Your company’s careers page serves as the hub of your employer brand. Candidates use it to learn about your company and get a sense of what it’s like to work for you.

A strong careers page helps to compel job seekers to apply. On the other hand, a weak careers page can deter high quality job seekers from applying.

Put yourself in a job seeker’s shoes. What would you find if you researched your company online? Would you want to apply for a job at your company based on what you see? What story are you telling them? Are you even telling them a story at all?

Job seekers can easily use job search engines and job boards to apply to dozens of jobs per day. That increases the importance of a strong employer brand as a differentiator between companies.

In fact, today’s job seeker ranks careers pages as the #1 aspect to learn about a company when researching opportunities. Candidates are even saying they would be more likely to apply for a job if an employer actively maintains their employer brand. On top of that, based on our research an applicant that applies on a company careers page is 4 times more likely to be hired than an applicant from a job board.

Clearly, having a careers page is important for attracting job seekers and hiring the right people. Let’s talk about building a compelling careers page for your business.

What do job seekers want to see on a careers page?

Certain things have universal appeal to high performers. The ability to learn and grow. The opportunity to make an impact. Flexibility. Great benefits. These are a start, but you can do better. Focus on what makes your company special — more specifically, what your top performers have told you makes it special. 

You need to answer the questions that candidates are asking themselves, preferably with examples:

• Culture: What’s it like to work here? What are we like? Why do we love it?
• Benefits: What sort of perks do we offer? How do we take care of each other and show each member of our team that they are valued?
• Growth: How do we invest in training and development? How can employees grow with us?

Company culture

A study by Glassdoor revealed that 77% of people would consider a company’s culture before applying for a job there, and 56% ranked a strong workplace culture as more important than salary. 

Putting in the work to ensure your company culture is communicated loud and clear on your careers page will pay huge dividends in elevating the level of talent applying for your open roles. 

Show job seekers who you are

The best way to find employees who will be a good culture fit is to be authentic about your goals and values. Share your mission, vision, and core values on your careers page. We’ve done this with our careers page at CareerPlug, and it’s been instrumental in attracting candidates who feel compelled to apply because their values match ours.

Let job seekers identify with you. Or let them not and save you the time of pursuing a candidate who won’t be a good match for your culture. 

Add pictures and videos

A picture is worth a thousand words, and a video is worth even more. As part of showing job seekers who you are, make sure to literally show them. One important piece of advice: Avoid using stock photos and instead put up real pictures of your team and workspace on your careers page. 

The more authentic your content, the more likely candidates are to connect with your employer brand.

Photos help applicants visualize what their lives would be like if they worked for you — could they see themselves showing up to work every day at your business? Oftentimes, seeing this visual representation of the workspace will get the right candidates energized and more invested in the role you’re offering.

Include employee testimonials

You have employees who love working for you, let them help you recruit! Gather a few employee testimonials to add to your careers page. When including testimonials, make sure you provide a variety of experiences and show real people — including their work location, photo, and most importantly, a name! 

People look for social proof when they buy: This is why reviews are so popular. When was the last time you decided to not buy something because you read a bad review or you couldn’t find any reviews at all? The same rules apply here. In fact, over 85% of job seekers and employees research company reviews and ratings when deciding to apply for a job. Don’t make candidates leave your website to look for reviews and ratings. Include them with other testimonials on your careers page.

Pro tip: Remember when we talked about adding video? Employee testimonials are a great way to add this engaging type of content to your careers page. CareerPlug client Hand & Stone has seen great success with this. Below is an employee testimonial that is featured on their careers page. 

Managing your online reputation doesn’t end with your careers page. At CareerPlug, almost every candidate that we speak with says that they read reviews about us on employer review sites before applying or interviewing. Are you aware of how employees are talking about your company online? 

You should manage this the same way that you manage customer reviews. Encourage happy employees to leave reviews for you. Respond to reviews that are negative in a caring, non-defensive way. 

Benefits

Competitive benefits can be your secret weapon when it comes to a compelling compensation package. Offering your team benefits says a lot about your commitment to being a great place to work. Certainly include the big three: healthcare, retirement accounts, and paid time off. But don’t limit your careers page to just the traditional benefits. 

These days, employers are using their careers pages to show off some of their more creative perks like:

• Flexible schedule or remote options 
• Transportation stipend
• Education stipend
• Paid gym membership or fitness classes
• Pet-friendly office
• Unlimited free snacks
• Weekly or monthly catered meals
• Free PTO holiday on your birthday
• Charitable donation matching
• Student-loan debt reimbursement

Think about how you could get creative with some new perks or improve the way you talk about the great stuff you already do. Remember that these benefits will help you retain your current team, too. Think about the value of being able to keep high performers on your team for the long run. That may create some room in the budget.

Growth opportunities

The best candidates are going to want to see how your company will help them grow professionally. They will often turn down a job that pays more if they see a path to growth at your company. Show them what they will learn by working with you and what a potential growth path could look like for them. This is what gets the top performers really excited. 

Use your careers page to highlight opportunities for professional development to attract growth-oriented people to your team.

If you don’t currently have a clear path for growth within your organization, now is the time to establish one. At CareerPlug, we’ve made employee development a priority by encouraging all employees to fill out a growth plan. This plan includes things like skill goals, personal goals, and professional goals and managers check in with employees weekly to see how they are progressing toward their growth. 

You might also consider offering an education stipend on a quarterly or annual basis to employees, or even offer to buy management or professional growth books for employees upon their request so that they can pursue development in their free time. 

Here at CareerPlug, we know from experience that hiring people who are genuinely excited to contribute to the growth of a company like ours is the most important indicator of success for new hires. We also know how important it is to return the favor and invest in the growth of our employees.

Take action

Ready to build a compelling careers page? Click the button below to download our free Careers Page Checklist that can help you make sure you’re including everything you need to attract applicants.

Within our hiring software, you can utilize a branded careers page that can be configured to show off your company culture and list open positions. One of our clients, Nothing Bundt Cakes, sees their careers page as a powerful recruiting tool. Here’s what Cat Santangelo, the San Diego Director of Operations had to say: 

“We are very fortunate to have many of our Team Members recommend potential candidates because they enjoy working for our brand and love our values. The partnership we have with CareerPlug strongly supports our focus, by allowing the voice of our Team to be heard on our Careers page. This is a great place for potential Team Members to hear personal testimonies that highlight why our Teams love being part of the Nothing Bundt Cakes family.”