01/19/04
If You Build It Right (Your Web site), They Will Come
In the 1989 movie “Field of Dreams”, Kevin Costner, as Iowa corn farmer Ray Kinsella, stands in the middle of a cornfield when he hears a voice: “If you build it, he will come.” From there, the movie goes on a magical journey where dreams came true thanks to the baseball field that Ray builds. But what if Ray had built a rugby field instead? Oops. In this article, you will learn how you can make some of your dreams come true by building your Website and integrating it with your applicant tracking system or staffing software in ways that build your business.
According to Recruiters Network (“Is Internet Recruiting Working?” May, 2003) the number of job postings to corporate career Websites is greater than the number on public job boards and newspapers combined. Staffing providers and other businesses are working to achieve a distinct competitive edge by recruiting the most qualified candidates as quickly and cost-effectively as possible. In an ironic twist of fate, your customer has become your competition for superior talent and the Internet is their means to compete.
Michael Porter points out in “Strategy and the Internet,” that the Internet provides an incredible opportunity for companies to establish a competitive edge. The primary question is not whether to use the Internet, but how to best use it for recruiting quality talent in a timely manner. In accomplishing this, you don’t want to force radical changes to your business processes, but rather incorporate the Internet into your traditional activities and manners of competing.
Based on extensive study, as well as feedback from our clients, we have determined nine of the top Best Practice strategies within two distinct areas of Web-recruiting. While not a complete list, with these practices in place, you can ensure that your organization is leveraging its Web presence to gain financial benefit via direct cost reductions. They are:
Ensure your Website’s Job Posting Section addresses the following:
1. A Profile of each Applicant
2. Searchable Job Postings
3. Easy to Use Navigation
4. Desirable Job Descriptions
Ensure your Website’s Job Posting Section facilitates the following:
5. Immediate Application Response
6. Integrated Applicant Tracking Database
7. Fresh Job Posting Content
8. The “Push” of Information to Applicants
9. Easy Job Posting
Lets look at each of these top strategies in more detail.
Ensure your Website’s Job Posting Section addresses the following:
1. A Profile of Each Applicant
By allowing candidates to create a profile of themselves and their skills and abilities, you not only reduce administrative data entry overhead costs but also let the Candidate know that it is their experience and preferences as a whole that will be used in the selection process, not just their resume.
Many staffing providers are concerned about asking too many questions or having an application process that is too lengthy. While this is a legitimate concern and should always be managed properly, the facts may surprise you. In a recent poll by iLogos (“Prescreening Jobseekers Online”, July, 2003) 88% of applicants said they were willing to answer all necessary questions about their skills, 92% said they were willing to spend more than 6 minutes on line applying for a job, and almost 60% said they were willing to spend over 15 minutes!
Almost 80% of candidates looking online for work are already working and 24% of those do not have an up-to-date resume. Therefore, it is important to capture their skills, preferences, education, job history and more without forcing them to submit a resume. You cannot assume that your next best candidate is resume-ready.
It is imperative that the Job Posting section of your company Website have a searching mechanism. The three criteria most searched on in Job Postings are Category, Location and Keyword. Your Website should, at the very least, provide these search options.
Use your Website to post all of your job openings. You are not only trying to capture new, qualified candidates, but also providing career options for your existing employees. The Web is a great, cost-effective communication mechanism to build a community of users. The more communication you can have with your employees, the better and more profitable your relationship with them.
Navigation to your job posting section and within your job posting section can directly affect the ROI of your Website. Ensure that the link to your job posting and search section is prominently displayed on your home page. It should have top-level navigation in your Website.
It is important to ensure that the application form is only one click away from the job description. Make it easy for the candidate to apply for the job. Many businesses use the application process as a means of weeding out unwanted candidates. It is much more worthwhile to filter out unwanted applicants after you have reviewed their skills and abilities.
Davis Advertising suggests you also consider having a customized, unique domain name for the job posting section of your Website. A name like www.cooljobs.com is easier to remember than www.acmestaffing.com/~jobpage.
A final navigation tip is to segment the stream of candidate’s coming to your Website. Segments should be distinct and unambiguous. iLogos (“Segmenting Your Careers Website for Candidates”, November, 2002) described one company that typically mixed their Sales and IT jobs in their posting area. When they segmented these sections into a link for Sales and a separate link for IT, job applications increased 55%.
