Corporate websites are at heart of recruitment strategy

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Companies are increasingly making the most of their own websites to include how to join their company. These corporate recruitment sites can vary considerably in user friendliness and effectiveness. We asked our correspondents more about these sites, the best way to build them and their potential.

Eddie Allen, Digital Consultant, TMP Worldwide says: ìThe starting point for any organisation when attracting new talent should be its own corporate website and the attached or affiliated recruitment site. This showcases the organisation and must be an enjoyable and rewarding experience for every job seeker, whatever their level. Organisations are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their recruitment websites. Companies such as HSBC are leading the way and have segmented their careers website into microsites so that a commercial manager has a very different but relevant experience to a candidate who applies to work in a contact centre. With the advent of Web 2.0 this type of personalisation will be taken to a different level where all communication is tailored to an individual's personal interests. For the short term, it is about targeting communication to appeal to every potential applicant.î

Drew Spencer, Interactive Director at Euro RSCG Riley says: ìCorporate Recruitment Websites at their best should be a reflection of a really good recruiter. They should be able to recognise someone they've seen before and help them find the most relevant information. If they've not seen someone before, they should be able to quickly and easily identify what kind of job you're looking for and where you're at in your career and help you decide if you would be a good fit for the organisation. They should also have a very good understanding of the company's recruitment process and procedures and help to ensure that the process flows smoothly for both the company and the candidate, by getting the right information at the right time, keeping it and using it to provide a really positive and thorough candidate experience. When someone's not right for the company, a good recruiter recognises this quickly and lets them down easily, in a way that does not make them think less of the recruiter or the company. In doing so, this recruiter can then ask the candidate to refer other people that might be right for the company, and the good ones do this often. If a Corporate Recruitment Website is designed and developed with this in mind, then they can be the most useful and cost-effective expenditure that a company can make.î

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Drew Spencer continues: ìTo build a really good Corporate Recruitment Site, you must begin by looking at your recruitment process in its entirety and agreeing some goals and objectives for the site. Then you need to think about the design of the site and ensure that it supports your brand, as well as what you are trying to achieve with the site. After this, you should think about the people that you need to hire and what they need out of the site and then be sure that you have enough content, features and functions to meet their needs. Approach the site as a strategic initiative and do it before you begin advertising. It should not be something that you tack on to the end of your recruitment advertising budget. Be prepared to invest significantly the first time that you build one (or build one properly) and then be prepared to spend time and money keeping it up to date by constantly measuring the site and its contents against your needs and the needs of the audience.î

Corporate website at heart of recruitment strategy

Corporate sites may be increasingly important, but are they all a company needs? Eddie Allen believes: ìCorporate websites should sit at the heart of a recruitment strategy. They play a central role in terms of providing information about an organisation to candidates, enabling companies to track and measure the success of recruitment communications campaigns and provide a platform through which to assess candidates in the early stages of the recruitment process. They are however only one part of the overall process. Advertising plays an essential role in driving candidates to sites and engaging interest and companies need to make sure they are using the right range of strategies both on and offline to reach the best people for the roles they are looking to fill.î Mark Kieve agrees other strategies are still needed: ìThe corporate recruitment site, although representing just part of an overall strategy should be the centre of the recruitment universe for the employer. Corporate receive candidates from different sources (web applications, agencies and even paper CVís). It is best practice that all candidates receive the same (good) recruitment experience.î

What makes an effective and successful corporate recruitment site?

Eddie Allen feels that: ìHaving clear recruitment messages is key. One of the most common mistakes that companies make is mixing product and service messages with those of recruitment and attraction. Itís a bit like going to a recruitment fair and handing out lots of product information ñ meaningless. Messages need to be carefully crafted to communicate an employer brand effectively. Sites also need to be easy to use and navigate. Candidates will soon run out of patience if they canít easily click onto career sections or search for the job theyíve seen advertised. Having a personal feel to the site is also important. Quotes from current employees talking about their day to day working experiences help bring an organisation to life. The more interactive a site can be the better and pod and vodcasts can help candidates to get a real feel for the culture of an organisation. Crucially, this aids with self selection, cutting down on the number of applicants who might not feel a cultural fit with a company or feel that the role is not for them.

Organisations also need to be crystal clear about the online application process. Providing instructions and setting out next steps helps candidates understand what the process involves and how much time will be needed to fill out forms or take online tests. Itís all about making it as easy for the candidate as possible, speeding up the recruitment process and ensuring that the right candidates get through to the next stage.î

Mark Kieve, Chief Executive at Amris E-Recruitment says: ì A good recruitment website must appeal to a prospective candidate by providing what a candidate is looking for (not a 'brag sheet' for the company) as follows:

1.What is it really like to work for the company?

2.What career prospects /promotion opportunities exist?

