Your company‘s career page is your opportunity to make a great first impression on a prospective candidate. And, as you know, first impressions last.

Sadly, however, many companies do not invest much thought or time when creating their recruiting page, or they don’t have a careers page at all. It is because businesses tend to forget about the role of a company site as a recruiting tool.

If your website is only customer focused, you will miss out onattracting the top talent that may be considering your company as a potential employer.

The first stop for most candidates, when looking for a job, is a company’s career page. According to a survey conducted by the Pew Research Centre,34% of job seekers said online resources were essential to them when it came to searching for a job.

While LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter may seem like effective recruiting platforms to you, they all lack one important aspect: Brand Identity.

When deciding to apply for a role or join a specific firm, candidates find it useful if companies provide detailed information on a dedicated careers page.

A useful careers page has another bonus - you don’t have to rely heavily on external recruiters or headhunters to find good talent.

Ready to find out what makes a great careers page?

Here are the six essential elements of an irresistible company careers page:

1. Must State Company Purpose

To answer the question “What makes your company so special?” tell prospective candidates about your company’s purpose. Airbnb does a great job in stating its core beliefs in one short and sweet line: Create a world that inspires human connection.

Airbnb Career Page

This statement sums up the company’s mission, values, and ambitions. It is also created to inspire applicants. Job seekers know what goal they need to pursue if they join Airbnb and they can decide whether that goal is in sync with their overall professional outlook.

The company goes a step further by creating a section that gives details of their values:

Airbnb Values

Such details not only attract like-minded individuals, who then fit right in with the culture of the workplace but also dissuades the wrong ones.

If you are crafting a product that you are excited about, tell potential candidates what they would be involved in creating if they join your team.

On our career page,Interseller lets job applicants know that they would be involved in creating a new networking tool:

Interseller Career Page

By doing so, potential candidates are made familiar with the purpose of the firm as well as the goal that they would have to achieve if they work for the company.

How does this help? Studies show thatgoal-oriented employees are more productive and cooperative when working as team members.

2. Must Have Clear Job Description

ALinkedIn survey reveals that when applying for a position, 27% of candidates don’t know what exactly the job is about. The reason being most career pages describe the job role in a few sentences. This results in the company being bombarded with resumes that do not match the position. Skillshare has worked around this issue through a comprehensive careers page:

Skillshare Job

The page clearly defines the expectations, responsibilities, and challenges the applicant will have to face every day on the job. Being transparent about what the job entails enables the potential hire to make an informed decision which is a win-win for all parties involved.

Detailed information about the role also ensures applicants come to an interview with a better understanding of the job, making the meeting more productive rather than a discussion around basic job responsibilities.

3. Must Disclose Entire Hiring Process

Many company careers page don’t answer the #1 question applicants have - “What is the hiring process like?”. Hotjar answers this essential question with an infographic:

Hotjar Process

They disclose their entire hiring process - right from the application review step to the job offer.

How does this help?

Applicants who are well-informed with an organization are35% more satisfied with the hiring process. Plus it leaves no room for misunderstandings.

If you want to go step a further, set up an FAQ section about the interview process likeGoogle:

Google FAQ

4. Must Show Company Personality

Each company is unique and dynamic because of the diverse range of employees who work together. This makes the work environment is every organization vastly different from each other.

Here are three ways to reveal your company personality on the careers page:

Display Exclusive Perks

Every company offers basic perks such as health care, paid leaves, and off-site trips. What if you also display the exclusive perks your company offers likeCarrot Creative?

Carrot

Perks such as great food and events can entice many employees, and increase the number of applications you get for a position.

Quick tip: Add an ‘Apply Now’ button below the perks for more engagement.

Use a Fun Video

If you don’t have any exclusive perks, a kickass company video can also show applicants your company’s personality. Harry’s, a men’s grooming company, shows the company’s journey in a funny and flashy video:

Harry’s

It gives applicants a taste of the company culture and also adds a nice personal touch.

Reveal Inside Stories

Want to reveal what goes on behind the scenes in a company? Do it likeMedium. They have a huge collection of blogs and employee stories that gives an inside scoop of how the company functions.

Medium

Employee stories are relatable and strike a chord with many eager applicants.

5. Must Connect with Future Hires

All visitors to your careers page may not be looking for a job change at that very moment. But you can entice them to explore their options at your firm when they do decide to go for a change.

That’s exactly whatZappos does with its Insider Service.

Zappos

Zappos Insider gives interested visitors a glimpse into the company with the latest company news, insider perspectives, and team-specific updates. This simple move gets you through the door, and you can continue developing your relationship with any potential candidate even before you have a position to fill.

6. Must be Mobile Friendly

This is by far the most important element when creating a great careers page. With everyone using handheld devices to surf for information online, this is a no-brainer.

According to a study conducted by Jobvite, 33% of millennials want toapply for jobs on mobile. Workable, a recruiting software company that creates mobile optimized career pages, has an impressive mobile-responsive page.

Workable

Some of the characteristics of this page include white spaces, easy to load images and clear sentences.

Quick tip: Make sure your careers page renders well on the smallest of screens.

Conclusion

Companies need to build an attractive careers page if they want to attract top talent.

It becomes even more crucial when you want to reach out to talented passive candidates - those who aren’t actively looking for a post. Make it easy for them to explore new options that could be an excellent fit for their intended career paths, through a detailed careers page.

Every company has a purpose and a rich story behind it. By selling that company story, you can stand out from the rest.

Your history, your products, your culture and all the cool stuff you do can sell your company as a great place to work and grow.