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In today's fierce battle for top talent, your career site can be your secret weapon for winning over the best candidates.
This month I had the pleasure of chatting with Brie Mason, the founder of Employer Brand Mason and a thought leader with over 18 years of experience building multi-award-winning employer brands in the APAC region.
As a guest on the VMJPod, Brie shared her expertise on how to activate your employee value proposition (EVP) through your organisation's career site. We explored the critical role a content-rich career site plays in conveying your EVP and discussed best practices for optimising it to boost candidate conversion. Here's a closer look at the key takeaways from our discussion.
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Your Career Site is Like a Storefront
Think of your career site as the "storefront" for your employer brand—it's your chance to make a stellar first impression on potential candidates. As Brie put it, this is where you get to showcase what makes your company a great place to work.
Pro Tip: To optimise this storefront, consider creating a visually engaging homepage that highlights key aspects of your EVP immediately. Use high-quality images and videos featuring real employees in authentic settings, along with concise, impactful statements about what makes your company unique. This first impression should make candidates want to explore further.
Why Many Career Sites Miss the Mark
Unfortunately, many career sites fall short in this regard. Brie pointed out that these sites often link to basic ATS-hosted pages filled with generic job descriptions. Relying solely on job ads to communicate the employee experience is like trying to sell a house with just a floor plan—you're missing out on all the details that make it special.
Equally troubling is when career sites are hosted on the company’s main website but suffer from poor design and low-quality content. Without rich, authentic content like employee stories and videos, candidates can't get a true sense of what it's like to work at your company.
Pro Tip: Audit your current career site and identify areas where content is lacking or feels generic. Start by replacing these sections with dynamic content—such as video testimonials, day-in-the-life features, and behind-the-scenes looks at your workplace. Make it a goal to refresh this content regularly to keep it relevant and engaging.
Start With Employee Stories
One of Brie's top recommendations for bringing your EVP to life, especially if you're on a budget, is leveraging employee advocacy. Authentic employee stories—whether through written profiles, videos, or social posts—can make a world of difference.
"Who knows your company better than those who work there every single day?" Brie asked. "When you've got real employees sharing their genuine excitement about being part of the team, it really speaks volumes to potential candidates."
Pro Tip: Initiate an employee storytelling campaign. Invite employees from various departments to share their experiences and highlight different aspects of your EVP. Use a mix of media—written articles, short videos, and social posts—and feature these stories prominently on your career site. Encourage employees to share their stories on their own social media channels as well.
Tailor Content to the Candidate Journey
Brie also emphasized the importance of mapping your content to the candidate journey. This means answering key questions and addressing concerns that candidates have at various stages of their application process. For example, a dedicated "Why Work Here" section can delve deep into each pillar of your EVP with real employee stories and examples, providing candidates with the information they need to make an informed decision.
Pro Tip: Create a content map that aligns with the different stages of the candidate journey—from awareness and consideration to decision-making. Ensure each stage has tailored content that addresses potential questions or concerns. For example, early-stage content might include general information about the company's mission and values, while later-stage content could feature detailed Q&A sessions with current employees on video.
Optimisie for Conversions
With conversion rates often surprisingly low, it's critical to analyze where candidates are dropping out of the application process. Brie suggested using site analytics to identify these points of friction. From there, you can improve the UI and content to keep candidates engaged and drive more applications.
Pro Tip: Implement A/B testing on key parts of your career site to see which layouts, calls-to-action, and content formats perform best. Additionally, consider adding a video widget, like our VideoMyJob Story Feed, to embed a library of employee stories on any career site (with literally one line of code) so that you can understand what content is engaging your key talent audiences and driving conversions. Remember to regularly review your analytics to pinpoint drop-off points and continually refine the user experience.
An authentic, conversion-optimised career site is essential for bringing your EVP to life and attracting top talent. Using employee advocacy as your cornerstone—tapping into your people and their stories—can really set you apart. As Brie highlighted, "employee advocacy is the number one way to build an employer brand." Candidates want to hear directly from employees to get a genuine sense of your culture and what it's like to work at your company.
