Improve Your Career Page: 13 Steps For Attracting Better Candidates
To help you enhance your company’s career page and attract top talent, we’ve gathered insights from 13 industry professionals, including CEOs, HR directors, and marketing managers. From focusing on detailed job descriptions to crafting comprehensive ones, discover the essential steps these experts recommend for improving your career page and attracting better candidates.
- Detailed Job Descriptions Matter
- Showcase Company Values and Mission
- Personalize Your Career Page
- Focus on Design and Layout
- Add Employee Testimonials
- Highlight Benefits and Transparency
- Emphasize Unique Selling Points
- Improve Career Page Navigation
- Promote Flexibility and Teleworking
- Optimize Career Page for SEO
- Enhance Candidate Experience
- Create a User-Friendly Page
- Craft Comprehensive Job Descriptions
Detailed Job Descriptions Matter
In my experience, one effective step to enrich the career page and lure top-tier candidates is to provide a clear and comprehensive depiction of the job roles. A vague job description can often be off-putting.
For instance, if we’re hiring a “Financial Analyst,” we should go beyond listing the generic responsibilities. Detail what a typical day would look like for them, the projects they’d handle, the team they’d work with, and the impact they’d create.
This will not only provide clarity to the aspirants but also make them visualize the role better, helping them to understand if they are a good fit. Hence, by ensuring transparency and specificity in job descriptions, we can significantly improve the quality of applicants and foster an environment that values open communication.
Lorien Strydom, Executive Country Manager, Financer.com
Showcase Company Values and Mission
To improve your career page and attract better candidates, you may add your company’s values and mission.
By sharing your core values and workplace culture on this page, candidates can immediately understand if they can be the right fit for your company. Employees today want to work for a company that shares their same principles and beliefs, and including them in your career page can attract candidates with your same philosophy and values.
Natalia Brzezinska, Marketing and Outreach Manager, ePassportPhoto
Personalize Your Career Page
One of the best things you can do to update your “Improve your career” page to attract better candidates is to make it more personable. This means incorporating the company’s values and culture into the messaging, and including photos and stories of current employees to give potential candidates a glimpse into who works there and what it’s like to work at the company.
Making sure you show your company’s values will make sure you attract those who will buy in to what you’re doing. It is also very helpful to include employee testimonials so people can see your company as a place to grow. A few employee stories can go a long way in attracting devoted people who are looking to reach a new level in their careers.
Khamani Murphy, Social Media Marketing, Achievable
Focus on Design and Layout
The design and layout of your career page are vital to attracting better candidates. Make sure the information provided is clear and concise to attract more candidates.
One step to improving your career page is to showcase your company’s unique selling points, such as benefits, work culture, and growth opportunities. It can be done through eye-catching graphics, testimonials from current employees, and detailed job descriptions that emphasize the company’s mission and values.
It can also be helpful to attract top talent if application forms and instructions for applying are easy to use and straightforward.
Bill Lyons, CEO, Griffin Funding
Add Employee Testimonials
One step to improve your career page and attract better candidates is to add employee reviews and testimonials to create social proof. This can help job seekers get a better understanding of what it’s like to work at your company and increase their trust in your organization.
Additionally, positive reviews and testimonials can serve as powerful endorsements that can help persuade talented candidates to apply for open positions.
Joe Kevens, Founder and Director of Demand Gen, B2B SaaS Reviews
Highlight Benefits and Transparency
You need to ensure that you’re outlining the stand-out benefits of working for your organization and also provide wage transparency where possible to show just how open you are as an organization. These tweaks can be seemingly quite small, but it’s these types of things that candidates look for, and will quickly allow you to stand out from competitors.
Tracey Beveridge, HR Director, Personnel Checks
Emphasize Unique Selling Points
One step to improve your career page to attract better candidates is to clearly highlight your company’s unique selling points, such as the benefits and perks you offer, the culture and values of your organization, and opportunities for career growth and development.
You should also showcase the success stories of current employees to give potential candidates an idea of what it’s like to work at your company and the potential for growth and advancement. Additionally, consider using language and visuals that are engaging, informative, and reflective of your brand personality.
Brittney Simpson, HR Operations Manager, Walker Miller Energy Services
Improve Career Page Navigation
Making your career page easy to navigate will help you attract the best candidates to your company. As a job seeker, I know how frustrating it can be to visit a website that could be clearer and easier to navigate.
A well-designed web page with clear and organized navigation features will help me quickly find the information I’m looking for, whether open positions or important company culture information.
A clean website layout makes it more visually appealing and represents you as a professional. Ensuring that your website career page is easy to navigate, with vital information about your business readily available, you’ll attract top talent and stand out as a reputable employer.
Jeffrey Pitrak, Marketing/Account Manager, Transient Specialists
Promote Flexibility and Teleworking
Emphasize flexibility in your office. Teleworking is totally acceptable. Many companies that steered clear of implementing a remote workforce before now have the infrastructure in place to accommodate one. So why go back in time? Teleworking is here to stay, and the companies that embrace it wholeheartedly will be likely to attract some of the best talent.
Stephanie Venn-Watson, Co-founder, fatty15
Optimize Career Page for SEO
Companies often ask me to evaluate the strength of their career page, and one glaring misstep I notice regularly is neglected SEO. The first step to developing a high-converting career page is getting eyes to it—don’t hesitate to run your copy through an SEO evaluation service like Moz.
You may be missing crucial terms that have the potential to draw in dozens of qualified candidates. Remember: creating a website is like opening a shop on a deserted island. There is no walk-by traffic unless you create it, so cater to Google foremost and be thoughtful when choosing your words. Avoid keyword stuffing; instead, be specific and skip the vague or overused euphemisms.
Travis Hann, Partner, Pender & Howe
Enhance Candidate Experience
One step needed to improve your career page to attract better candidates is to make it more focused on the candidate experience. This includes creating a user-friendly interface, providing detailed job descriptions, highlighting the company culture and values, and showcasing employee success stories.
Additionally, it’s important to keep the career page up to date with relevant information and to actively promote it through social media and other channels to increase visibility and attract more qualified candidates.
Brenton Thomas, CEO, Twibi
Create a User-Friendly Page
To improve your career page to attract better candidates, it is important to cater to their needs and create a welcoming environment that entices them to want to work for your company.
One step that could be taken is to ensure that the information provided is clear and concise with a visually appealing layout. As a potential candidate, I would appreciate a webpage that is easy to find information that is relevant to me.
For example, having clear headings and sections for job descriptions, benefits, and the hiring process would make it more appealing for me to apply. Cluttered or complicated web pages can be a major turn-off for candidates and therefore should be avoided.
A user-friendly page would show that the company values its employees and creates a positive, encouraging atmosphere. By ensuring that the career page is user-friendly, companies can attract more enthusiastic and qualified candidates who are willing and excited to work towards business goals.
Saneem Ahearn, VP of Marketing, Colorescience
Craft Comprehensive Job Descriptions
If you want to attract better candidates to your career page, there is one crucial step you can take: make sure your job descriptions are clear and detailed.
It is essential to provide a comprehensive overview of the role, its responsibilities, and the skills and experience required. Use active language and avoid jargon or buzzwords that are difficult to understand.
Additionally, consider highlighting the benefits of working with your organization, such as opportunities for growth and development, a positive company culture, or competitive compensation packages. Providing a clear and enticing job description will attract more qualified candidates and increase the likelihood of finding the right fit for your organization.
Peter Reagan, Financial Market Strategist, Birch Gold Group