Many job functions, and even entire industries, are facing a talent shortage that makes it difficult for organizations to fill their open positions with qualified candidates.
To overcome this challenge, many organizations are developing career websites to compete for qualified candidates and win them for their team. A great career website does more than list your open opportunities – it sells your candidates on the idea of working at your organization.
A great career website can also help agencies sell your opportunities to their candidates – so you get the best results. Here’s how:
1. Your career website helps agencies get a better candidate response rate.
Direct hire agencies will usually reference information found on your career website when they first reach out to a candidate to get them excited about your opportunity.
Before they’ll agree to be submitted, however, they will usually request the organization’s name so they can do a little research. Your website is the first place they’ll go, and a great career website will show them what it’s like to work at your organization.
Share information about what makes your opportunity unique. Pay particular attention to opportunities for advancement and training, your employee benefits and perks, and anything else you offer to attract and retain talent.
The most in-demand candidates will have plenty of opportunities available to them, and your career website can be the difference between them agreeing to be submitted for your opportunity over another.
2. Your career website helps agencies screen your candidates better.
While a great career website can help you attract top-tier talent, it can also help you screen out those who would not be a good fit. In some cases, the candidate may self-select out when the recruiter first approaches them.
In other cases, your direct hire agency may use the information on your career website to better screen candidates, based on cultural fit.
Share as much information about your company culture as possible to make sure you’re attracting the right candidates. Describe your work environment, and the traits of people that tend to excel there. Better yet, share videos from various members of your team to let them explain what makes your opportunity unique.
This can help candidates identify more closely with your organization, and give your agency recruiters an ideal candidate profile to strive for.
3. Your career website helps agencies close your top choice candidates.
Your agency recruiter is working to pre-close your candidates throughout the recruitment process to understand what it would take for them to accept an offer, if one is presented.
Candidates may reference your career website multiple times to get a deeper understanding of what it would be like to work at your organization and to determine if it’s a good fit for them.
In the final stages, they want to see proof that your organization is all that you’ve said it will be throughout the recruitment process. Much like a LinkedIn profile may be more honest than a resume because it’s available for public consumption and scrutiny, your career website can validate what you’ve said in person because publicly available information is generally more transparent.
When developing your career website, make sure it’s consistent with how you sell your opportunities during the interview process.