as an interesting company with all your advantages, but please first things first: where are the jobs?!

2. Offer your candidates the possibility of an unsolicited application and inform them about future vacancies

“I am really interested in your company but right now I can’t find the right job for me. I would like to send you my application in case you have something interesting in the future. How can I do this?” For such case you should give the candidates the opportunity to send you an unsolicited application. If not on your career website then via e-mail. In such way you are building up your own talent pool automatically and you might already get applications for future vacancies. And don’t forget to set up a job subscription. So your potential candidates can leave their e-mail address and get informed as soon as you have a vacancy that fit. Even with passive candidates you can already build up a relationship with this feature.

3. Videos instead of boring text

Nowadays it is really easy to make a video. All you need is a camera and a youtube channel. People react on people so what do you guess is more interesting: many words on a page or your future boss presenting his idea of a perfect candidate for this position. Candidates love this, it’s really innovative and they get the feeling that you really try to impress them. The same goes for the “about us” section on your career website. Instead of writing extensively about your wonderful working atmosphere, grap a camera, make a tour through your department and interview some of your colleagues. Et voilà, you got some authentic impressions of your company showing your candidates how it is really like to work for you.

In the next part or our series we will present you some facts about the layout of your career website.