We spend a lot of time looking at company websites, probably more than most people, and something we’ve noticed recently is the difference between how companies talk about their vacancies.
Some companies have clearly put a lot of effort into their careers section. They’ll have employee case studies, information about benefits, examples of people who have progressed through the business, training opportunities and generally quite a lot about what it’s actually like to work there.
Then you have other companies where there’s simply a “Jobs” page with a list of current vacancies and not much else.
It got us thinking about whether this is actually a reasonable indication of how a company views its employees.
Obviously, you can’t judge a company’s culture from its website alone. We’ve worked with some brilliant businesses over the years whose websites probably don’t do them justice, and we’re sure there are companies with fantastic careers pages where the reality doesn’t quite match the marketing.
But we do think there’s something in it.
There’s a difference between recruiting somebody to do a job and recruiting somebody who you hope will build a career with your business.
If you’re thinking longer term about the people you employ, you probably have more to tell prospective employees. How do people progress? What training do you provide? What are the benefits? Why do people stay? What have people who joined you three, five or ten years ago gone on to do?
Employee case studies are particularly good for this. Saying that you offer “excellent career progression” is easy enough, but showing someone who joined the business as a junior five years ago and is now managing a team tells us considerably more.
The same goes for benefits. We’re always surprised by companies that offer a decent package but barely mention it on their website. If you’ve got a good pension, 30 days’ holiday, private healthcare, a proper training budget or genuinely flexible working, why wouldn’t you tell people about it?
It’s particularly relevant when you’re trying to recruit people who aren’t desperate to leave their current employer.
If someone is reasonably happy where they are, they’re unlikely to move just because you’ve got a vacancy that roughly matches their experience. They want to understand whether the move is actually going to improve their career, and your website is probably one of the first places they’ll look.
Of course, simply changing a button on your website from “Jobs” to “Careers” doesn’t mean anything. It’s what’s behind it that interests us.
If your careers section is nothing more than a list of vacancies, maybe it’s worth asking what a prospective employee actually learns about working for you from visiting it.
We spend plenty of time asking candidates why they want to work for a company. Perhaps companies should make sure they’re giving them enough reasons to answer the question.