Delivering Job Search Mobility to Candidates

In 2011, the death of the corporate career website was announced. Dr. John Sullivan on ere.net claimed that the corporate career website was underused, under maintained, and immobile. In a survey conducted in mid-2012, the non-profit group The Talent Board found that most candidates communicated with the company via the company’s career website. How then, can we account for the “death” of these web features? Quite logically, it is the other resources being used by job seekers that put the traditional corporate career website at risk. With the surge of social media virtually reinventing the way job seekers seek employment, corporate career websites simply don’t seem to be keeping up with the dynamic face of recruiting and the changing field of job hunting.

The Swedish recruitment firm PotentialPark reports that companies with highly rated corporate career sites include features such as: links to social media, a blog, employee testimonials, and a published career path based on opportunities within their company. These features only scratch the surface of what the modern job seeker wants at the outset of job searching.

And what do companies owe to the average job seeker? Why should they pay attention to the sounds of potential candidates clambering around their websites and abandoning online applications, as 92% of them do, because of features they don’t like? If companies hope to fare well in the job market, they have to think like job seekers, as PotentialPark says the companies rated highest on their survey are actively doing today.

One of the simplest ways to do this is to meet job seekers on-the-go. Job seekers must move quickly to keep up with the market, so your company and its career website features are no different. First and foremost, make your website accessible through mobile devices. Sullivan states, “a surprisingly large number of corporate websites cannot be accessed from a mobile device (the most powerful recruiting communications tool on the planet).”

Likewise, companies should be available on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and other places that job seekers can access via their phones. Make the application process traceable; offer ways for candidates to see the progress of their application through the various steps within the company. Provide content that is available any time of the day, potentially via videos posted on LinkedIn, or blog posts which you can notify candidates of through Facebook and Twitter.

Corporate company websites will not be able to keep up with the increasing pace of job seeking without looking towards other features for keeping candidates informed. Those that are successful will match job seekers step for step, and provide potential candidates with the mobile and dynamic job seeking features that are so attractive to them.

Is your company career website optimized for mobile job seekers? Spark a conversation below!

IMAGE: Courtesy of Flickr by Johan Larsson