Standout Jobs

There’s a great article in the Wall Street Journal — More Corporate Career Sites Satisfy Job Hunters’ Demands — which relates the findings of a recent study from some of the top corporate career sites out there.

The article has a number of important and positive things to say about companies that take their corporate career sites to the next level.

What Belongs On a Career Site?

“Features that respondents say they most want to find easily include detailed company and job profiles, descriptions of ideal candidates, insights into long-term career opportunities and a clearly defined application process.”

These are the basics. Candidates want more information before they apply. They’re willing to look deeper into a company to see if it’s a good fit, but the content has to be readily available.

“According to the Potentialpark survey, one way that some employers are distinguishing their career portals is by adding interactive features, such as games, self-assessment quizzes and blogs.”

Information isn’t necessarily enough. When targeting a younger generation you need to reach them with the tools, features and content they find interesting. You need to stand out. And part of that is showing off an employer brand that is quite likely different from your corporate brand.

In our case, we’re seeing quite a few candidates voting on polls that companies post on their career sites. A poll on our Career Site has 35+ votes on it. The folks at Smarthippo have 14 votes. These aren’t huge numbers but they show candidates’ interest in getting interactive.

Are Corporate Career Sites Really Important?

“Meeting job hunters’ expectations is critical for employers. Company Web sites are the second most common source of new hires, preceded by referrals, according to a survey of 50 U.S. companies with 5,000 employees or more due out later this month from CareerXroads, a staffing-consulting firm.”

Depending on who you ask, Career Sites are even the #1 source for new hires. #2 is still pretty darn good. What most companies might not realize is that a lot of traffic they get to their is in fact candidates (both passive and active) looking for interesting jobs. I once spoke to someone at a big IT consulting firm who told me, “40% of the traffic to our site is job seekers.”

Companies spend a great deal of time and money optimizing their websites for converting prospects into leads and sales, but completely drop the ball when it comes to converting potential candidates into prospects and applicants.

For us, we’re seeing great results when companies link to their Career Site from their home page. Check out b5media and Wandrian. Both link directly to their Career Sites with us, and prominently. They get some of the highest traffic numbers to their Career Sites.

“More employers are tailoring their career portals to appeal to recent graduates because they’re highly active and savvy Web users…”

Fact is, you’re probably trying to hire young people. Regardless of whether you’re a big company or small. And younger people are Web savvy and they want to see the principles of social media and networking implemented in their job hunting experience.

“Anecdotal evidence suggests that the recent enhancements to corporate career sites are helping to attract larger and more qualified applicant pools. Recruiters report an increasing amount of positive feedback from job candidates during interviews.”

Ultimately this is what we’re all aiming for — more high-quality candidates.

Although Standout Jobs has only been live for a few weeks we’re already seeing these results. Many of our clients have received applications (some have received over 10 in a couple weeks), and from the feedback we’re getting most of the companies are high quality.

By providing a great Career Site you’re taking a step up. You’re doing more. And candidates recognize and appreciate that fact. As a result, you attract higher quality people willing to make the leap and apply.

But It’s Gotta Be Expensive Right?

“To be sure, upgrading a company career site can be costly and time consuming, says Potentialpark’s Mr. Lenning. Expenses typically involve technology upgrades, legal inspection, advertising and more. Also, some popular features require regular maintenance. Blogs, for example, need to be kept fresh and engaging for job seekers, and videos depicting jobs may require changes as job functions evolve.”

This is where I disagree with the Potentialpark survey. Setting up a great career site isn’t free, and depending on the size of your company, you may have to get multiple levels of approval and legal involved, but technologically the barriers to entry are very low.

The time investment is something to consider — because blogs do require updating, you do want to keep content fresh — but you don’t have to spend 5 hours a day doing that (like people are doing on Facebook!) A good corporate career site that updates every couple of weeks is plenty — that’s just enough to keep things fresh and make sure the people who have expressed interest in your company see that you’re alive and doing well.

Is This Only for the Big Guys?

Definitely not. Many big companies are experimenting in the world of social media and social network recruiting. They are trying to improve and enhance their corporate career sites. But small companies can do just as much, and quicker too.

Smaller companies may not have a strong brand. Having a great career site can help with that because it’s another face to the world.