Turn Your Website into a Magnet for Top Talent

Intro

Human talent is one of the main factors that make a difference between a truly successful company and a mediocre one at best. Attracting and retaining talented, motivated professionals is the key to steady business growth and development. However, to attract well-suited professionals who share the company’s values, a business must meet their demands, which go beyond compensation packages today.

Currently, around 70% of candidates research a company before submitting their resumes. Around half of those professionals will analyze several sources, including corporate social media profiles and other available channels, but the website is always the first thing they check out and the only chance a brand has at making that first impression. A corporate website is literally the face of the company, a public statement conveying its core values and listing the main benefits of joining this team, and not any other.

Below are some of the most effective tips for making a corporate website serve this purpose, which should eventually turn it into a real magnet for like-minded professionals.

Highlight company culture and benefits

Everything, from branded colors and images to informative texts on a corporate website, should clearly represent the company’s values, vision, and long-term goals. There are multiple ways to achieve this, but some of the most effective strategies for most companies are as follows:

• Highlight the possibility of career development, with clear career paths for different occupations;
• Emphasize DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion) practices because many young professionals make a particular point of inclusivity;
• Consider including employee testimonials or take time to introduce your staff so that candidates have an idea of who they'd be working with.

Keep the career page updated

If you decide on a dedicated career page with relevant job openings, it's important to regularly update this page and remove all closed vacancies. If a certain job opening has been open for too long, it makes sense to repost it or, at least, update the description so that the vacancy would not look ‘stale.’ There is nothing more off-putting than a seemingly enticing job opportunity that cannot be closed for months. After all, if nobody wants the job, it raises a pretty valid question of how good an offer truly is – and how reasonable the employer’s expectations are.

Next, all open vacancies should come with clear descriptions. Including the required skills, previous experience, educational background, and other expectations, along with listing specific job responsibilities, is already a good filter for sorting out unsuitable candidates. As a result, this saves the recruiters’ and the candidates’ time.

Simplify the application process

Often, it makes sense to let the candidates apply directly from a company website because it can seriously simplify the whole process – if, of course, the website is well-optimized. For starters:

• Make sure the job application page is easy to access from the vacancy description;
• When using application forms, run all necessary tests for glitch-free work;
• To avoid confusion with multiple vacancies, make it easy to specify which opening the candidate is applying to;
• Consider adding a chatbot or another virtual assistant to answer the candidates’ common questions and simplify the application process even further.

Most importantly, keep your website navigation simple and straightforward because a confusing, illogical website can be highly off-putting for candidates, regardless of their technical experience.

Continuously invest in SEO

Search engine optimization is not just about high Google rankings – even though it is the first and most obvious purpose. Still, clean and neat SEO, starting from short, readable link addresses to regular website updates that make it easy to locate and navigate all necessary pages, is a certain way to convey a highly professional impression. Of course, it's best to hire SEO specialist because regular site maintenance requires a lot of time and effort.

For smaller companies, it also makes sense to start with a remote, part-time SEO manager – fortunately, hybrid and remote work models have been common in this field even before they got ‘mainstream’ in other professional spheres. Small businesses that do not have a dedicated SEO manager yet could also manage on their own, but in that case, it’s important to pay special attention to:

• Mobile optimization since that’s how most users access websites today;
• Security protocols and link SEO because properly structured links convey a professional impression;
• The use of structured data to ensure higher Google rankings and good Rich Results Tests.

Consider running a blog

A blog can also become a valid addition to the company’s SEO and branding policies. First, regularly updating a website with new content is a certain way to keep climbing up the Google rank ladder. Second, posting quality, informative content, including non-branded one, can position a company as an expert in its field and drive regular traffic to the website. Note that running a blog is a lot of work that will require constant attention and collaboration from current colleagues or remote writers. But it’s still the sort of investment that always pays off in the long run.

Take a proactive hiring approach

A fine-tuned website that attracts top talent is a must for every business, but it's unwise to completely ignore active hiring, which goes beyond posting a vacancy on relevant job boards. Since around 70% of the global workforce are passive candidates not actively looking to change employment, it's up to the recruiters to locate and engage that precious talent. Here, the obvious approach is regular networking on LinkedIn and specialized industry- or vacancy-specific platforms. This is a continuous investment that calls for regular ‘maintenance,’ and HR should definitely keep networking at the top of their to-do lists.

In case of emergencies, that is, vacancies that need to be filled asap, there is a quicker but equally effective solution. Professional contact databases like SignalHire support bulk and individual searches by name, industry, occupation, years of experience, and other customizable parameters, which makes them indispensable for engaging with passive candidates around the globe.

Leverage multiple online channels

Even though a website is the first step in building a company's identity, it cannot be the last. We already mentioned that many candidates research a potential employer across multiple platforms, so it's important to maintain a presence on relevant social media sites and other professional resources that apply to your industry. There is no universal formula for how many channels to use because everything depends on business specifics and the amount of manpower a company has. After all, maintaining a social presence and managing public relations requires constant work.

So, the larger the promotion scale, the more people a company needs to oversee those networks, blogs, and other platforms. For a startup, it makes sense to start small – with a website and 2-3 industry-specific social sites. Later, as the business grows, it's reasonable to expand the social efforts further – but only after establishing a solid presence on the initial channels.

Finally, never underestimate the power of positive candidate experience. In all of the corporate interactions with candidates, it’s important to strive for the best possible impression. Even if a certain applicant has proven a poor fit for one opening, it does not mean the same professional won’t be perfect for another vacancy somewhere along the road. Even if not, today’s professional world is an interconnected one, and job candidates tend to share their interviewing experience with peers. And since the word travels so fast these days, it’s important to ensure that all job applicants only have good things to say about your company.