How to Drive Candidates to Your Career Page

 

Talent Retriever is partnering with Mass TLC for the Build Your Business Conference on March 15 at Microsoft NERD in Cambridge, MA.

 

We’re excited to be part of this awesome event that will feature Boston’s best talent leaders discussing how to build technology company’s leadership, sales and human resources functions.

 

Talent Retriever’s Co-Founder and President, Cheryl Barbato, will be moderating a panel discussion featuring:

 

Bill Chouinard, Director of Talent Acquisition, Cengage

Chad Hixon, Direct of Talent Acquisition, CarGurus

Ellie Mirman, CMO, Crayon.

 

The panel will be discussing “Branding and Marketing for Talent Acquisition” and how to project corporate culture externally to attract your target pool of talent.

To give you a sneak peek on the types of ideas and strategies that will be discussed…

 

Here’s a plan on How to Drive Candidates to your Career Page and use it as a marketing tool that leads to conversions.

 

Your Career Page needs to act is its own “hiring hub” – it’s where everything that is awesome about working at your company is featured.  

 

If you’re still using your Career Page to list “Positions Available” and direct candidates to an email address to send their resume and cover letter, you’re squandering opportunity.

 

The best career pages feature the following:

  1. A strong value statement at the top of the page that states why you should work at the company.
  2. A paragraph/bullets with more details on the values of the company.
  3. A well-illustrated list of perks, benefits and amenities.
  4. Pictures of the team having fun and working hard. (remember it’s not all about company outings and beer Fridays – people want a career where the work is meaningful and challenging)
  5. A 2-4 minute video featuring employee testimonials, the office in action.
  6. Awards and recognition as a strong work place.
  7. A clear breakdown of departments, open positions and a Call to Action of how to apply.

You want to keep candidates engaged on your Career Page, because most Career Pages don’t have a high conversion rate. In fact,  bounce rates are as high as 98%. But by having this type of content you’re building interest beyond just showing open jobs.  

 

Once you have a well-developed Career Page…

 

Here’s the key to drive candidates to it: 

A Micro-Content Social Media Strategy

 

Think of it like a blog.  A solid blog strategy is to write long form content and drive your audience to that content by sharing short snippets of it on social media. Otherwise known as Micro-Content. This may be short videos, pictures infographics, etc.

 

It’s quick, easy to digest and it gets people to want more. And from there you look for a conversion once they’re on your site.

 

Use that model for your career page. Create Micro-Content from the things featured on the page to drive traffic to it from social media.  

 

A 2-4 minute video is a perfect way to start with this.

 

Here’s what you should focus on within the video.

  1. The voices of your team – Find a few people that can be brand ambassadors of the company and are comfortable in front of a camera. These are people that have something to say and they know how to say it. That’s not for everyone, so don’t force it. Have them talk about their experience with the company and why they love working there.
  1. Show your office and the working environment – Display the energy, the hard work and what a day in the life looks like. You want people envisioning themselves working at the company.
  1. Talk about the value of the company – Focus on career and professional development, opportunity for growth, the impact that can be made at the company. Or the value may be in the location and office space, company perks. Every company has its own unique value – maximize how you display that.

If you have the marketing resources available – get them to buy in. If you don’t, everything you need can be done with a few inexpensive resources, and some creativity.

 

What you need is good lighting, high quality sound, a tripod and your smartphone. Linked are resources for under $50 each.

 

To edit the video – Check out WeVideo. For under $20 a month you’ll have a full-service editing software that’s perfect for beginners.

 

Here’s an example of a video Talent Retriever created using video testimonials from our national remote team.

 

Once you have a 2-4-minute video you can create Micro-Content.  

 

Edit 15-30 second clips of the video.  Or use some of the best quotes from the video and overlay text on still images from the video.  

 

By doing so you have an entirely new post that you can share on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram that can drive engagement. In the description of the post – provide the link to the Career Page and invite people to learn more and apply.

 

Make these posts a regular practice. There are tons of ways to repurpose the content that you have on the page to make short and interesting posts. Or create new content regularly by capturing employee testimonials.

 

This type of marketing efforts isn’t just helpful for attracting candidates – it’s critical. 56% of passive candidates say that employer branding is the most important factor when choosing where to work.

 

If you’re not doing these types of things – your competitors are. And the “War for Talent” is too competitive to fall behind.

 

For more information, tips and strategies  just like this – join us at Mass TLC’s Build Your Business Conference at Microsoft NERD on March 15!

 

Click here to register!