Recently at ID Studio Web Agency, we have started to design an increasing number of recruitment web designs, helping to provide professional, affordable and dynamic solutions in a very competitive market.
The recruitment industry is a constantly changing environment that needs to continuously evolve in order to meet the requirements for candidates and clients. These requirements can vary greatly, from providing a simple online presence to a multisite international jobs board with tens of thousands of positions.
Usability and first impressions count. We understand the need to create an impressive, intuitive user experience, helping to convert your visitors into candidates and businesses into clients.
Recruitment web design can cover any industry and your target market (both candidates and clients) need to be effectively included in the design process. Prior to starting the design, you need to segment your target market allowing for more accurate targeting. Example grouping could include any of the following areas:
At the very least, recruitment consultancies will require an online presence to showcase their business, educating visitors, generating interest and enquiries. From past experiences, we have found the majority of clients require some form of online searchable jobs database with candidate registration. This often involves data migration from an existing provider or integration with a back office recruitment software package.
The reason for a new website is pretty much the same as any other industry:
You need to stand out from your competition, creating an immediate positive impression. A great website design alone is not enough, this needs to be backed up with a slick, intuitive, user-friendly experience allowing your potential customers to achieve their objectives with minimum effort, whilst channelling them towards becoming a customer. Your website needs to reflect your target market, business ethos, persona and values. This can be enforced by:
Your recruitment website design needs to cater for all your visitor needs, by carefully analysing your target market and client base requirements, any specific functionality should become apparent. Below are some areas your website may need to consider.
Multilingual Functionality – Do you need to cater for clients and candidates that speak another language? If 20% of your recruitment business is completed in South America, you might want to add options for Portuguese and Spanish.
Career Guides – By offering candidates additional information such as career guides, salary rates, interview tips you can differentiate yourself from other recruitment companies, creating an impression of industry knowledge and professionalism. Allow this information to be forwarded on to their colleagues and friends, social networks etc.
Powerful Search Function – Usability is key to the success of any website, by allowing potential candidates to search jobs with ease you are more likely to convert them into registrations. Make it easier for them by including fields for industry, function, location, title, salary etc.
Save Job – Allow visitors to save jobs, this will also encourage user registration allowing you to gain further information for marketing. You may need to be aware of recent changes to the law, please view the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that has recently come to fruition from the EU.
Similar Jobs – This functionality is usually associated with ecommerce websites, in our opinion, it is just as worthy for any recruitment website offering jobs online. For this tactic, you will aim to generate extra enquiries by suggesting additional or related jobs that the candidate might be interested in. Correctly implemented, cross-selling techniques feel natural and improve the website experience by showing visitors complementary vacancies that can increase the value of their time spent on your website.
Feedback Option – Ask how you can improve the website experience, no better feedback then straight from the horse’s mouth.
Testimonials - Testimonials can be a very powerful tool helping establish trust, overcoming scepticism and encouraging visitors to become a client. By adding testimonials to strategic areas of your website, you can dramatically increase your conversion rates (Source - Biggcommerce).
News and Blog articles - Keep your recruitment website constantly updated by creating relevant news and blog articles that can be included on the homepage. Write about industry related news, showcasing your business knowledge and expertise, with constant call to action triggers designed to increase conversions.
Case studies - This will provide you with the ability to showcase your impressive work, creating an air of industry knowledge with a proven track record. You should show candidates and clients how you can help them using real-life scenarios.
Marketing Automation - Through MailChimp or similar alternatives you can look to automate and personalise each candidate and clients experience.
The choice is yours, if you need a bespoke system specifically for your business with strict requirements then you may struggle to find a software that is a 100% fit.
Some common features you may need to consider include:
There are numerous prebuilt recruiting software solutions for your business, it is just a matter of finding the right package for your needs. A great site to compare some of the available products with software reviews can be found at https://www.capterra.com/recruiting-software/
For any recruitment business to prosper, they need clients with job requirements and candidates that are suitable for those positions. Without client vacancies or candidates there is no recruitment business. This is what differentiates recruitment websites from many other industries, they are looking to attract two completely different types of site visitors. It is vitally important that your website is tailored towards both, the home page of your website should contain a prominent area that’s specifically used to appeal to and engage with clients and candidates. It should look to promote your core services, taking visitors on a journey that will culminate in the main purpose of the website (register as a candidate, register a vacancy). It essential that the website immediately embraces the user, guiding them and not bombarding them with too many options.
Connect with your visitors by identifying their needs and providing solutions for those needs.
By continuously updating your website, you will help improve candidate attraction as they will keep coming back looking for potential opportunities. It shows them that you are a successful recruitment agency constantly adding new roles. It will give potential clients the impression that you are busy encouraging them to use your services.
Google also likes websites that are updated with relevant information, potentially boosting your SEO rankings.
The importance of social media being incorporated into your new recruitment website cannot be underestimated, it needs to be a fundamental part of your marketing strategy. According to betterteam.com, 61% of job seekers search for jobs through social networks.
The benefits of Social Media are numerous and include increased exposure, reaching additional audiences, as well as being relatively cheap and quick to set up.
There is always room for improvement, and there is some fantastic software out there that can help you improve your candidate and client conversions. You can include website analytical software such as Google Analytics, this will provide you with critical information such as AdWords success, conversions, bounce rate, goals, traffic sources, visitor demographics etc.
Another great software package we often use with websites we design is Hotjar, this creates ‘heatmaps’ helping you to understand what your visitors want, care about and interact with on your site by visually representing their clicks, taps and scrolling behaviour.
At ID Studio Web Agency we have some great experience creating recruitment website designs throughout London and the United Kingdom. If you would like to learn more about the services we offer or just want an informal chat, contact Michael Macneil on 020 8948 5808.
