life

I’m increasingly convinced that adulting today is largely focused around throwing things away. It’s a rare day that I’m not doing the food recycling, the card and paper recycling, the glass and plastic recycling, taking clothes to a charity shop, taking old, broken electronics to Currys, emptying the garden bin or loading the car up for the unalloyed fun of the council dump. 

And for the majority of these enthralling tasks, I’m drawn to my London borough website and its information on recycling. On what days do I put out the garden waste? Can I book a slot to take my car in? No trailers, though. Not on a weekend, certainly. It’s a treasure trove of information and guidance. And for that reason, and that reason alone, I find myself visiting said site on an all-too regular basis. Excitement? Fun? Sticky content? Absolutely none of the above. It does exactly what it says on the tin and exactly no more. 

I’m there because I have to be there. 

Is there a sense that many career sites adopt a similar mindset? Is there an assumption that candidates visit career pages as a distress purchase? That they are on your job site because they have to be? That they wouldn’t be anywhere near were it not for actual or anticipated unemployment? Or that they are deeply unhappy with their current employer and seek a route out? 

If we sense that our audience is visiting not out of desire or a wish to be informed, entertained or engaged, but through necessity and desperation, does that influence the information provided and the way this information is presented? 

How many career sites merit a repeat visit? How many surprise us with a novel approach? How many truly stand out? How many set out to delight, to inspire, to provoke? 

How many approach the structure and design of their career offering through the eyes and mouse of the candidate or visitor? Do we understand what they are looking for? Why they are there? How much behavioural science is applied to their journeys? Or do we tend to approach this design with a templated mindset?

If a candidate is going from careers site to careers site, how much will they remember of the last one they visited? How memorable could and should careers pages be?

Maybe as a result of budget, maybe as a result of business pressures, maybe as a result of the current employer-led labour market, are we being too modest about what a careers site should offer, should enable?

There are definite exceptions to this – I’m loving the new Sanofi careers site for example – it occupies a conservative industry sector, yet the site is open, attractive, informative and interesting. 

Like Sanofi, if we want to go beyond the functional and the everyday, what do we need to consider?

Let’s think about the candidate – and plenty of people have been candidates for too long. Could a careers site offer help and advice for job hunters? Some pointers for a CV? Information about other organisations within this space? (We’ve talked about a war for talent and competitor activity for a long time – couldn’t we also factor some degree of collaboration into our thinking and approach). 

How about a forum page, providing the ability for candidates to ask questions of either your organisation or their peer group? To share experiences, positive news or simply just to vent?

I love people stories, but equally I think there is a risk of approaching these thinking about how every other employer goes about such tasks. I’d love to see an employer have a feature on where their people go when they leave. Why not feature stories of people who have left your business (even some who have come back), touching on how time at your organisation has enhanced their career options? How time with you opens doors?

I love the idea of longitudinal stories. Where people add to their career stories. Two years ago, this is where I was, this is what I was doing, however, today, my life is different – and this is how my employer has supported me. Career journeys are rarely linear, people want to understand about how you support people, what sorts of options and choices are available. And that the journey can be as interesting as the destination.

Equally, it would be great to have a degree of personalisation about employee stories. As a candidate, I might want to know how mature workers are faring in your organisation. I might want to know how people with my degree or from my university are enjoying working with you. If I’m applying for a graduate job, I might want to understand how the class of five years ago is doing – how have their careers unfolded? I might want to understand if not having a degree is going to hinder my career with you. The more personalised and relevant the stories I come across, the more I’m likely to associate and align to your career messaging. 

Walk in the shoes of your candidate audiences. They might be looking at any number of career sites. How does yours differ and stand out. How can it better escape the confines of copy and paste, the tried and the trusted? What does it offer the candidate? Is there any value add? Is there any reason for a repeat visit? 

Or does it provide the excitement, joy and wonder of my local recycling website?