An ATS is pivotal to an organisations recruitment and selection strategies. Allowing centralised management of available roles with accompanying job titles and descriptions, the application process, database and applicants themselves. It can often be seen as a convenient and effective option available to house all your recruitment needs.
It may feel the need for a careers website is reduced but candidates are still very much in need of career guidance and access to highly personalised information about potential employers.
The three main levels on which candidates need guidance are:
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Why work for you?
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Is this the right career for me?
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What will this career really look like?
Here are 10 reasons you need to not just retain but give focus to your careers website:
1. You have full control over your careers website
Whilst your ATS, LinkedIn, Twitter and job boards are third-party solutions owned elsewhere your careers website is entirely yours and you alone can take full control. You can ensure criteria you deem important is treated as such e.g. mobile optimisation.
Your site can be branded effectively in line with any internal guidelines and your corporate website. There are no limitations on the design and creativity allowed unlike an ATS or third party platform.
2. You can measure it
One of the best things about having a careers website is that you can measure its success. Installing Google Analytics throughout the site enables you to measure not just the traffic levels but metrics such as acquisition channels, devices used to access your site and how users engage with your website.
This is something that is notoriously difficult to achieve.
3. You can make changes
If something within the careers website isn’t working as it should, guided by data from Google Analytics, then you can make changes. For example, if the homepage isn’t driving candidates directly to a featured vacancy, with access to this data you can identify the issue and make the appropriate changes to improve your campaigns.
4. You can include interactive website features such as video
Videos receive 25% more engagement than other forms of content. Blogs work wonders for SEO and podcasts allow a great mobile optimised experience. All these interactive features can be incorporated into a careers website to enhance the candidate experience.
5. You can integrate your careers website with social media
Your careers website can be integrated with social media. This will support both your SEO and social media efforts. Candidates turn to social media for a ‘real’ and less corporate view of your company. Social media and your website can blend together seamlessly to promote your brand and increase your online presence.
6. Show potential hires where they can fit
A careers website is the perfect place to host employee profiles, describe job areas and show candidates where and how they could fit into your organisation.
7. You can let applicants know what to expect
Before candidates enter the ATS you can let them know what to expect from the application and selection process. Explain the steps they will have to follow and the company expectations.
8. Tell them why they would want to work for you
Use your careers website to describe the benefits of working for you over your competitors. Describe the company benefits, personality, any highlights in the working environment, training and CSR.
9. Your careers website can help you get traffic
You can use your careers website to rank in Google and get more relevant traffic. ATS’s do not rank well in search engines because the main bulk of the content is job roles and these are ever changing.
10. You can have instant communication
You can use your careers website to post the latest news and updates allowing for instant communication with website visitors and potential candidates.
Read What is ‘social apply’ and why should you offer this to your candidates?