10 Tips for Creating a Branded Careers Page

It’s true that unless you’re a big company, most applicants don’t start the job search from your careers page, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t end up on your careers page at some point in the process. To attract the most (and best!) applicants to your job postings, you really need to sell the job across the entire application experience—from each and every job board post to your own careers page.

Typically, when people see that you have open roles, they’ll head over to your site and your careers page to figure out if they are a good fit. According to the Talent Board’s 2015 Candidate Experience Research, 64% of candidates consider career sites the most valuable resource when researching new opportunities. If you don’t have a company careers page, or you’d like to revamp your existing one, we’ve pulled together ten tips for creating a great careers page that attracts top talent and gets more applicants.

1. Write Great Job Descriptions

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A great job description needs to have a clear job title, an enticing description of the job, a full list of responsibilities, clear requirements, and any other perks that your company offers. That might seem like a lot, but if you want people to attract the most-qualified applicants, you need to offer them a detailed description of what they’re getting into. It’s hard to get job descriptions right if you’re out of practice, and there is a lot of detail that goes into it. If you’re looking for more detailed guidance on writing job descriptions, we’ve written just the playbook you’re looking for: How To Write Great Job Descriptions for Blue-Collar Roles.

2. Promote Your Company’s Mission

Remember that hiring isn’t a one-way street. Applicants are assessing the companies they apply for as much as the companies are assessing their resumes. Give future employees a chance to see why they would love working with you by sharing your mission, vision and values.

Nussbaum Group, a landscape company, has a great example on their careers page:

Your company’s purpose helps candidates align their goals with yours. This is vital because, according to studies, goal-oriented employees are more productive.

3. Add Employee Reviews

When people are applying for jobs, they typically look up reviews of the company (like the one above for Dynamic Roofing and Construction on Glassdoor) to learn more about what kind of company they could potentially work with. According to Glassdoor, the majority of candidates read six reviews before forming an opinion about a company.

If you don’t have any reviews for your company on existing job boards, now is a great time to send out an employee survey to collect a few. Your question can be as simple as “What’s the best thing about working here?” so you can be more confident the responses you get will help you build positive social proof on your careers page. You might get some not-so-positive responses as well, but that is great too! Connecting with your current employees builds engagement and let’s them know you care about improving their work experience.

4. Highlight Your Benefits

Just like in a well-written job description, you want to show off the great benefits your company offers right on your careers page. Not many hourly positions offer a lot of perks and benefits, so if you have something that makes you stand out, like health insurance, paid time off, or even company get-togethers, that is a big plus for people, and it should be highlighted. Sometimes, an applicant may have several similar roles in front of them, and benefits large and small can often make a huge difference in their decision-making process.

You don’t have to break the bank to offer outrageous benefits, but it is worth spending some time‚—and budget—analyzing which benefits are the most desirable to your workforce.

5. Include Images and Videos

Only 16 percent of people read web pages word-by-word. To catch more attention and increase the chances that applicants will spend more time scanning your careers page, show them what life is like at your company. Adding images of your company and employees allow applicants to see for themselves what the work environment is like.

A well-crafted recruitment video further improves viewers’ perception of your brand, attracting more qualified talent. Not sure what to include? Companies like Vyond offer great step-by-step guides as well as creative online video animation tools. Just having the jobs listed on the page isn’t enough to get people excited. A picture is worth a thousand words, and visuals will show applicants what kind of company you really are.

6. Show Off Your Team

Providing a visual of who actually works at your company goes a long way to helping applicants picture themselves in a new job with you. We love examples like the one above of the Premier Roofing Denver team after a get-together.

SHRM covers a great list of pros and cons of types of photos to include on a careers page, but the pros definitely outweigh the cons when you consider the instant—and literal—image it provides for your company. If you have a small team, you can show off all your employees, or if your company is larger, you can stick to showing off your management team. Applicants will be able to see who works for you, and it’s a good way for them to get to “know” your current employees.

7. Update Your Job Openings

Make sure your careers page is up to date with the positions you’re hiring for and the positions you are posting on career sites. If on Indeed you’re hiring for a warehouse worker, but your careers page still shows you’re looking for a warehouse supervisor from a year ago, this can confuse people and cause them not to apply.

Job boards all have strict requirements for what can and can’t be included, but since you own your careers page, you have the opportunity to be more creative. Don’t be afraid to try a few different things to see what works!

8. Include an “Apply Now” Button

To encourage lots of applications, you want to make the process as simple as possible. If potential applicants can’t figure out how to submit an application, or if there are too many steps to follow, they will likely abandon the entire process. By adding a clear “apply now” button to each job listing as well as at the top of your careers page, you decrease friction in your application process and show applicants that you want them to apply.

Another common mistake we see on a lot of careers pages is telling applicants to email their resume and application to the main office. We’ve often covered the downsides of using email for blue-collar roles, and it is never more important than right at the very first interaction. Consider adding a “text to apply” option to your job listings to allow applicants to complete their entire application via text messaging.

9. Share Your Hiring Process Roadmap

If you’re looking for a job, you want to know what the process is like at the company you have applied for. Instead of leaving your applicants hanging, feature a hiring roadmap on your careers page to let applicants know exactly what to expect after they submit their resume. It can be as simple as listing a few steps, or having an image, but make sure you state a few things:

• When to expect someone to reach out after applying
• How many interviews there will be
• What the interviews will be like
• How long the overall hiring process may take

This keeps candidates on track with you and can also help make sure you won’t lose them if they don’t hear back from you right away.

10. Make Your Careers Page Mobile-Friendly

Deskless workers are people who are on the go. They don’t work in an office, so they don’t always have a computer on hand. If your careers page is not currently set to be mobile responsive, you are missing out on a lot of candidates. If your careers page is mobile-friendly, you can produce more applicants. This also helps people apply for your job on the spot, instead of having to remember to get home and get on a computer to apply.

Creating a careers page can be overwhelming, but once you have it done, all you’ll have to do is maintain it. It’s worth having because it can attract the right people and help you get those quality candidates you’ve been looking for. If you’re hiring and need help, or you’re curious about what other ways you can get more  high-quality candidates for your blue-collar roles, you can try out the entire Team Engine platform risk-free.