 Great photo by Andrea Piacquadio. The competition for talent epitomizes supply-and-demand. We’re not recruiters here at Copel Communications—but we have helped numerous clients of ours to improve the “Careers” page on their websites. That’s our contribution to this challenge.
In this article, we’d like to share some tricks and tips which you can use to make your own site’s “Careers” page more enticing for the people you want to attract. First things first Did you notice the last six words of the previous sentence? They’re crucial: “The people you want to attract.” Before you go changing layouts, or writing copy, or producing videos, think about who the careers page is for. That might sound like a ridiculously simple question. It’s for the people looking for jobs here, duh! But it’s not that simple. Not at all. Let’s plant a few seeds in your head: Who are the job-seekers you want to attract? Naturally, the answer to this question will vary with the open positions you’re posting. And while it’s great to be as focused as possible, the wide range of jobs you may offer generally forces you to, well, generalize. That said, there are some commonalities, given your vertical. Think of it this way: The U.S. Army is always looking for people. But they’re not just soldiers or privates. There are technical jobs, there are leadership roles, there are logistics jobs, finance jobs, you name it. But if you visit the Army’s website, there’s a distinct commonality to the look and feel of the messaging. That’s because they’ve identified the common traits of people who would be considering jobs in the military: These are people who, for example, value structure. Discipline. Strength. Professionalism. Patriotism. Once you know those “target audience” attributes for your business, you can get a much clearer picture of what your “Careers” page will need. Where else are they looking? A job-seeker isn’t just looking at your site. That’s a given. So where else are they looking? For those potential Army recruits, it’s likely... the Navy. Or the Marines. Similarly, you need to look at the “Careers” pages of your competitors and take some notes. The task here isn’t to copy them, but rather to beat them! Now that you know your target audience well, it will be easy to spot the gaps, to detect the tone-deaf messaging, which invariably hinders the competition. Who else might look at this page? This is the question you likely never even considered when creating your site’s “Careers” page. Who, besides job-hunters, would ever look at this page? And why would you ever care? The answer might surprise you. It’s quite possibly prospects for your business itself. Any savvy shopper will want to learn more about you than just the goods and services you offer. This is why your “Team” page and its bios are so important (we have a nice article to help you with that challenge). And it’s why the “outside look” at your “Careers” page is important: A good prospect will want to know how you treat your people. Because that’s a reflection on your business generally—and how you treat other people, such as clients, specifically. So while you may want to convey something like “We’re a no-nonsense organization who pride ourselves on getting things done” to job-seekers, that’s 1) not too exciting for them, and 2) hardly exciting for a prospective client who wants to see the passion and humanity behind the hard work and execution. Sell, sell, sell Now that you’ve answered the three questions above, you can begin to better populate your “Careers” page. To wit: What you’re doing here is basically the intro. That is, all the stuff that comes above the specific job postings. So you want to show off here. Talk about what makes the company such an amazing place to work—better than any other place to work. Are the assignments challenging? Have you automated away the tedious busy-work? How’s the workplace atmosphere? The perks? The work/life balance? What cool things to see and do are nearby? You’re looking for “evergreen” content here—that is, stuff you don’t need to update periodically. Testimonials, from both management and line-level employees, can be killer here. Lights, camera, action Sure, you’ll have intro text about the “Careers” at your business. But this is one area where video really shines. We’ve made “Careers at [Company]” videos for numerous clients, and they come across like a cross between a fun movie trailer and an ad for an adventure vacation. Which leads to a hidden benefit of the “Careers” page video: They reinforce that good feeling among the existing workforce. Your people will watch it and think, “That’s right! I’d forgotten about that perk!” or “Hey, there’s Lexi from Accounting!” and get a renewed appreciation for the great gig they’re lucky to have. We can’t claim that a “Careers” page video will solve all your talent-retention issues. But it makes a little dent. Need help with your company’s “Careers” page? Contact us. We’d be happy to help.
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