You have open jobs. People want them. Seems simple enough, right? Yet, for some reason, it never is. Building and maintaining your employer brand takes self-reflection, hard work, and a firm commitment to the values and image you present to your candidate market via your careers page and social media presence.
It can be daunting, but if you are looking for a great place to start improving your employer brand, look no further than your careers site.
Your careers site is the crystal ball through which a candidate sees what their future holds as a part of your organization. In this “Applier’s Market” (©Liam Robinson, 2019), it is no longer acceptable to provide a link to your Applicant Tracking System and then call it a day. There are so many things you can do with your page to highlight the great things about your company, but I am going to share 3 little things you can do today that will drastically improve your employer brand’s marketability, visibility, and integrity.
Because a picture is worth a thousand of them! “Well, by that logic, aren’t we technically adding words?” – my obnoxious brain is always getting me on technicalities, but I digress; no one has the attention span for your self-flattering prose! Not active job seekers, and especially not passive ones. Chances are, you haven’t read this sentence, and instead skimmed down to the pictures below. That is because 55% of page views get less than 15 seconds of attention–so you need to structure your content accordingly.
Not only does featuring fewer words and more pictures increase the amount of information you can impart on a candidate, but it also connects with them much more effectively. Take this blurb about having a pet-friendly office for example:
We believe that having your best friend by your side while you work is a boon to your productivity and happiness. We want all of our employees–even the furry ones–to feel happy and safe at our office. We aren’t just throwing you a bone here, we really love animals and do everything in our power to support your love for them as well. We even have a yearly “pet talent show” to raise money for the Humane Society.
Now, would you rather work there, or here (if you even made it through all that mumbo jumbo):
Although the long-winded version certainly describes more value to the potential candidate, the picture invokes an immediate understanding and connection. This is a great way to improve the marketability of your employer brand and can be easily implemented on your current careers page.
It isn’t a secret that your careers page is meant to sell your employment brand to candidates, so it should come as no surprise that they trust your employees 3x more than you. Stop treating recruitment marketing like traditional marketing and let your employees tell their stories!
Start with your all-stars: the people who live your culture and epitomize what you are looking for in an ideal candidate. Keep in mind, you want people to see themselves at your company, so it is important to interview a diverse group of people. Candidates interact most with video and audio, but a few strong quotes with images or even freshly updated blog posts with real accounts from your people can only add to the user experience.
Featuring your employees on your page is essential for boosting your brand’s integrity and connecting with candidates.
Everyone uses Google. E-ver-y-one. Except maybe the residents of Pawnee, Indiana–I hear they are still on AltaVista.
Pawneeans excluded, you need to optimize your visibility on Google to increase your visibility to candidates. It is more important now than ever before, what with the advent of Google for Jobs. Just look at this simple Google search I did for baking jobs:
The very first thing to appear is Google’s job search engine (if you look very closely at the bottom, you can see Google is pushing Indeed, the late Sultan of SEO, below the fold). So I am going to tell you how to get your jobs on Google.
Okay, I don’t want to get too techy for the laymen who may be reading, but tell your developer this: “I want Schema.org structured data on our job postings!” If you display your jobs on your page, then you can have this structured data and get featured on Google for Jobs. Here is an example of the technical markup (warning, coding ahead):
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "http://schema.org",
"@type": "JobPosting",
"datePosted": "2011-10-31",
"description": "Eat lots of cheese and lots of bread and tell us which ones you like so we can give you more.",
"educationRequirements": "Cheesy Bread Degree",
"employmentType": "Full-time",
"experienceRequirements": "Minimum 3 years of cheese and bread tasting experience",
"industry": "Cheese/Bread",
"jobLocation": {
"@type": "Place",
"address": {
"@type": "PostalAddress",
"addressLocality": "Atlanta",
"addressRegion": "GA"
}
},
"qualifications": "Ability to eat cheese and eat bread, a lot of it.",
"responsibilities": "Cheese, but also bread, and sometimes cheesy bread",
"salaryCurrency": "USD",
"skills": eating, talking, describing",
"title": "Cheese and Bread Eater",
"workHours": "40 hours per week"
}
</script>All you have to do is add this to your Single Job Post template, tell Google to crawl your site, and voila! You are on Google for Jobs. Be sure to provide all the information you can to Google, since that info will rank your job higher than a vague posting. Here are some useful resources you can give your developer to help create this markup:
By adding that structured data, decreasing the words on your site, increasing the images, and–most importantly–letting your employees sell your brand, you will inevitably increase the exposure, trustworthiness, and emotional connection to your employment brand. Just implement them, sit back, and watch the candidates flock to your careers site!
Need help getting your content strategy going or want to kick your careers site up to expert-level? We’ve got you covered, just give us a call.