How to create a Career page to attract the most talented candidates:  Part 1

How to create a Career page to attract the most talented candidates: Part 1

To create a career page in the year 2016 has become more and more important, in fact it is fundamental.

And maybe you are asking yourself: Why? The reason is simple, if you want to achieve success in your business, you have to recruit professionals in your team that are better prepared than those of the competition. This can only be achieved when you have attracted and selected the best talented candidates in an efficient and fast way.

“If you want to have success in your business you need to have professionals on your team that are better prepared than those of the competition.”
(Matteo Cocciardo)

Every day we are helping dozens of businesses to improve their recruiting process (I have had the pleasure of seeing the success (which inspired me) and also the failures to avoid).
In this article I have enclosed some suggestions on how to create an effective career page for your company.

Why do you need to create a career page?

The career page, or sometimes called “work with us” section, is a specific section that you find on the website of companies and which has the objective to show the job openings or vacancies in a company and attract candidates.
But not only. Behind the objective to intercept and handle a CV, the section “work with us” has also a strategic goal in employer-branding.
It is in fact a powerful tool to communicate the values of your business and to recount the job opportunities and experiences of current employees who work for you. If you are looking for a really brilliant, talented and competitive candidate, you have to keep in mind that often these candidates are not actively looking for a new position, they are passive: it is very complicated to attract and then recruit these candidates, because they are tageted by many companies. Your task – as a recruiter, marketing expert or entrepreneur – is to grab the candidate’s attention on the most suitable channels on your website and to convince him/her to choose your company (rather than let him/her go to the competition). The quality with which you construct your career page, reflects and represents your company and is the decisive element in the choice candidates will make.

How do I create a career page?

Let’s see in practical terms how to create your career page in a short time. The first important suggestion is: it is always a good idea to avoid putting this section inside the menu of another section on your website, for example inside sections like “Who are we” or “Company”. In this way it is quite complicated to find for a candidate or even worse if you have used the “search” criteria in different browsers. Put it in the main menu, in a way that is immediately visible and searchable, or if you prefer to give it less attention, you can put it on the lower part of the page, that is less important.
Often, the career page has different structures that differ from one to another, with some aspects almost always present on some websites and more optional on others .
Let’s start to understand the 2 must-have aspects that need to be present at all times:
1) the proper “work with us” part
2) the part relating to spontaneous applications and vacancies.

Often, your ATS provider gives you the possibility to create a career page without having any technical knowledge. You can try it with the In-recruiting ATS freel trial.

What do I write in the career section?

The really well prepared candidates that look at a website normally ask: do I really want to work for this company?
The best way to attract their attention and to convince them to send their CV to you is to tell them the history of your company, the identity and values that characterize your company and the opportunities to have a career in your company. The perfect place to do this is in the “work with us” section of your website. For example some companies highlight values like “integration” and ”co-operation”, or “membership”, “motivation” and “evolution” (Iper), some put “experience”, “dynamic” and “attention to detail” and “news” (RGI Group). I advise you not to copy other companies in the same sector as yours, but rather to brainstorm with your colleagues to find what message it is you want to put through. Also an important aspect to include are pictures of the work place that show the employees at work, this will help the candidates get an idea of your company: for this motive it is important that the selected images are of a good quality and that they are and effective.

When we look at the type of text/message you have to insert, it is important that you define at least three values that characterize your company. If you are part of the Human Resources department, you might want to involve and compare with the Marketing office, or in the case of smaller companies, directly with the owner or director. A good question to ask the owner or director will be the next: what three characteristics do you appreciate the most about the people who work for you? If in fact you are part of the Marketing team, I suggest to compare with HR management and its staff.

How to create a section for vacancies and self-nomination?

The second part of the career page is the area that contains the sections of open vacancies and the possibility to send a spontaneous application.
1) Vacancies/Open positions: the open positions consist of vacancies (job titles) looked for, normally with the possibility to filter according to location and function. It is fundamental in the way that you describe the position looked for and above all what job title you use: you have to catch the attention of the candidate immediately and push him/her to open the details of the available job offer and send you his/her resume. Badly written job postings always receive a smaller number of responses and the consequence will be that a smaller number of candidates will be interested.

2) Spontaneous applications: This area is reserved for unsolicited applications, i.e. sending their CV spontaneously via a special form, when there are no real job openings or it might happen that the candidates are not interested in the current job openings. Having a spontaneous application form is important because you can implement there certain questions that they have to answer and will later help you to archive the CV and to search for it faster.

This section that we have described is the most fundamental part of a “work with us” page and represents the instrument in building an Employer Brand that is very important for your company.

See part 2 of the article.