The Missing Piece of Candidate Experience
Job descriptions are now one of the most important pieces of the employer branding puzzle. When a job seeker lands on a job description, they’re scanning for key information to see if the job and your company are worth considering. The first impression they get from the job posting is absolutely critical because job seekers spend about 77 seconds deciding whether they are interested in applying or not. This means that it’s absolutely imperative that job postings attract attention, and help job seekers quickly determine whether or not they should apply.
According to CareerBuilder, if a candidate likes what they see in the job description, 64% will spend time researching your company before they apply. However, if a candidate doesn’t find the information they need to make a decision, 37% will move on. That. Is. HUGE. Especially considering that 56% of all external hires are made through a job seeker applying for a job site.
In today’s candidate journey, it is undeniable that a job posting must do much more than provide a list of skills and requirements. In order to convert job seekers into candidates, job postings must be optimized for conversion. This means that they must be targeted at a certain audience, and be filled with valuable content, presented in a way that is easy for a job seeker to digest, consider and finally apply.
The problem that remains is most job descriptions are still very company-centric and are simple text-based templates that don’t capture attention, and only provide job seekers with a checklist of skills and requirements. However, there are plenty of companies paving the way for a job posting experience that is completely candidate-focused, and are designed to engage and convert.
Citizens Bank
Citizens Bank does a really, really awesome job of providing a streamlined experience to their candidates. Their posting isn’t just a wall of text, instead, the posting is separated tabs that offer the right content, and right context that relates to the job. This really helps candidates better understand the posting by being able to each section without being completely overwhelmed by paragraphs of information. Snackable content always wins in todays hyper-content world!
Jet
What Jet does exceptionally well in their job postings is provide contextualized content that speaks specifically to what a candidate will be doing in the position. No candidate likes ambiguity — especially when it comes to deciding if they want to apply or not. On top being highly contextual, Jet’s postings are written in a candidate (not company) centric language that a job seeker can read, understand, and digest.
Hubspot
The HubSpot Culture Code is a 128 slide presentation of what makes HubSpot tick. Why is it important? Well, right off the bat their candidates know that HubSpot takes culture REALLY seriously. It provides candidates with an inside look into the company culture, and will be much more knowledgable about what HubSpot expects, and what they can expect as future HubSpotters.
Spotify
Similar to Jet, Spotify just does an overall awesome job of providing a really seamless experience for their candidates. Every posting is specifically written and targeted at their key candidates. The candidate-centric language is easy to digest and, most importantly, it’s concise. Remember that candidates only spend 77 seconds looking at a job posting. Spotify wastes no time in getting to the most important parts and providing candidates with the exact information that they’re looking for.
All of the companies above are doing a stellar job of making sure that their job postings provide their candidates with an experience. Whether it be the design or the content the postings are designed to engage their target audience and ultimately convert their job seekers into engaged candidates.
