Attracting the right candidates starts with showing them exactly why they should choose your organisation. A dedicated, well-designed careers website is the perfect vehicle to highlight your employer brand. Not only does it give potential candidates a sense of who you are, but it also creates a seamless experience that can improve candidate engagement and reduce the time it takes to hire.
If you’re looking to build or optimise your careers website, there are three essential elements to focus on. From showcasing your Employer Value Proposition (EVP) to building brand awareness and keeping candidates engaged, we’ll cover how to make your careers site work even harder for your recruitment goals.
Your careers site isn’t just another webpage; it’s a central hub for attracting applications and showcasing everything that makes your organisation unique. The facts speak for themselves. Research shows that companies with strong employer brands receive 50% more qualified candidates and that 90% of job seekers are likely to apply to organisations with active and visible efforts to highlight their workplace culture.
Now, the question is, how do you make sure your careers site is amplifying your employer brand?
Your EVP essentially tells candidates what they can expect when they join your organisation. Beyond just offering a competitive salary, your EVP highlights what it is that makes your company great. This could include your values, culture, benefits and future growth opportunities. And if dogs are allowed in the office, you should certainly include that (everyone loves dogs right?).
A careers website offers the perfect platform to communicate this in engaging, multimedia formats. Go beyond walls of text—instead, include things like employee testimonials, workplace videos, and detailed information about your benefits. Great visuals and user-friendly layouts make all the difference in ensuring job seekers fully absorb your EVP.
Job seekers can quickly assess whether their personal goals align with your company values and culture. This reduces guesswork, leads to more informed applications, and allows candidates to self-select, making the hiring process more efficient.
Imagine visiting a careers website where you see a video tour of the office, alongside honest testimonials from employees sharing why they love working there. Next to that, there’s a well-organised breakdown of benefits, like flexible hours, robust learning opportunities, or wellness programmes. Platforms like Venn’s career site builder even allow businesses to use ready-made themes to bring these features to life quickly.
Job seekers are often hesitant to apply to companies they don’t know much about. That’s why reinforcing brand familiarity and trust is vital. Your careers website should seamlessly align with your overall brand identity, from design aesthetics like colours and logos, right through to your tone of voice.
When potential candidates see consistency between your careers site and your consumer-facing website, it builds credibility and trust. However, your careers site is often their first in-depth look at who you are as a company so make sure you find the balance between brand continuity and your values.
A unified and recognisable employer brand ensures potential candidates remain interested throughout the hiring process. If they already have a positive impression (thanks to a good starting experience on your career site), they’re more likely to stay engaged.
Draw inspiration from companies that create visually immersive pages for their careers section. For example, adding branded infographics to showcase growth opportunities or an interactive timeline of a candidate’s potential career path with the organisation can leave a lasting impression. The Venn Career site themes are a great place to get started.
First impressions matter, but lasting impressions are what get candidates across the finish line. To keep potential hires engaged, your careers website needs to offer more than just a list of open roles. Think about engaging content that builds a narrative around your organisation. This could include blogs about company news, day-in-the-life stories, or behind-the-scenes pieces about different roles.
Most importantly, ensure that searching and applying for roles is as seamless as possible. Map and commute-based searches enhance the candidate experience, whilst long long, tedious applications can be a turn off.
Engaged candidates are more likely to remain responsive throughout the hiring process. Whether it’s replying promptly to emails or staying excited about an opportunity, you’ll notice momentum increase, ultimately reducing your time to hire.
Some companies make excellent use of storytelling on their career websites. They post employee blogs about team camaraderie during a major project or share social responsibility initiatives that resonate with candidates who value giving back. It’s emotionally engaging and keeps potential candidates coming back to learn more.
With 89% of job seekers using mobile devices to search for work, ensuring your careers website is mobile-friendly is essential. A clunky, non-responsive site won’t just hurt engagement; it could outright drive people away.
Make sure your site is accessible, intuitive, and just as beautiful on a smartphone as it is on a desktop.
Your careers website is more than just a job board. The better able you are to tell your EVP there, the easier it will be to attract engaged candidates, and ultimately make your recruitment process more efficient. Freeing up more time for you to spend with that office dog.
If you’re looking to spend less time searching and more time hiring, book a demo with us today to discover how a Venn Careers site can help you achieve exactly that.
