The job market today is tight! It’s harder than ever for professional service firms to engage and eventually hire exceptional candidates. Keep reading to learn our top 5 tips to make your Careers section more clear, compelling, and engaging.
Once you get qualified job-seekers to your website, how do you help them determine if your company is a good fit? Can they quickly decide if your firm’s values and style of work align with their own? Applying for jobs is a time-consuming process, make it easy for potential candidates to immediately know why working for you will benefit them and how it will help them achieve their long-term career goals. Let’s get started.
1. It’s All About the Culture
One of the first things that candidates want to learn about is your company culture. It’s critical to include the firm’s values, principles, and a clear mission statement on your website. Think about what makes your firm a great place to work. Make it easy for visitors to understand your organization’s personality and unique quirks. Above all else, be authentic. The tone of voice used on your careers page has a direct impact on the perception your visitors will have of your firm.
92% of employees who work at a company with a strong sense of purpose say they would be more likely to recommend their employer to those in their network who are looking for a job.
Porter Novelli
Morse invites visitors to be inspired by and share their vision:
This is your chance to introduce yourselves. Keep your target audience in mind when writing. In fact, it’s a good idea to picture a qualified candidate and write as if you are speaking to him or her.
A few questions to ask yourself as you write are:
- Why does your company exist?
- What do you stand for?
- Why should a candidate want to work for you?
- What types of things get you excited to go to work every day?
- What are your current employees saying?
- What impact does your firm have on the community?
- How do you help solve your clients’ problems?
2. Share Company Benefits
Your firm is unique. There are many reasons why people choose to work for you over your competition. Outline any factors that set your firm apart. Use examples to show how you’re different, rather than using buzzwords. Keep it brief. Try to tell your story as if your reader were standing right in front of you. Google does an excellent job at this.
- What do you offer that your competitors do not?
- Is there a mentoring or continuing education program?
- Does the firm have a commitment to diversity?
- Do you offer catered lunches, family events, fun outings, or other incentives?
- Are you a dog-friendly office?
- What other perks do you offer?
Acentech uses clear bullets to help explain the types of benefits they offer their employees:
3. Mix It Up with Visually Engaging Content
Rather than writing paragraph after paragraph, take a more visual approach. Infographics and videos are great ways to make your careers page more engaging. Consider including:
- A video focusing on the company culture. See johnsonoconnor.com/careers
- Unless you’re hiring remotely, it’s crucial to show your office location since that will impact who applies for job openings. Pare Corp does a great job by simply identifying the location(s) within the position title. Sanborn Head has the option to filter by location and other criteria to make it easy to find job openings by office.
- Graphic icons to break up content and make the page more fun.
- Award badges highlighting positive work you’ve done in the past.
- Infographics of interesting stats about the firm: cases won, deals finalized, total years in business, projects completed, number of office locations, etc.
- Community involvement activities, with photos of your team participating in events.
Johnson O’Connor uses icons and graphics to help tell the story of what sets them apart:
Cades Schutte uses videos and testimonials to help candidates get a better feeling for the firm’s personality:
4. Add Testimonials from New Hires and Long-Term Employees
Happy employees are the best brand ambassadors. Survey your current employees, from new hires to corporate leadership, to get a sense of what it’s like to work there from different perspectives. Testimonials show how your firm has positively impacted those who work there. There’s nothing more powerful than authentic first-hand experience.
- Showcase examples of new hires. What made them choose to work at your firm?
- Highlight examples of long-term employees. How have they grown as they’ve worked at your firm?
- Include key leadership personnel. What drives the firm forward? Is there a firm culture of mentoring in place?
Critchfield showcases testimonials from employees at all levels explaining why they love their jobs:
5. Have a Clear List of Job Openings, Make it Easy to Apply
Now that your visitor has learned about your company culture, encourage them to reach out to you by including an easy-to-scan list of job openings. For general inquiries, include the name, title, email, and phone number of your HR contact.
- Include a list of job openings with detailed descriptions. See galeassociates.org
- On job description pages, include clear calls-to-action (we recommend an “Apply Now” button).
- Allow candidates to upload their résumé.
- Include a way for candidates to keep in touch via social media, or by subscribing to email updates. If they’re not ready to apply, you can at least leverage their interest now.
- There are many outside tools you can use for managing job applications. First and foremost, make sure they’re easy to use for job seekers.
- (A word of caution, if the application process isn’t easy it can have a negative impact on your brand as a whole.)
Bowditch includes an obvious recruiting contact as well as an easy-to-find list of current openings:
Some Additional Inspiration
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