CAREER SITES

The days of searching for a job by “pounding the pavement” are becoming a thing of the past. Increasingly, candidates are searching for their next career online.

A 2019 report by market insight company Clutch revealed that nearly half of recent hires (41%) had found their current role through an online job board. According to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics economist and editor Richard Hernandez, “Online job search (OJS), which was used by less than a quarter of all jobseekers at the turn of the century, is now the most popular method of jobhunting.”

But it can sometimes be difficult for recruiters, hiring managers, and employers to stand out online. Job boards are often flooded with positions, and most third-party career websites provide only a handful of options to help you market your positions—usually at a cost.

One of the best ways to address this challenge is to generate your own branded career sites. Not only do they represent a branding opportunity for employers, but they can give you complete control over your hiring process and dramatically improve the candidate experience.

What are custom career sites?

A custom career site is a proprietary website that lists your job openings in an intuitive and appealing way, encouraging visiting candidates to explore your brand and apply for available positions. Unlike third-party job-posting sites, career websites are owned by the company that is hiring, or by a recruiter hiring on behalf of another company. This gives them complete control over the design of the website, the messaging, the language, and the hiring process.

Career sites can be created like any other website or web page. Using a content management system (CMS), a career website is generated as a solitary domain or as a subdomain of the hiring company’s website. However, most corporate career sites follow a template format, making it easy for companies to add new positions and edit the site as needed.

In this way, career sites are dynamic, not static. They are also interactive. Most branded career sites enable candidates to apply to positions easily, often with just the click of a button.

Top-of-the-line career sites can also integrate with your existing candidate management infrastructure. If you use a candidate relationship management (CRM) system, your career site should be able to aggregate data directly to it, so you can more efficiently manage the candidate experience. Some talent acquisition platforms, such as iCIMS, include career sites as a feature.

Why are career sites important?

Unlike third-party job boards, career sites help you establish your hiring brand and drive more engagement with potential candidates. Instead of a simple job listing next to a logo, visitors to your career site can explore every aspect of your brand and gain a better understanding of whether your organization is the best fit for them.

One way to think about a career site is like a storefront, where potential candidates are shoppers. Instead of relying on third parties to present your job openings to candidates, you can control every aspect of your storefront to make your openings appealing.

This also gives you more control over what types of candidates apply for your positions. Candidates hired through your career site aren’t just invested in a salary and a job description. They can gain a much deeper understanding of your brand before they apply, making it more likely that they’ll be a good fit.

Career sites are also an important investment as job searches are increasingly done on smartphones. Sixty-six percent of working Americans, including 82% of millennials, expect businesses to have mobile-friendly career sites. Mobile-friendly career sites are an essential part of the mobile recruiting experience.

What is career site software?

Career site software makes it easy to generate branded career sites for your organization and integrate any data sent through the career site with your existing hiring infrastructure. Career site software typically contains analytics tools, which help you measure the effectiveness of each career site you generate.

Most career site software will provide you with career website templates. These are simply starting points. You’ll have the ability to customize your career site based on your brand’s color schemes, personality, imagery, and tone of voice.

Some types of career site software can also help you generate advertisements, landing pages, forms, and more.

Why do employers use career site software?

The most obvious reason employers use career site software is to make the process of generating career sites simpler. Instead of designing websites from scratch every time, you can use templates, duplicate previously launched career sites, and adjust your career sites based on your metrics.

Career site software is designed to be easy to use. With the right solution, you don’t need to hire a web developer just to launch your next career site. This makes promoting open positions via career sites cost-effective and efficient.

What to look for in career site software

Most career site software products come with the basics. They include templates, analytics, and APIs that enable you to connect your career sites to your CMS.

Best-in-class career site software, however, includes other features that can help you both improve the candidate experience and shorten your hiring cycles. They typically include some or all of the following:

• Machine learning-powered job postings for optimized effectiveness
• Intuitive and interactive features to improve the candidate experience
• Candidate matching technologies
• Enhanced customization for optimal branding
• Conversational AI chatbots
• Mobile-responsive designs

Some of the best career site software is included as a feature of a hiring platform, which may include solutions like candidate relationship management software, applicant tracking systems (ATS), and offer management software.

iCIMS’ career site software

iCIMS’ career site software, part of the iCIMS Talent Cloud, helps you attract and engage with the best talent for your business. More than just a template, iCIMS’ career site software includes machine learning to help you optimize the effectiveness of your job postings, AI-powered chatbots, enhanced customization, and more.

You can use iCIMS’ career site software to support diversity recruitment initiatives and engage candidates with content that’s relevant to them. Altogether, iCIMS provides candidates with an intuitive, mobile-friendly experience that helps them explore your brand.

Find out more about iCIMS career sites today.