The Career Site Refresh for 2023: Your Checklist to Improve Conversions

Your website’s career page is probably one of the most frequently visited on your site. It often marks the first point of contact with potential employees and is the perfect place to showcase your best. Unfortunately, organizations often fail with outdated content and listings. So, how can you go about updating your career site in 2023? We got you! In this article, we highlight the most important factors to consider before getting started on your career site.

Do These 5 Things to Drive Conversions on Your Website

1. Analyze before redesigning

Before you begin working on your new career website or a redesign, assess its current state. A comprehensive review of your site focused on the questions and areas below will help you identify what works for your business and what doesn’t:

• Review the content: Is it tailored to your target audience? Does it address common concerns and needs? Do you still have old listings up?
• Ease of use: Is your website easy to navigate and use? Does it have a cluttered layout or difficult navigation options?
• Call to action (CTA) and keywords: Is the CTA specific and optimally placed? Do you frequently A/B test different CTA options? Are you using relevant keywords?
• Key career page metrics: How frequently do candidates visit your career page? Where are they dropping off? What does the user journey look like?

The above list is by no means exhaustive, but gives some key touchpoints to begin thinking about. When going into redesign (or development), think from the ground up – simply making small and irrelevant changes is not going to cut it. The idea is to create a unique site that attracts candidates and encourages them to apply.

2. Make it easy to filter and apply for jobs

A meticulously designed website does a great job of directing candidates to the careers and job application pages. However, that’s not enough – you need candidates to finish their applications!

• One of the first things to do on your career page is to get rid of outdated listings. If your career page is littered with old listings and complicated application processes, candidates will eventually drop out. Seeing old listings can be frustrating and confusing since there is no way of knowing if the position was filled.
• Next, the career page should have filter options to allow candidates to refine their search. Scrolling and going through each ad is cumbersome and candidates will move on to better career sites.
• Lastly, don’t lose candidates once they hit the apply button – ensure that the application is quick, efficient, and simple!

3. Think of millennials and Gen Z: make it personal

Let’s be honest – candidates (especially the millennial and Gen Z kind) spend a lot of time on company websites before applying for jobs. But they don’t want a brochure; rather, they want to learn more about corporate and organizational culture in action. Make it personal, so they can visualize themselves working with you. Show culture differently and often.

Showcasing work culture and employee experiences – typical behind-the-scenes of the business – is a powerful exercise in employer branding. It allows you to be authentic, display your values and appeal to your audience – all at the same time. But personalization is not always easy, and that’s when tech comes in.

4. Build a cohesive content experience

The content experience across most career sites today is fragmented at best. For instance, a candidate who comes on to a career site and looks for job postings for nurses will only be able to read the job description or apply for the role. They won’t be able to consume content in the moment about what the life of a nurse at the organization looks like. Sure, you might have blogs around this topic, but unless you deliver this content in the moment when a candidate is considering the role, you lose out on the opportunity for letting them make a more informed application decision.

Supplement your conversion hotspots with relevant content to create a cohesive application experience for the candidate. If there’s a job posting for a nurse, leverage your content assets to display relevant content on the same page.

Enriching your application user flow with content is a surefire way to boost conversion rates. When a candidate feels confident about the role’s demands and their ability to carry out those requirements, you not only drive conversions but also see a vast improvement in retention.

5. Move beyond vanity metrics

Last, but arguably the most crucial action item on your checklist: measure your website performance. But don’t look at vanity metrics – they don’t mean anything.

Metrics like page visits and visitors are limited in the way of offering meaningful insights like the quality of your candidate pool or candidate engagement rates. Instead, metrics like application rates, time to apply, application source, and quality of hire (QoH) provide a more comprehensive understanding of your career site performance.

For instance, tracking the quality of candidates (e.g., skills, years of experience, etc.) can help you identify which recruiting channels and initiatives are most effective in attracting the right candidates. Similarly tracking content consumption patterns across formats like text (blogs, articles, POVs) and videos may help you understand the candidate engagement and conversion journeys.

Ready to Update your Website for 2023?

Now, you must be thinking about how to get started with the career site (re)design process. But you already have the content and the tools – it is just a matter of using them appropriately. To reiterate, think from the ground up and focus on getting the missing pieces together. Create a robust content strategy and keep it central to your website.

In addition, keep it simple – candidates must be able to look for jobs effectively and apply quickly. Also, remember to measure your performance, especially candidate engagement, and experience.

Joveo can help you get started with finding the right talent at the time, place, and cost. Request a demo of Joveo solutions today! And follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn for access to insightful, thought-provoking content.