How to Use Your Website as a Recruiting Tool For Your Business

Apr 8, 2021 | Business Tips, Website Design

Kevin Fouche

How to Use Your Website as a Recruiting Tool For Your Business

Posted by Kevin Fouche, Pixel Fish Director

Kevin handles the planning, design, launch and training of every website that Pixel Fish creates. He ensures that every website is highly engaging and aligned with our client’s goals. With over 20 years of design and web industry experience to draw upon, Kevin aims to pass on his knowledge to our clients and like-minded businesses wanting to grow their online presence.

Businesses and organisations are made by their people. Hiring top talent is vital to running a successful business, keeping your customers happy and growing your revenue over time.

Hiring and retaining top candidates who know what they’re doing and fit into your organisational culture is a comprehensive process. But, your website can play a core role in that process. With these 8 tips, you can use your website as a recruiting tool for your business.

1. Create an Easy-to-Find Careers Section on Your Site

Chances are that your site is optimised for your core audience of potential and current customers. Still, a careers section that’s easy to find and direct candidates to more information about everything related to working for your company.

That section might be a separate link in your main navigation or a link in your header. It should include a landing page that links to and/or includes a few core topics:

  • SEO-optimised descriptions of open positions.
  • An overview of your company’s mission and brand story.
  • An introduction of your leadership team, linking to your About Us page.
  • Pieces of content, such as videos, that show your culture and what it’s like to work at your company.
  • An overview of benefits expectations and other more practical aspects of working for you.

We’ll describe most of these features below in more detail. The key here is to provide an easy overview of the content beyond the job description that potential employees can browse before and after they apply.

2. Optimise Position Descriptions for SEO

You’re likely familiar with the concept or search engine optimisation, which should be a central part of any web and content development process. More than 50% of all website traffic comes from search engines, with Google leading the pack by a long shot.

Traditionally, position descriptions aren’t developed in a way that lends itself to SEO. Your HR department or leadership team might simply look to list the vital skills and responsibilities of a given position. From there, the description receives extensive promotions through social media, on job boards, and elsewhere.

But what if your candidates could come straight to your website, based on simply typing a career path in which they’re interested into Google? When you optimise your position descriptions for Google, that’s exactly what you can achieve.  Research on typical keywords used within the career you’re looking for and SEO-optimised content and headers can go a long way towards good candidates finding your company’s opportunities.

3. Tell Your Company Story

High-quality candidates are interested in more than just a job that pays the bills. In today’s competitive recruiting environment, selling your company culture is vital to becoming an employer of choice for top-end talent that has multiple options for their next career step.

In other words, working for your business has to feel right. Through your website, you have the opportunity to make candidates feel exactly that.

It starts with simply stating your company mission and reason for being. Beyond that, an in-depth story of your company background can help make your mission and vision more relatable to candidates. Tell it as a compelling story for your audience to follow and engage with, and potential candidates will want to work for the same goal.

4. Introduce Your Leadership Team

The job description is your what, while the company story is the why. Next, your website can help recruit talent by letting them know about the who. Stated differently, who will they work with if and when they’re hired to do the job you’ve posted?

Depending on your company’s size, you might be unable to list every single employee working for you. What you can do, though, is show your leadership team, including the head of every functional area that candidates might work for or interact with. Try to get personal, listing not just images and names but also background stories and personal interests of your team to humanize them.

The best place for this team listing is not actually your Careers section, but your About page. That way, potential customers and other stakeholders can take a look and familiarise themselves with your team. But even if it’s listed there, a link from your Careers section can help potential candidates find it easily.

5. Simplify the Application Process

The above four tips can help your candidates find the right position, and sell your company as an employer of choice. Functionality also matters in making sure that the right talent makes it through your recruitment funnel to add to your company’s human resources.

Above all, that means simplifying the application process. Candidates should be able to apply easily online, without having to email your HR department or contact person separately. WordPress, for instance, offers a number of plugins that streamline the experience for your website.

Some of these plug-ins offer an intriguing possibility: connecting your application process with LinkedIn. In that case, the application automatically pulls in job listings and job experiences for candidates, making it easier for them to apply. The more friction is removed from that process, the more candidates you will get for each posting.

6. Create a Mobile-Friendly Experience

Mobile devices are beginning to dominate the online landscape, and searching for jobs is no exception. According to a 2019 study, almost half of all applicants across age groups now use their phones and tablets to search for job. In the 35-44 age range, that number even goes above 50%.

Another study found that 78% of millennials use their phone to not just look for, but actually apply for job. A mobile-friendly experience, from short paragraphs, subsections, and bulleted lists on your position descriptions to a responsively designed online job application, is becoming absolutely crucial to attract this age group.

Google’s move towards mobile further exemplifies this need. No matter how well you optimise your position descriptions for SEO, a non-mobile friendly website will exclude your site from search results. In other words, using your website as a recruiting tool means optimising the entire site for modern applicant browsing behaviours.

7. Leverage Video as a Messaging Tool

Don’t underestimate the power of video in your marketing messaging—and recruitment, in 2021, is as much a marketing process as it is an HR responsibility. Standing out to potential applicants means wowing them not just with your benefits or the team they’ll join, but the way they consume your messaging as well.

Used right, video can become a central tool in that process. In fact, you can leverage a number of video types to maximise exposure and engagement from potential applicants:

  • Explainer videos to better explain company benefits and job nuances.
  • Short profiles and interviews to introduce your leadership team.
  • Behind the scenes videos to showcase your company culture.
  • And more.

These videos, of course, are best used as supplemental materials for the overall Careers section and applicant experience. Viewing should be optional, but the videos should be embedded into written content to provide candidates with the option to get that in-depth look at your company should they so choose.

8. Use Your Blog as a Recruiting Tool

Finally, don’t underestimate the power of your website’s blog as a recruiting tool. The Careers section highlighted throughout this guide is great for job postings and permanent content that doesn’t change frequently. You can supplement that more permanent content on your blog with dynamic, time-based pieces.

Use it to highlight behind-the-scenes materials for your company, such as a recent outing or volunteer/donation drive. You can also showcase your expertise in your industry niche, which will make top-end talent want to contribute. Most importantly, you can write posts based on position and career-related keywords to increase your organic search traffic from applicants.

To avoid confusing content for other audiences such as potential customers, simply create a ‘Careers’ section of your blog. Once complete, you can also feed in new posts within that section into your larger Careers website portal.

Finding a Partner to Use Your Website as a Recruiting Tool

In short, using your website as a recruiting tool is actually a natural fit. By mixing the process of creating a designated section for applicants and linking out to other parts of your website that are relevant to this audience, you can create an applicant experience that will lead to more and more quality candidates.

To do that, potential candidates for current and future career openings have to be one of the core audiences considered as you build and improve your website. They might not be as front and centre as prospective customers, but they’re still a vital group that deserves attention to bring your business forward.

That means developing your website as a conversion driver not just for your customers but also for job applicants. Fortunately, you don’t have to be on your own in that process. Contact us today to learn how our expertise in website development can help you turn your online presence into a central recruitment tool.

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6 Ways to Turn Your Website into a Recruiting Tool for Your Business
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