Your career website says a lot about you. It tells candidates what you value, gives them a window into your culture, and—by looking at the full list of job openings—they are keyed into your growth strategy.
If your career website is flat, uninformative, and boring, then that sends a distinct and disappointing message. If it’s delightful, easy to use, and showcases all of the reasons why your company is the right one to join, then that sends a powerful and positive signal to candidates.
No matter which end of the spectrum you’re on, there are always ways to improve your career website. Why is this important? Because, at 55%, it’s the top source of hires.
We designed this lookbook to be a source of inspiration to help you explore how a wide variety of Jobvite customers are showcasing their employer brand and delivering an exceptional candidate experience on their career websites to help them get top talent in the door.
If you’re interested in discussing how we can work similar magic on your career website, then contact .
Source: Jobvite
When designing a new career website, start by answering these important questions:
Once you understand what makes you “you,” then shout it from the rooftops. That’s what Universal Music Group did when they embarked on creating their new career website and it turned out to be quite a dramatic makeover.
Jobvite helped us to organize our thoughts and goals for our branded careers page so that we were able to deliver a design that Jobvite brought to life with precision and excellence.
— Marc Shea, Director, Talent Acquisition, Universal Music Group
Create a photo gallery with high-quality photos of real employees. Candidates can smell stock photography a mile away. Also, highlight words that mean a lot to your company to attract candidates who align with your values. You can see in the Glu Mobile makeover, their culture now jumps from the page.
Your online presence is a job seeker’s first impression of what you offer as an employer. In fact, 59% of job seekers research companies’ website, social media, and reviews to gain insight on their employer brand and culture.
— Jobvite, 2016 Job Seeker Nation Study
OK, a candidate is ready to apply for a job on your career website and she encounters a barrier at every stage in the process—too many clicks, a mandatory login, a long and cumbersome form to complete, and midway through—it errors out and she has to start all over again. Do yourself a favor. Apply to a job on your own career site and discover how many walls you put up in between a candidate and a completed application. Then, try it again on a mobile device. Now, see how Getty Images does it. See what we mean?
42% of candidates that had a bad experience would never seek employment at that company again.
— Social Talent
Some people like to read while others absorb new information more easily through images. To make sure that your career website isn’t too text heavy, create icons for different categories of information—whether they be locations, departments, or perks. Icons help you drive home the message that your company is a great place to work on multiple levels. Plus, icons work beautifully on mobile devices.
44% of people are more likely to engage with brands if they post pictures than any other media.
— Hubspot Marketing, 2016
Always put the top priority content that you want job seekers to walk away with easily accessible on the landing page. If you information that you want on a second page, then make sure it’s worth the time to click by giving them content that is rich with images and important information, like “Why You’ll Love Trustwave.” There’s nothing worse that clicking on a link and being let down when there’s nothing interesting there.
Trustwave, in partnership with Jobvite, took our old website with outdated graphics, fonts, etc., and transformed it into a best-in-class career site that is highly functional and incredibly beautiful. The Jobvite team offered us a perfect mix of providing insight and listening to us about what we wanted the site to be.
— Mike Smart, Director, Talent Acquisition, Trustwave
You want to give job seekers easy ways to find the right job for them, but at the same time, you don’t want to overwhelm or confuse them. So, remember the, “Keep it Simple, Stupid,” rule and just offer the top two or three search filters that make the most sense from a job seeker perspective. They will thank you by submitting an application.
More than 50% of job seekers first visit a company’s online properties—website, social media sites, etc.—to gain insight on employer brand identity and company.
— Jobvite, 2016 Job Seeker Nation Study
If you require the job seeker to search by team, such as this Rosetta Stone career site, always make sure to offer a “search all” option just in case the job seeker does not know which team they fall under. You always want to make sure that they are not missing out on any opportunities whether they are looking on a desktop or from a mobile device.
75% more people used their mobile devices to search for jobs on LinkedIn than in 2015.
— Jobvite, 2016 Job Seeker Nation Study
When done well, a brand story can awaken your passion, ignite your imagination, and inspire a candidate to take up your cause and join your company. That’s exactly what Icebreaker did in their, “We Were Born Wild,” video on their main career site landing page. It artfully expresses who Icebreaker is and what they believe in, inviting candidates into their world to learn more.
88% of candidates who had a “good experience” applying for a job left feeling positively about the employer, even if they did not get a job.
— Josh Bersin, Principal and Founder, Bersin by Deloitte
There’s nothing more powerful than hearing directly from a current employee who shares what they love most your company. So, let them tell their stories that encourages candidates to imagine collaborating—and being friends with—your people.After all, that’s the same thing that realtors do when they stage a home. Ingram Micro’s short employee videos will even make you want to join their company...or copy the idea!
Employers with a strong employment brand drive 2x the amount of applicants per job compared to other companies, and see a 43% decrease in cost per hire.
— LinkedIn, 2016