Your career site is more important than ever in this competitive job market. When job candidates click on your career site, your UX can work for or against you. Give potential hires the best possible experience with these five tips:
1. You may not need to reinvent the wheel.
Start by comparing your career site to those of other employers. Explore competitors’ sites, but also look at companies outside your industry. How do they organize job listings? How many clicks does it take to find a specific listing? Could a candidate easily filter out jobs that aren’t for them? Survey yourself and others about the experience applying through your company’s website if you’re still wondering where improvements could be made.
2. Keep your landing page simple.
If you had thirty seconds passing someone in the hallway to sell them on working at your company, what would you say? Now what about five seconds? Make sure your career page quickly communicates your key message and provides user friendly design so candidates can find more information without spending too much time. If something doesn’t intrigue them right away, they’ll probably move on to the next company’s career site. For more tips on how to win the talent war, try this Forbes article.
3. Know how to prioritize.
It’s hard to accept, but not everything is important. When candidates are presented with a wall of information, they’re even less likely to read every word to find what they need. Color choice and font size are two big tools that help signpost where a user can go when quickly scanning a career site. Provide a need-to-know section in the job description for candidates who are prone to skimming before they become invested.
4. The copywriting matters.
Buttons, menus, and error messages are often overlooked in copywriting but could make a big difference in the user experience. When wondering what tone to use, imagine yourself speaking to a coworker over the phone. If a career site is the first introduction a person has to your company, what is the tone of voice you would want to present? Make sure the first and last thing a person is presented with would make them excited to join your company. For more on promoting a great workplace, check out our tips from Best Practices.
5. Get more feedback than you think you need.
Common sense is never common, so be sure to make it a habit of getting multiple sets of eyes on your career site. While it may make sense for a certain symbol to represent an item for one group, the exact opposite could reign true for another. Something as simple as how to categorize jobs may be influenced as well because of intersectional barriers across user identities. Therefore, it’s important to survey a wide range of ages, backgrounds, and beliefs to gauge your interface’s accessibility.
Interested in improving your career site? Tribe can help.
