Part two: What does your careers site say about you?

In the second part of our blog on ‘What does your careers site say about you’, we look at industry examples to learn from and review if company size affects the effectiveness of a careers site. If you have not read the first part of our blog yet, we examined the importance of having a good careers site and what features help you make sure your careers site provides a good user experience. You can read the first part of our blog here.

The industries we review in this blog were chosen based on data from the UK Candidate Attraction Report 2024, which highlights the industries that get the best results from their careers websites, and the ones that see less effective results.

Does the size of your organisation affect the performance of your careers site?

Essentially yes, size does matter. The larger the company, the better the results are for careers sites as a candidate sourcing channel. Large organisations from 1000 to 5000 FTE, as well as 5000+ FTE, are seeing remarkable results from the use of careers sites as a candidate sourcing tool. They gain both a large candidate pool and high-quality talent.

Smaller businesses, with 251 – 1000 employees, don’t tend to see as many high-quality candidates; however, they still gain a large talent pool to fill their vacancies.

The high performance of careers sites for larger enterprises could be attributed to stronger employer brand recognition, as larger organisations are more likely to be regularly reviewed by candidates who are actively researching their opportunities in the industry.

Industry examples of lower-performing careers sites when it comes to candidate sourcing

According to the UK Candidate Attraction Report 2024, three industries that see lower-than-average results from their career sites are: Energy/Utilities, Retail, and Business Services.

We have conducted some desk research on the market leaders within each of those industries, to understand what factors may be attributed to the lower performance of their career sites compared to other industries.

Energy / Utilities

In the example we reviewed, a leading integrated energy company has its careers site tucked away at the very bottom of the homepage in the ‘about us’ column. The careers area is also quite outdated compared to its main website, which reduces the seamlessness of the candidate experience. Once you move from the main corporate site to careers, the URL switches to the ATS provider, which could be confusing for candidates.

Retail

A leading home goods retailer in the UK has its careers site linked at the bottom of the homepage, hidden among many other links, making it difficult for a candidate to notice it without having to skim through all of the other links. Upon visiting the careers page, the candidate is taken to a website that looks nothing like the retailer’s brand. It also has a completely different logo, name and URL. This creates a poor candidate experience, making individuals second-guess what website they were taken to.

Business services industry

Similarly to the previous industry leaders examples we’ve looked at, this sector leader has its careers site placed at the very bottom of its homepage, making it difficult for candidates to discover this page quickly – it takes a lot of scrolling!

The site also uses red text, which from an accessibility point of view, does not work well for people with colour blindness.

When on the careers site the displayed logos are of another brand, which although is the parent company, can be confusing for a candidate. The opportunity here is to have a candidate portal that can support multiple brands or subsidiaries each needing their own careers portal.

Industries that get both candidate quality & quantity through their career websites

Below we highlight three industry examples that, according to the Candidate Attraction Report 2024, attract a large quantity of high-quality candidates through their careers website. We have highlighted some factors that could be helping these industries see different results from the examples above.

Education

The Thinking Schools Academy Trust (TSAT) follows good practices of candidate experience by providing easy-to-follow navigation, leading candidates directly to the careers site, which includes information about the organisation's internal culture and values. Upon visiting the careers page of TSAT, applicants can easily tell that it is the same brand and search facilities to refine roles based search by keywords and location. Read the case study here.

Government / Public Services & Administration

Islington Council’s careers site also offers a great example of a good candidate experience. They refer to the careers page over three different instances on the main website, making it easy for candidates to navigate the site, while also showing that talent attraction is prioritised. Islington Council’s careers page is also fully aligned with its brand, making it a seamless and smooth experience for the candidates. It clearly displays the councils’ values and company culture, which encourages suitable talent to apply for jobs at Islington Council, providing them with a larger pool of engaged candidates.

Science/Pharmaceuticals

Oxford Pharma Genesis is a health science communications consultancy. Their website promotes a great candidate experience through easy-to-follow on-site navigation, with the careers site being linked in the header, as well as at the bottom of the homepage. Oxford Pharma Genesis’ careers site is also well-optimised for SEO and closely follows its own brand guidelines. These factors help them attract the right talent and reduce the number of candidate drop-offs due to poor experience.

Want to learn more on how to enhance your careers site?

Eploy can help you make your careers site a talent magnet. We encourage you to not settle for standardised job pages but to put yourself ahead of your competition by creating a seamless experience for your candidates.

Think:

1. Effortless registration & applications
2. Flexible search for ideal roles
3. Mobile recruiting

To learn more on how to enhance what you have currently, head to our Candidate Portal Datasheet and Eploy Careers Site Design brochure.

Or you can book a no-obligation demo with our team here.