Greetings! 

Welcome to the August whatjobsite newsletter. This month we continue our look at employer careers sites and focus on what makes a good one. We also give you the results of our July online poll. And, as ever, we've got a cracking collection of exclusive offers from our job board partners¹. 

If you have any comments or feedback about this newsletter, please drop me an email. I'd love your feedback.

Editor

 Feature Article

Last month we wrote about how effective it can be to have a careers area on your company site. This month we continue on this theme by looking at what makes a good careers website. 

Design

1: It's a careers site.

A basic careers will usually list live job vacancies; but it could also include a "How to apply section" explaining the recruitment process, an "About Us" section that details the company working environment and culture; and other static content areas. The key purpose of your careers site is to advertise jobs and promote your recruitment brand. Make sure that whatever you create it meets these two key functions.

2: KISS.

Create an easy-to-use layout and navigation scheme. You want a careers site that encourages the best people out there to apply for your jobs. Don't over-complicate matters. Adopt the KISS approach: Keep It Simple, Stupid.

3: Employment Brand

Make sure you careers area captures and expresses your recruitment brand. However, don't limit consideration of your recruitment brand to your careers area alone. Your brand should be consistent throughout your entire website. For more information on recruitment branding, read our article 'An introduction to recruitment branding.'

Content

4: List your vacancies.

Obviously, when you create your site you should make sure it's easy to list your vacancies. Most websites will have a Content Management System (CMS) that allows you to add and edit pages. Get those live vacancies on the site as soon as possible. And if you don't have any live vacancies in your company, are you happy to accept speculative applications from people? Let candidates know whether you accept such applications.

5: Explain the recruitment process.

Explain to candidates how to apply for jobs and what they should expect once an application has been received. For example, do you require a email application or postal application? Do you require a covering letter? Will candidates be invited for face-to-face interview or will there be an initial telephone interview? In other words, let candidates know exactly what will happen.

6: Sell you company.

Show candidates what kind of place your company is to work in. If it is a funky creative place that looks for funky creative people then say so; if it's a hard-working hectic environment where closing the deal is key, then say so. Being clear about what your company is like will help you find the right people to work in it.

7: Get feedback.

Ensure you have a mechanism for getting feedback from candidates and applicants. Be sure to monitor, respond and embrace this valuable information.

Management

8: One size doesn't fit all.

Your careers site is not the be all and end all of your recruitment strategy. You will still have to advertise your jobs on job boards and in newspapers. What's more, not all jobs that you list on your site can or should be recruited in the same way. For example, recruiting an administrative assistant might only require candidates to send you a CV for you to review before inviting suitable candidates for interview. Recruiting a Financial Controller, however, might necessitate your allowing candidates an initial confidential call to discuss the opportunity before they send in their application. Again, your careers site is about hiring the best people for your company. Ensure that both it and your company are flexible enough to do this.

9: Clarify your internal recruitment process.

How are candidates going to apply for jobs? Do you have an email address like jobs@mycompany.co.uk? Who is going to respond to applicants? Who is going to screen applicants? What happens then? To ensure the best candidate experience and successful recruiting, ensure that you establish a clear internal recruitment process in your company. 

10: Test, test, and test again.

No matter what kind of careers site you create, whether it's a one page site with a single vacancy listing or a 100 page fully interactive video-laden microsite, be sure to spend as much time as possible testing it. Make sure it actually works; make sure the content makes sense; make sure everything is spelled correctly; make sure the links work. You only get one shot at candidates: make it your best shot.

For more information on online recruitment and job board advertising visit the whatjobsite Recruitment Advice area.

 Whatjobsite July Poll Results

Do you have a careers area on your company website?

In our continuing exploration of employers' online recruitment strategies, in July we asked our users "Do you have a careers area on your company website?"

A whopping 73% of our users said they had a careers area on their company website; with only 27% saying they didn't. It's encouraging to see so many companies committed to online recruitment.

That being said, in August our online poll will explore the more significant question of how effective employers consider their careers site as part of their recruitment strategy. Let us know what you think. Visit whatjobsite and vote. 

 Whatjobsite July Key Statistics

We are always yabbering on about job boards being transparent about their users audience, so we thought it was time we started following our own advice. Below we offer details of our user traffic for July.
 
Unique Users: 5,234
Visits: 7,324
Page Impressions: 73,156
 
Top 5 Searches*
Admin & Secretarial
IT jobs/IT support
Trade/Skilled jobs
Unskilled
Sales
 
Top 5 Viewed Sites
Fish4jobs
CWjobs
CV-library
eFinancialCareers
RetailChoice
 
*These are the most popular job role searches by users looking for job boards to advertise their vacancies in July.

Find out more about web site traffic statistics by clicking here.