It is important to do more than display your open positions. You must SELL your open positions. Job Titles should be eye catching and imaginative, not cliché and boring. If you perform a search for “Receptionist” on most any job site, you will likely see such boring titles as Receptionist or Office Assistant. Spice up your titles in order to entice the job seeker to learn more about the position. There was recently a Job Title on Monster.com of CRAZY Receptionist Needed Part-time. Imaginative titles arouse reader interest. “Why do they need someone crazy?” “I’m crazy, I could fit in well at this company.” It sets the tone of the company culture and gets the attention of the reader.
Avoid company jargon and generic descriptions when elaborating on job opportunities. Clearly and accurately describe the necessary abilities, credentials, and past experience. Peter Weddle (“Spreading ‘Jargonaise’ Is a Recipe for Failure”, August, 2003) recommends that every job posted should be reviewed for “jargonaise.” Additionally, you should always indicate the location, travel requirements and salary. Describe any and all benefits of the job. Are they eligible for healthcare with your company? Is there possibility for a permanent position with this client? Is parking paid for? These things are important to your job seeker.
Ensure your Website’s Job Posting Section facilitates the following:
5. Immediate Application Response
Your Internet presence is a tool to beat your competition at getting the best candidate - the fastest. Therefore, your internal staff must be immediately notified when an applicant registers their profile with your company or applies for a job. Unless you integrate general recruiting best practices with your Internet presence, your reputation can suffer and your return on investment can shrink dramatically.
6. Integrated Applicant Tracking Database
In order to optimize the efficiency of your Website, your Applicant Tracking System or staffing software and Website should be tightly integrated where recruiting is concerned. Without this, administrative overhead and process costs could actually increase due to duplicate data-entry efforts. When the process is linked in real-time, your company benefits from more than just strategic advantages. Allowing candidates to self-serve information can reduce sourcing and administrative costs, thereby directly affecting your business’ bottom line.
If you search the Internet frequently enough, you are bound to come across out of date, dry sites or “Cemetery sites”. When job seekers find career Websites with stale information, they tend to not return. It is important that your Website postings are fresh and up-to-date. No more than 12 hours should lapse between the time a position is filled and its removal from your Website. Job seekers need to know they can count on your site to give them fresh, credible job offerings. This builds credibility for your site as well as your business.
8. The “Push” of Information to Applicants
You already have an extraordinary number of Candidates in your Applicant Tracking System. These people may have been working with your business for years. In order to provide better customer service to them, don’t make them go on your Website and fill out an application again. Provide the ability to push information to them by providing a pre-populated candidate profile for your existing candidates and employees. In addition, have the system automatically email them a user ID and password so they can begin updating information and searching for jobs.
It is more cost effective to leverage the employees you are currently using than to hire new ones. Keep them happy by allowing them to view new up-coming assignments and apply for them. Allow them to update their skills regularly. Don’t penalize them for joining your team after you have established your careers page.
Your recruiters cannot afford to take the time out of their busy schedule to post job openings if the process is not easy and efficient. Further, the harder it is to post a job order, the harder it is to manage it. There should be no need to retype job description information except for the purposes of spicing it up. Recruiters should be able to post and remove with the click of a button from within their staffing software. All updates to the job order should automatically be posted to the Website real time to ensure your job seekers are getting the most up-to-date information. Additionally, your recruiters should be able to pick and choose the job order attributes that are appropriate to post, on a job-by-job basis. For example, travel information may be needed for sales and consulting positions, but not for a receptionist. And all of this customization must be quick and easy.
Conclusion
The bottom line is that if your business will invest some time and thought into the Job Posting section of your Website and the processes in place to facilitate the postings, you can increase profits by streamlining the recruiting process, decreasing time to hire, and cutting the opportunity costs of unfilled positions. In short, if you build it right, they will come.
END
NOTES:
- Davis Advertising. “Improvements to Your Corporate Web Site: Get Clicking!”, August 2003
- Alice Snell. “It Takes all Kinds.”
- http://www.recruitersnetwork.com, October 2001.
- Michael E Porter. “Strategy and the Internet.” Harvard Business Review March 2001:62-79.