One of the keys to establishing a labor pipeline is to always be recruiting. A simple method for constant recruitment is to establish a career page on your website.
Kelly Dowell, founder of Keldo Digital, says it’s a great idea to have a career page for various reasons, including recruitment, branding and sales. She explains your career page can also serve as a sales tool for clients who want to do business with companies that treat their employees well.
“Even if they’re just a client, people want to see what it’s like to work there,” Dowell says. “They want to see what the company culture is all about. It’s just a great tool for branding.”
The Importance of Career Pages
All companies that want to recruit more employees should have a career page on their website.
“Even if applicants are not finding it through organic search, meaning keywords like horticulture jobs near me, they’re still doing their research on you,” Dowell says.
Dowell says while candidates might hear of your company from a friend or see one of the ads you have running, they’ll eventually come to your website and see what you do and who you serve.
“It really helps you save on that advertising budget because they can come in and already have an understanding of what your culture and company is like so you’re guaranteed you’re going to get a better fit of a candidate or a higher quality of a candidate,” Dowell says.
One of the things applicants will look for is if your team looks like a place they could fit in. Depending on the size of your company it may not be feasible to update your website every time there is a staffing change, but Dowell says a team photo can help job applicants get a feel for the size of your business. She does encourage having the management and leadership team visible for candidates.
“I think people do like to see who started the business and hear what about what their story is,” Dowell says. “People do enjoy reading about that. So, if you’re comfortable with it, I think that is a great thing to put on there.”
Having a career page also increases the odds of people interacting with it and submitting applications. Dowell says it can even result in referrals from clients who see you are hiring and know someone who might be looking for a job.
What Should Be on Your Career Page
Photo: 3 Bears Landscaping
As mentioned early, giving site visitors a snapshot of your team, your values and mission statement are all things that help them get a good feel for your company’s culture.
Dowell says the structure of your career page should attract, convince and convert. To attract job applicants to your career page it needs to be very easy to find on your website. Dowell says it should be on the menu bar on its own.
Once an applicant is on your career page, you need to engage them.
“Most website visitors spend 80 percent of their time above the fold, which is an old newspaper term, but basically it means at the top and they don’t scroll past that,” Dowell says. “So that being said, you have to engage them within about one or two seconds of them hitting your page. Having a great photo, whether it’s people on your team, or your uniform or something creative so they continue to stay on that page.”
When they keep scrolling, you can show them why they should choose you over the local competition. Dowell suggests having a video that shows a day in the life at XYZ Landscaping that’s one to three minutes long that helps convince them your company is somewhere they want to work.
“Since the labor pool is really competitive, your branding and culture are really important here,” Dowell says. “Having a list of your core values or five reasons to join our landscaping team are great for SEO, but they’re also great to engage your candidates.”
Conversion is asking the candidate to take the next step. Make sure you have a bold call to action and provide a form for them to fill out. With forms, the less questions you ask, the more applications you will get. The more questions you ask, the more refined applicants you get.
“You can be selective if you’re in a great position where you’re only looking for to fill one role,” Dowell says. “You’re going to get a more refined and a more qualified candidate by asking more questions and specific questions.”
As for whether you should post job titles or full job descriptions on your career page, Dowell advises writing at least a paragraph describing the role of the position as companies often have different titles for similar roles.
She says you should be marketing the job description and avoid using the HR-driven content as it’s often a turnoff to applicants. Dowell notes that by including your company benefits on your career page you can help reduce the price of your job ads.
“When you post something on Craigslist or Indeed, or even NALP’s posting boards, you’re only allowed a limited amount of space for text,” Dowell says. “So, if you’re able to use your own media, which is your website, it’s the cheapest, easiest way to get the word out there.”
Dowell advises if you decide to include salaries on your career page it should be reviewed regularly so the information is always accurate.
Following Up with Applicants
If you are wanting more applicants, ask the least amount of questions that will let you figure out if they are someone you want to follow up with. Dowell says to keep in mind most people are filling out these forms on a mobile device so make sure the form is mobile-friendly.
“If it goes by fast, people will be more inclined to fill out that form,” she says. “If you need a ton of applications, it could be a simple as saying ‘Write your phone number here and we’ll text you when jobs become available’ and then they don’t even have to give you their name. They don’t have to do anything past that. You’re developing a waiting list for yourself.”Another way to make the most out of your career page is to use Google retargeting. However, Dowell cautions using this tool.
“You need to be very knowledgeable on what you’re doing or you’re going to spend a lot of money without getting a lot of return because it has to be very defined that you’re just looking for candidates, and you’re not looking for clients,” Dowell says. “Just because somebody visited your site doesn’t mean they’re wanting to be part of your team.”
