UK 
United States
In the first insight on the topic of ‘when candidates visit your careers site’ we shared the importance of careers sites for candidates and how they are used as a sourcing channel.
Part two of this insight looks at the differences in how agencies and in-house recruiters use the various sourcing channels and then further investigates how we can make careers sites work better as a sourcing channel.
Sourcing channel differences
Source: 2017 UK CANDIDATE ATTRACTION REPORT
As you can see, the careers site falls in the middle of the quadrant and there are other channels such as Professional Social Networks and ATS/CRM that are proving to be more effective.
Career sites prove to be the most valuable channel for candidates when researching an employer. Yet, there has been a steady decline in organisations finding value in their career sites over the past two years.
Source: 2017 Talent Board EMEA Candidate Experience Report
So how can we make careers sites work better as a sourcing channel?
Before we dive into the specifics, it is worth noting that the 2017 UK Candidate Attraction Survey Results* alter by size of organisation. Larger companies fare better with the success of their career sites which makes sense as they will have greater brand awareness and organic traffic to the site. SME’s under 250 and 251 – 1000 FTE do need to work smarter to compete but all can make improvements pretty much straight away through measuring and monitoring site performance.
Does measuring the effectiveness of your website/ careers site really improve results?
Well this is interesting. Survey results* show a direct correlation between how often a company measures the effectiveness of their careers site and the results seen, whether from their ATS or from web analytics like Google Analytics - or combination of both. Although roughly a third either can’t or don’t measure and it’s those on top of their game that rank highest!
We also see marked improvements when it comes to the frequency with which companies create and update their careers site content – companies with an active content strategy see better results. Those who rarely or only occasionally update and create content ranked lower on both quality and quantity of candidates generated, so if you want greater success there appears to be a moving average of significantly better results with monthly, weekly and daily content.
All of this leads towards the importance of integrating your ATS with your careers site, the use of dynamic content and demonstrating a compelling brand are key for direct candidate sourcing success. There is plenty more that can be gleaned on this subject from the Free 2017 UK Candidate Attraction Report so download your copy today.
Your Career Site Matters: Simply having a career site that lists jobs is not enough – companies must also invest the career site with relevant content, such as information about the job, the employee experience and company culture. Incorporating video and other multi-media content can also be critical brand differentiators. Source: 2017 Talent Board EMEA Candidate Experience Report
Further Reading….
Read how Travelodge embraced the candidate experience within their careers site and optimised their site with candidate personas in mind.
In the past decade online recruitment has moved from simple job listings to a fully integrated end-to-end service. ATS systems can deliver an enhanced employer brand, so read these 5 things to consider before investing.
Creating a new careers site for a great online candidate experience – get the brochure.
