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Article by Sion Mooney
Recruiting via the Internet has been widely touted as the only way forward for recruitment technology. Whilst the demise of traditional media has been greatly exaggerated, one area of undoubted growth has been the 'must have' careers section on the company website. Almost every FTSE 100 Company has a Careers Centre of sorts and barely a week goes by without a Unigate or Falkirk Council espousing the cost saving of taking recruitment on-line. However, even though articles talk of financial benefits derived by recruiting successful applicants, what about potential applicants who don't apply? Are you missing out? Do you know why people apply to your company, or more importantly why they don't? It seems obvious 'if they can't apply, then they won't apply.'
In all the excitement to get on the net, companies have lost sight of their customer, the applicant. 'User experience' has become a business buzzword within Internet design circles but is virtually ignored within the recruitment industry. If you were launching a new brand of cola you would do some research, right? Well, what's the difference with your careers website? Placing the user (or applicant) at the centre of your careers centre web-site design will dramatically increase the number of applicants and consequently, the financial return from your site. For example, recent studies have shown that successful Internet recruitment can saves you £5000 per hire.
Unfortunately, the bottom line is that most Careers Centres are unusable. We've all visited a web-site where we can't easily find what we need, so we've found another site that does. If your careers site is frustratingly slow to load, difficult to use with complicated navigation then your competitors will receive the application that you missed. (This counts manyfold if you are a recruitment website because your careers centre is your company!). Usability testing could transform your site from a dog to a cash cow. For example, a 200% increase in click-throughs from home pages is not uncommon. Usability is about getting back to the recruitment basics - without applications you can't make hires.
Have you got a map?
Would you invite an interviewee, and potential employee, to your site but neglect to give them a map and then let them wander round the building? Of course not, but that's what careers sites do every day. By knowing your user you can make it easy for them to apply to, and become excited about, your company. The internet job seeker is 'task oriented' - wanting to get in and out of your site quickly. If they are applying from work they don't want to draw attention through flashy animations or music. At home they wouldn't want to sit on a telephone line for two hours trying to apply. If you are an IT software company with an unusable careers website then what will be the applicants first impression?
Show me the money!
By increasing site usability, you make it easier for applicants to apply - so creating a larger candidate pool. Once you've got the ultimate in usable sites you can add more rigorous selection criteria to handle your new found higher volumes of candidates. What a great problem to have! Of course, the financial implications are huge. The £5000 saving per careers site hire is obvious, and reason enough to generate a business case. Reduced time-to-fill is a given. Harder to measure will be the applications from high quality passive candidates who now apply because it's so much simpler than before. Remember, even the best employer brand means nothing if applicants can't apply.
Next Steps
Find out more about usability. Read a book or dip into a website. Find a way to get your site reviewed by your users. If you've got a budget for a professional company with trained psychologists then give your site the overhaul it deserves. The return on investment justifies the expense. If you can't afford that, then let your recent joiners or your HR team try out your site's usability. If you do this before any expensive IT developers touch your site, you'll stop mistakes before they happen. Even better, if you're redesigning your site you can save up to 90% of your IT redesign budget!
Sion Mooney
Strategic Recruitment Specialist, with extensive experience in Internet recruitment. Recent clients include Motorola and GlaxoSmithKline.
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