3.What is the ethos of the company ñ are they people focused?

4.Is the organisation environmentally aware?

Mark Kieve also thinks the best way for candidates to find out what it is really like to work for an organization is by seeing and hearing real case studies ñ current employees talking about their own experiences for example. He says: ìGo ahead corporates are starting to move with the times and are streaming video to their career sites, often the video will be hosted on third party websites such as YouTube and then streamed back to corporate websites (which can also help web 'traffic'). Another huge growth area is mobile - building corporate recruitment so that they can be viewed on a mobile phone/PDA is becoming essential. He says he was recently at a GenY (generation Y) conference and it was interesting to see that younger candidates are often looking for a ëcoolí place to work. He therefore believes Google as an employer will find it much easier to attract graduates than for example BP or British American Tobacco ñ and that this message needs to come across on a careers site.

Mark Kieve also has some pointers for effective design: ìRecruitment sites should be ëseededí and optimized so that search engines can find them, often a larger organization in (for example) insurance will optimize their overall website with focus on their product (e.g. mortgages etc) and completely forget about recruitment. An effective 'refer a friend' button should be part of the site (and can of course be linked to financial incentives that may be on offer). Above all there must be a 'call to action' ñ let the candidate sign up anonymously for email alerts for suitable vacancies, perhaps give them the opportunity to sign up for a newsletter, give them the facility to send through a speculative application and make sure in every instance that you can communicate with them on an ongoing basis. If they find a vacancy on the site let them apply for online, donít make the application process laborious, let them save a part completed application form and return to it at a convenient time. Clearly a good e-recruitment platform/applicant tracking system such as our flagship solution Amris should be sitting behind every recruitment website to capture, filter and respond to all enquiries. The ATS will help ensure that only current vacancies are displayed - another important point for recruitment sites.î

Other potential uses of corporate sites

Eddie Allen says: ìCorporate recruitment websites are about more than just attracting candidates and assessing them. They have an important role to play at every stage of interaction with employees including attraction, engagement, conversion, induction and finally offboarding. Onboarding sites, for example, are a set piece within the overall e-recruitment strategy. They are extranets which only new employees can access providing specific information about the new employee role and where they sit within the corporation. They typically cover specifics around the job, details about other new starters, future meetings, first day nerves, best practice, access to the HR department, security procedures and training to help new recruits feel part of the team.

Alumni sites are also proving popular with the rising levels of Boomerang Employees, who return to their previous places of work, and the explosion of social networking sites. Providing a space where past employees can keep in contact, network and share their experiences will be increasing important as the impact of Web 2.0 leads to more collaborative ways of working and sharing information.î Rinat Bogin Dir. of Product Marketing Redmatch International believes internal hiring is also important part of the site: ìAs the most valuable assets of corporations is their already existing knowledgeable and loyal talent. As this is a source that has always been in shortage, the recruitment process should also support internal mobility -to leverage internal talent- and improve their employeesí satisfaction level. The Intranet recruitment site can work in conjunction with the internal site. The recruiting solution developed by Redmatch allows corporations to publish positions first internally, to attract internal talent, and only after a pre-define duration (in case no internal talent has been found), have their job offers publish externally. To extend the reach, positions can also be sent automatically to staffing agencies and external URLs, such as portal sites.î

The use of corporate sites is bound to increase, as is the use of new technology to improve them. Mark Kieve predicts that recruitment sites will get more transparent and interactive: ìI was on an American site last week viewing a vacancy and a box popped up on my screen stating Hi, my name is Bob, I'm with the recruitment team, click here to ask me a question or request a call-back. Technology is moving fast but ultimately recruitment is about people and communication. Recruitment websites will need to make it incredibly easy and pleasant for a candidate to apply. Why make a candidate search for job, when the technology can deliver the right jobs to the candidate? Although a bit clichd, the statement 'the candidate is king' is becoming more and more important every day, (especially with the huge skills shortage all sectors are now facing).î Drew Spencer foresees utilising knowledge about a candidate more: ìNew technology will give us more control over geography and time of day, and will also allow us to continue to personalise someone's experience through data. Most CV databases contain a significant amount of data about the target audience, and most organisations are not using this data to their advantage. In the consumer marketing world, the most successful web companies have built sites that change and move and update based on what they know about the person visiting the site, which can range from very little to a tremendous amount. In employment marketing, sites need to get better at using what they know about the target audience to their advantage, just as a good recruiter would do.î

So, look out for new, improved corporate sites with increasingly strong brand identities, added functionality and supported by sophisticated technology that links with HR. Drew Spencer has the final word: ìIf the site it set up properly, it will manage people's journeys in different ways and ultimately help someone make an informed decision to apply. The most successful sites balance this content and format with function to both wow the audience and facilitate the internal process.î