Did you know that:
- nearly 25% of Americans change jobs every year
- billions of dollars are spent on employment advertising
- companies spend on average about $4000/candidate on the entire hiring process
- every open position receives nearly 150 responses in the form of resumes
- 83% of candidates report that their job-search experience rated as “poor”
What these figures don’t reveal is that the recruitment process is one that can be transformative on both sides of the table – for both recruiters and candidates. Provided it’s done the right way.
Creating a win-win situation for both means that the details are worked out meticulously by the recruiters and each step of the hiring process is examined, tested and verified before it is deployed.
As a recruiter, you also need an outstanding set of tools to work with, and your website is the major element that attracts the best talent. Ensuring that your recruiter website design is on par with the best in the industry is a powerful strategy that yields long-term sustainable results.
In the current environment, where technology is changing at such breakneck speeds, and the definitions of “work” and “employment” are evolving rapidly, the marketplace has become increasingly candidate-driven.
Importance of Recruitment Websites
Recruiters find it increasingly difficult to attract the right talent. The advent of recruitment websites, beginning with the legendary Monster site in the 1990s, has also dramatically altered the recruitment landscape.
Hiring decisions can significantly impact an organization, and a single wrong one could wreck years of hard work. Conversely, a great hiring decision can take an organization to unimaginable heights.
This is why most employers today prefer to outsource hiring to a professional recruiter, unless it calls for someone with niche skills and a very specific profile.
Recruitment websites are specially geared to:
- Streamline the hiring process
- Save employer’s time and effort
- Help to fill multiple vacancies simultaneously
- Provide access to a vast pool of candidates
- Help companies to compete for the best candidates with their competitors
- Enable lower turnover, since the recruiter has more information about the candidate’s values, career goals, aspirations, etc.
- Provide access to passive candidates who may be suitable for niche positions
- Reinforce the company’s brand name and persona
Website Essentials: Inspiration & Best Practices
Your recruitment website is your “store-front” and it’s also your 24x7x365 marketing tool.
Candidates no longer have to plod from company to company, submitting copies of their resume. Companies no longer have to waste their time and effort advertising, shortlisting, processing, going through multiple rounds of interviews etc.
The recruitment website is the one-stop shop for both sides of the table. It has to tick all the right boxes of the recruitment process:
- post job vacancies on behalf of employers
- compile various vacancies from available sources into an integrated database
- maintain a searchable pool of candidate profiles
- provide a networking arena for candidate-employer interaction
- offer optional additional services such as background checks, document verification, first-round telephone or video interviews, etc.
Features of a great recruitment website:
1. Easy to find: If you need to stay on top of the game, it’s essential that your website is found at the top, and not lost in the crowd among the thousands of sites that appear on search engines. There are thousands of recruitment agency websites, and even more in-house recruitment departments that put out job postings. Unless your website is ranked high enough, both candidates and employers would not find it. Add a fast search-and-browse capability for first-time visitors.
2. Simple Navigation: Clean, simple and easy navigation is highly valued in professional websites. Websites with uncluttered design, buttons that are easy to find, clear CTAs in all the pages, contact and registration information, etc. provide great benefits. They offer a smooth, seamless, friendly UX and visitor journey that is memorable and encourages loyalty. An easy application process that’s optimized to various devices that visitors access the website from will benefit users.
3. Strong Content: Quality content with a sturdy CMS ensures that your website ranks higher on search engine pages. High-level SEO optimization, good quality blog, original, fresh and reliable content yields better links and social media connections. Keep your website updated regularly with authoritative content in the form of whitepapers, video, podcasts, opinion pieces, e-books, explainers, industry news, industrial and labor legislation amendments, etc.
4. Unique Identity: In the crowded recruitment industry, it’s vital to emphasize your unique USP. The website should project a sense of authenticity, ethical practices and trustworthiness. It should also correctly address the target audience. If you specialize in a particular niche recruitment area, your website should convey this. All the design elements should align with the brand identity.
5. Security and Confidentiality: As a recruiter, you take privacy and data protection seriously. You can decide what data to collect, store and how long to keep it for, and share these terms and conditions with users. A “My Account” section offers a secure environment where data can be stored, accessed, deleted, edited, etc.
6. Speed and technology: Stay abreast of the latest technology, as the changes are sudden and frequent. Slow loading websites with non-optimized images/graphics get left out of the race and bounce rates are high. Provide personalization through customized job-alerts as paid-for features or rewards, custom plug-ins for companies and social media. You can also set up training schedules, set ups and calibrated information analytics according to your requirements. Features such as KPI/keyword tracking can help measure your success rate.
7. Back-Office Functionality: Your recruitment website functions as a portal that makes it easy to connect job seekers with jobs and those who offer them. A good site-map helps to speed up the processes and to take candidates/employers efficiently to their goals. It should be capable of handling different traffic volumes and have scalability to grow along with your business.
It’s important that the website does what it’s required to do, that it performs at peak levels and delivers top quality results.
This is where the design and development element comes in and as a recruiter, it’s your task to ensure that your goals, values and aspirations for your recruitment business are reflected accurately on your website.
