ALINE works with companies large and small to tackle their business challenges and meet their goals. One challenge we’re seeing many of our clients face right now is hiring. Companies are actively looking for great employees and struggling to find them.
In previous blogs, we’ve shared some of our top tips to improve employee recruitment, including How to Use Social Media to Recruit Top Talent and How to Recruit New Employees Online. In these blogs, we stress the importance of having a vibrant, helpful and detailed Careers page on your website. A Careers webpage (also often named We’re Hiring, Find a Job, Open Positions, and more) is your company’s chance to advertise open positions, tell your story, and get potential applicants excited to apply. And every social media post or job ad you push out will refer back to your Careers page, so it has to have all the information and persuasive messages a job-seeker may need.
So what should be on your company’s Careers web page? Whether you’re recruiting new senior management or graveyard shift lineworkers, effective Careers webpages all have a few things in common.
Great Careers Pages Are Properly Programmed
No matter how wonderful your Careers page may look, it may never get seen if it's not programmed well. Google now relies strongly on schema to find and rank websites, so it’s imperative to have your page set up on the backend using the module Google prefers. This can all get pretty technical, so check out our blog all about schema, and, if you’re the one who programs the backend of your website, find Google's Job Posting module and instructions here. (Don’t worry—ALINE is happy to handle this part of the process for our clients!).
Great Careers Page Have Updated and Detailed Job Postings
First and foremost, job postings on your website need to be accurate and updated. Add new job postings to your website before you list them anywhere else, and remove old postings quickly. If you have a single job category that may need to stay up a while, add “hiring multiple positions” in the title or description and/or add “hiring on an ongoing basis” to the description so an older post will still appear relevant. If you haven’t hired a position in 90 days, delete it and repost it with a slightly different title and description.
Take the time to write detailed descriptions of each job you’re posting. This will not only give web crawlers like Google for Jobs more good content to scrape, but it will also help potential job seekers learn everything they need to know if they’re a good match. Additionally, organize and program these descriptions using schema, and your jobs will appear even higher in search rankings. The more work you put into a great job post, the more applicants will find you, and the less work you’ll do sorting through mismatched resumes or repetitive questions.
Tips for writing effective online job postings:
- Use standard job titles, and keep them short and sweet. Don’t try to add salary notes or exciting adjectives to the title.
- Keep your job descriptions short—ideally between 300 and 800 words. In the job description, always include desired qualifications (education, skills and years of experience).
- Include a salary range and included benefits.
- Include a start date and, if applicable, an end date for the position.
- Even if it’s clear on your website where your company is located, state the exact location of the open position—including the zip code.
- Make sure to include an Equal Opportunity Statement. Simply including this statement at the bottom of the job descriptions can help improve search results.
Great Careers Pages Show Company Culture
Job seekers aren’t just looking for positions they’re qualified for—they’re also looking for companies they want to work for. What does your Careers page say about your company? Take the time on your page to tell your company’s story, its role in the community, its values and the culture for employees. Even better, let employees share their experience by including real testimonial quotes from current employees, paired with photos of real employees at work. Avoid stock images of people working, and avoid cliche descriptions of culture (e.g., “at our company, we treat everyone like family.”).
Do you have a pet that stays on the 4th floor? Do you offer kombucha in the staff kitchen? Do you host a giant annual BBQ or offer PTO for volunteer time? Whatever makes your company a unique place to work, be sure to celebrate it on your Careers page for any potential employee to see.
Great Careers Pages Are About More than your Company
Many times, you’re not just recruiting employees who live locally, but you’re trying to convince job seekers to move to your company’s town to start a job. And in today’s hiring environment, you may need to be casting a much wider net than ever before. This means your Careers webpage not only needs to convince folks to work for you, but also to move to your town. Consider adding helpful information about your area to potential job seekers, including links to Visitors Centers, information on local schools, and links to real estate sites. Also be sure to highlight what makes your part of the world worth moving to, whether it's great outdoor activities, a low cost of living, or a friendly community.
Additionally, a great Careers page isn’t only about the jobs posted—it’s about making a potential employee feel like they can see their future at your company. Include messages about opportunities for growth, support for long-term employees, and what can be gained by growing with the company. Help potential employees get excited about what they can become a part of beyond just a single job application.
Great Careers Pages Are Live – Now!
If your company doesn’t have a dedicated Careers webpage or if it has grown stagnant, it’s time for an upgrade now. When you’d like help showing off the best sides of your company, publishing compelling job descriptions and finding the employees you’re seeking, then contact ALINE. We’re happy to help develop the strategy and design of a webpage to help you improve recruitment efforts and increase job applications.
