Keep Calm and Carry On. This was a phrase first coined in the months before World War 2, but like Corporal Jones in ‘Dad’s Army’ there was a genuine expression of panic in some the faces of attendees at the recent TruLondon.
Augmented Reality, Layar, Recruitment 3.0 and 4.0, viral videos, QR codes and many more buzz words littered the floor of the City Hotel. With so much going on, where do you start?
During one of the breaks between Tracks, one recruiter turned to me and said. “Help, I’m totally lost. Where do I start?” Having just been involved with a track on Augmented Reality (AR), he was amazed at what was possible with mobile, but was left wondering what do.
How much would it cost? And how was he going to explain to the HRD that they needed to embrace AR, when they were only just getting to grips with SEO?
Getting back to basics
It’s very easy to get carried away with the latest technology or want to dive in to social media to start recruiting, but sometimes it best to stop and get back to basics.
Carry out a mini recruitment audit?
Look at how your business is currently recruiting, what has been successful, what hasn’t worked and where are you spending your budget.
Reviewing your success stories may seem obvious, but many companies have no scientific method of tracking where their candidates are sourced. If you can’t accurately track and measure this information, it should be one of the first areas to be addressed.
Who are your candidates?
How much do you actually know about your company’s employees? Understanding your ‘target’ candidate market is extremely important and regardless of how much technology we have, recruitment is about people. Understanding what makes them ‘tick’, connecting with them, building relationships and ‘selling’ the opportunity.
When 4MAT design career websites, we first conduct research into what is important on the website, to ensure that it is designed around the user, what they want and need to have at their finger tips.
The same is true when using social media. There are over 25 million Facebook users in the UK and 5 million on LinkedIn, but where are your company’s employees ‘hanging out’?
Sales & marketing and recruitment may well be using LinkedIn, but are your accounts or customer service teams? Your IT developers are more likely to use technology forums than LinkedIn, but make sure you ask the question.
Your career website is a good place to start.
Your career website or career pages is one of the best places to start. Ultimately your career website is where the majority of candidates will arrive, but can candidates find it easily?
Approximately 15 million people use Google every month, but the majority of career websites are not search engine friendly. In fact 92% of the ‘Sunday Times Best Big Companies to Work For’ have vacancies on their career websites which Google can’t find. How many HR and Resourcing Professionals are aware of this fact?
Equally many companies use the standard ATS website integration, which has little or no employer branding, within the ‘vacancy area’ or worse no navigation to the main career website. If a candidate receives this vacancy by email, what is their experience like? How can they easily find out more about the company, its values, the team and opportunities if there is no navigation?
A successful career website can attract, engage and convert potential employees from visitor to applicant, but many are failing to consider the candidate and their requirements. For example if 60% of people apply for new jobs in their current work place, sound is not a good idea.
Online Job Search = Online Shopping
Modern career websites have more in common with their e-commerce cousins than the traditional brochure and ATS application form and once established become the hub for social media, video, blogging, mobile and the latest trend gamification.
Review your career website regularly and put yourself in a candidate’s shoes.
Good questions to use are:
- Can I find the career website with Google? - (Over 50% of candidates use job title or family and location in searches, not a company name)
- Can I use the website on a mobile phone?
- Can I find relevant information easily or do I have to search for it?
- Is the site easy to navigate?
- How easy is it to search for jobs? - Compare with online retail and other recruitment sites.
- What is the application experience?
A career website that works will attract better quality candidates who are more engaged with your brand. An engaged visitor is not only more likely to apply, but also more likely to refer, which leads to opportunities to successfully use social media.
So in answer to the question “Where do I start?”
- Understand your candidates by understanding your employees
- Review and measure what media attracts candidates which are hired
- Ensure your career website is working by carrying out a review.
A good career website will now provide the company with a platform from which to build into other areas, such as a mobile website, integrated blogs, Facebook and other social media communities. Whatever advanced resourcing tools you decide to use, your company can be safe in the knowledge that your career website continues the experience and engagement.
RWEnpower Case Study:
RWE npower appointed 4MAT to create a cutting edge new career website. Adam Templeman, Resourcing Manager says ‘This project gives RWE npower the opportunity to engage with potential employees at a level that we have not experienced before... This new development should improve the candidate’s knowledge of our business and the roles available, giving them an enhanced experience throughout the recruitment process’.
Read the full story here and Adam’s interview with Recruiter here.
To get a FREE Career Website Review and contact David Johnston on 020 7392 1711 or email david.johnston@4MAT.com
David Johnston
