Career Website –
Author: Kurt Schauer
The labor market is undergoing a fundamental change. A few years ago, companies were still dealing with an employer’s market. From a large pool of qualified specialists, employers could select the candidates who were optimally tailored to their needs. In the meantime, however, the employer’s market has turned into an employee’s market. It is no longer employers who hold the reins, but employees. They can choose the jobs with which they can identify most closely. For this reason, a well-designed career page is an important criterion for strengthening your employer branding.
The Importance of a Career Website
To be successful as a company, it is not enough to develop a lucrative business model and clearly differentiate oneself from the competition. Qualified employees are a decisive competitive advantage, as they contribute significantly to productivity. Every company needs innovative and high-performing employees who are able to contribute to the realization of the company’s vision.
Potential applicants usually arrive directly at the company website via social media or an advertised job posting. There, they inform themselves in more detail, engage more intensively with the company philosophy, want to identify with the values, and learn more about the background. A company website that only integrates superficial job advertisements has little chance of attracting qualified specialists.
For potential employees, performance-based income is only a small factor influencing their decision to join a company. More important to them are the values a company stands for, the work atmosphere, the challenges offered, and the vision the company pursues. Applicants today want to identify with the company and carefully check in advance whether the desired position meets their requirements and needs.
This also offers you, as a company, a decisive advantage: By optimally designing your career website, you will not only find qualified specialists but precisely the employees who fit your company and your expectations. This way, certain values, your vision, and your corporate philosophy can be further strengthened.
What should the career website contain?
Vacant job advertisements should be clearly recognizable at first glance. These should be further subdivided into specific occupational groups, such as interns, entry-level professionals, executives, apprentices, mini-jobbers, temporary workers and others.
- Detailed information about your company.
- At which locations is your company represented?
- What values does your company stand for (e.g., sustainability, animal welfare, human rights)?
- Which working time models do you offer (flexitime, home office…)?
- What career opportunities are available to applicants (are further training courses offered and financed? What opportunities are there for internal promotion within the company?)
- What does a typical working day look like in your company (are there employee testimonials, pictures and videos that provide insights into the work culture? Have reports about company parties or excursions been published)?
- What additional benefits do you offer your employees (e.g., fitness contributions, childcare services, collaborations with kindergartens and fitness studios, anti-stress seminars, yoga classes)?
- How does the recruiting process work in your company (who is the contact person, are online tests conducted, or are assessment centers common?)
Of particular importance on your career website is to clearly highlight who you are actually looking for. The job advertisement should be designed to be as Emotional and appealing as possible to attract attention. Not only professional qualifications are crucial, but also personality traits.
Are you looking for creative, independent, and socially oriented employees? Or do you value other personality traits?
Therefore, you should thoroughly consider the desired employee profile in advance. Think about what characteristics they should possess. By integrating these aspects into the job advertisement, you will automatically attract the right individuals. If interested candidates feel addressed, they will read the information on your website more intensely and engage deeply with the details. This increases the likelihood of receiving an application.
Ultimately, job advertisements must be easy to find. If you offer a wide range of different positions, it is ideal to integrate a filter. This allows applicants to easily navigate and find the position that best matches their qualifications.
Address Benefits
Benefits are an extremely important aspect of your company website. Benefits are understood to mean not only monetary incentives, but above all non-monetary benefits. These include all the offerings that you as an employer hold out in prospect. Benefits contribute significantly to employer branding and help potential employees to identify with your company.
For many employees, it is a challenge to reconcile family and career. That is why many companies enter into cooperations with kindergartens or grant a subsidy for a kindergarten place. If you offer such benefits to potential employees, this increases motivation and raises the chance of winning qualified specialists for your company.
How do I optimize the job advertisement?
It is generally known that a website’s loading time affects the click-through rate. This aspect is also crucial for SEO, because the higher the bounce rate, the worse the ranking in search results. A poor ranking reduces the likelihood of attracting qualified applicants. If you want to attract potential employees with your career website, a fast loading time is essential. However, if your website has long loading times, your direct competition will have the upper hand. Users today are extremely impatient, and attention spans are limited. If a website loads too slowly, they simply switch to the next one.
Numerous tools are available online that you can use to check your website’s loading speed. If problems are found, you should then make optimizations. Typically, loading time is slowed down by too many plugins that may no longer be in use. Images and videos also play a major role if they have not been optimized beforehand.
The majority of users today are mobile. Young people, in particular, seem to be practically inseparable from their smartphones. For this reason, websites are increasingly accessed not via desktop, but via smartphone. Whether on the go or at home, it is significantly more convenient to pull out a smartphone and access a website.
You should consider this fact when creating your career website. Ensure that the mobile display is optimally designed. If you work with WordPress, you should use a Responsive design, which ensures an adapted display on mobile devices. You can also make many adjustments yourself.
In addition, mobile optimization is also relevant for search engine optimization (SEO). A well-optimized mobile website can improve your ranking in search results. Furthermore, it is advantageous to tailor the entire application process to mobile use. For example, offer your applicants the option to submit certain documents (such as certificates) later. Most users will not have their application documents stored on their smartphone, but a direct application via smartphone should still be straightforward.
As mentioned at the outset, information about the company and especially about the daily work routine is of crucial importance. Unfortunately, these aspects are neglected by many employers today. Potential applicants look for meaningful reports as well as pictures and videos that authentically reflect the daily work routine and corporate culture. However, many companies make the mistake of resorting to stock photos or staged shots on their company website. Visitors recognize the difference, and these representations often appear inauthentic. Similar lighting and angles are frequently used, which causes distrust among visitors. Instead, rely on truly credible and authentic images and videos. Personal testimonials from existing employees can be credibly supported by engaging videos. Background noises that realistically depict the daily work routine can also be helpful.
Consider this: Why is influencer marketing so popular, and why is traditional advertising increasingly losing its significance?
Traditional advertising often relies on staged situations and exaggerations aimed at generating emotions. In contrast, influencer marketing focuses on authentic situations, which makes this method so successful. The same applies to the representations on your website: the more authentically they are designed, the more attractive they are to your visitors. A corporate blog, which you can integrate into your website, can also be helpful. This blog offers the opportunity to provide your visitors with the latest information about your company. Of course, not only applicants and employees should be in focus, but also your customers.
The same applies to the representations on your website: the more authentic they are, the more attractive they are to your visitors. A corporate blog can also be very helpful if you integrate it into your website. Through this blog, you can provide your visitors with the latest information about your company. Not only applicants and employees should be in focus, but also your customers.
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Conclusion:
A well-designed career website is a fundamental prerequisite today for attracting potential applicants. Both excellent usability and the information provided are crucial. Put yourself in the shoes of your applicants and make their experience on your website as pleasant as possible. Ensure that your visitors can easily navigate to the desired target page by integrating simple and user-friendly navigation. An authentic appearance is also a decisive criterion, as it significantly influences potential applicants‘ decision to choose your company.
Do you have questions?
Eliana Gramer
Head of Web/Digital
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