Create a winning business case for your career site redesign

November 9, 2023

 

Anna Ruby

5 min read

Your career site is your greatest asset in the fight for qualified applicants. Making an investment here can increase website traffic, improve conversion rates and even reduce your cost per hire. However, your executive leadership team might not be as invested in this strategy (yet). While external recruiting tactics such as job boards and ad campaigns are essential parts of your recruitment marketing strategy, your company career site offers distinct advantages.  

The greatest benefit is that you have complete control over the content, design and user experience. There are endless opportunities to shape job seekers’ perceptions of your brand and fine-tune the path to conversion. Plus, when you can attract and convert talent more efficiently, your organization saves on recruiting costs.

Hiring skilled workers is only getting more competitive, and leadership teams are already setting priorities and budgets for 2024. Now is the time to drive the strategy for your recruitment marketing team and develop a winning business case for your career site redesign.

Ready to revamp your career site? Learn how iCIMS can help.

How to create a winning business case for your career site redesign

1. Get crystal clear on your goals

There’s a reason you’ve decided your career site is no longer cutting it. Maybe recruiters spend too much time weeding out unqualified applicants, or you’ve had to increase external sourcing costs because job seekers just don’t convert on your website like they used to.

Whatever the case, these inefficiencies are the catalyst for transformation and will form the building blocks for your entire business case.

That’s why it’s so important to be specific and clear about your project objectives. Start by looking at your career site analytics to identify gaps, then turn these problems into measurable goals. For example:

• Increase web application volume by 30%
• Increase visit to apply conversion rate by 20%
• Grow talent community pipeline by 5x

2. Define the ideal career site experience

You’ve defined where you want to go; now you need to figure out how to get there. Evaluate market trends, competitor websites and your existing recruiting tech stack to get a big-picture view of the recruiting landscape. Armed with insights about where the market is headed, you can strategically plan to get ahead of it and outshine your competition in the process.

Market trend analysis

To separate myth from fact, look to reliable sources like Gartner, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and iCIMS Monthly Insights reports for quantitative data that explains current trends for job seekers and employers.

Questions to ask:

• How many job seekers are there in my industry?
• Are job openings and hires increasing or decreasing?
• What are the demographics of current job applicants?

Competitor analysis

If you want your career site to compete with the best, you need to know what your top competitors do differently. Do a deep dive into their career sites and take note of the content, design and user experience.

Questions to ask:

• Does the content tell a story about their employer brand?
• Does the design communicate the brand’s global stature?
• How long does it take to find relevant job openings and apply for a job?

Technology assessment

You’ll need the right technology to support your new career site and job application process. Evaluate your ATS, CRM and other recruiting tech to determine if they can support the functionality required to give candidates and recruiters a best-in-class experience.

Questions to ask:

• How will recruiters manage applications and candidate communications on the backend? ​
• Will you need a more robust ATS or CRM to manage the expected volume of applicants? ​
• Will the vendor assist in the adoption of new software, including ongoing training? ​
• Would new technology fit into a long-term strategic roadmap for your recruiting tech stack? ​

3. Get early alignment with key stakeholders

Improvements to your career site could impact teams like Marketing and HR, so make sure to bring these collaborators in early to get feedback and alignment. This will also show your executive leadership that your project has value and investment across the organization.

4. Present your business case to leadership

Your executive leadership team needs to understand the big picture, so don’t overthink your proposal. In a simple presentation, include the following:

• Executive summary: In 2-3 sentences, summarize what you want to do, why you want to do it, and what you expect to get out of it.
• Project goals: List your “north star” goals and metrics to measure success.
• Project scope: A high-level view of the activities included in the redesign, plus any improvements that have intentionally been left out of the scope.
• List of participants: Show who will be involved in the project and which teams are already aligned.
• Timeline: Communicate the projected length of the project with key milestones, including those that have already been completed.
• Investment overview: Project a return on investment. This includes the cost of vendors and technology, the cost of change and the potential cost savings from more efficient processes.

Leverage your greatest recruitment marketing asset

With the current competition for skilled workers, it’s crucial to make the most of your career site. To get executive-level buy-in before next year’s budget is set, it can be helpful to get advice from people who create best-in-class career sites for organizations like yours. Take the next step and see iCIMS Career Sites in action.