5 mistakes to avoid on your company career page

Job seekers want information about a company before they’ll apply. And, no matter how social media-savvy they are, they still usually go to the company’s career page first.

So if you don’t have a company career page in place, now is the time to get started. It’s the perfect hub for all your recruitment strategies, and it will help you convert more qualified seekers into star candidates.

We recently went in-depth on the topic of career pages for episode four of Safe for Work, the Workopolis podcast for employers (available on Soundcloud here and iTunes here). Sonya Matheson, Workopolis’ employer branding and recruitment services manager, offered up invaluable expert insight into why career pages are so important, and what components will really get seekers’ attention.

She also shared some of the biggest mistakes that employers make when starting a company career page. Here are a few highlights:

Including too little info

“Lack of information is a killer,” says Matheson. “I’ve seen many career pages where there’s really not a whole heck of a lot – it’s really just a statement that says ‘If you want to work here send us an email!’ And you’re going OK, are there jobs? Are there not jobs? Is this going anywhere?”

Including too much info

“A lot of companies they get very hung up on the origins of where they’ve been,” she says. “You know, ‘In the last 200 years we have grown from our founders to…’ That’s very important information, but when you only have 20 seconds to engage a candidate, you want to give them information that they’re looking for quickly without having to wade through.”

Not giving a clear picture of what it’s like to work there

“Most companies first and foremost really struggle with helping to put the seeker into the space of actually working there,” explains Matheson. “You want to put them in that job in their head and sort of make them visualize working with the organization.”

Trying to compete with huge companies

“In Canada, 90 per cent of people who are employed work in small and medium-sized business under 500 employees. I think the misconception is that small and medium businesses think that they’re competing with the big guys, and they’re not,” she says. “They’re competing with businesses the same size as they are.”

Using clichés

“Get rid of the idea of ‘This is the way we’ve always done it!’ That sounds very cliché,” says Matheson. “We have to remember that [today’s seekers] are very savvy, they have a very high EQ, you know, are very emotionally intelligent people. And they have the ability to see through when you’re not being sincere.”

Want to hear more? To get the full episode of Safe for Work, tune in on Soundcloud or iTunes, or watch it on YouTube below.

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