Building Recruitment Websites – what you need to know.

We know recruitment websites and we know that your website needs to be a powerful recruitment tool that will give you the advantage to get top candidates matched to the right vacancies. But what do you need to consider when building and designing your new recruitment website?

We’ve put together some best practices and top tips you need to consider when looking to upgrade an old site or build a new one from scratch. There are some great examples on our website for you to take a look through as a starting point.

There are two sides to every story, and this story is no different. While your main focus might be the needs of your clients and candidates, your staff and recruitment teams also have needs that your new website must meet. So to make it easy we’ve broken this down into two sections, ‘Clients and Candidates’ and ‘You and Your Team’.

Clients and Candidates

First things first, your website needs to be easy to use. Potential candidates will start looking elsewhere if a) your website is too tricky for them to navigate and b) it doesn’t bring up all relevant roles when they do a search. By making your site easy to use, your candidates are more likely to return and use the site again and recommend you to their friends.

Once your site is easy to use, it also needs to have a great search functionality. Make sure your candidates are able to filter their results by location, salary, level of role, whether it’s full time, part time, or a contract role, etc.

Once your candidates have searched your pool of roles, allow them to save their search and compare roles for later. This saves them the time and hassle of having to search again in the future, making the process more efficient for them.

It’s almost a no-brainer to allow candidates to create an account, so they can access their saved searches, upload their CV and register for job alerts. This also will allow you to capture their details and you can start to create that one-to-one relationship with the top candidates.

Making the process simple, easy and efficient for your candidates is key, but you also need to make sure the website makes your recruitment consultants lives easier, allowing them to focus on recruiting and not the admin.

Your website also needs to be easy to navigate for your clients. You should aim to make it simple to find out about your team, who's responsible for which sector perhaps; there should be no confusion about how best to get in touch, you can even request a brief from them with a neat online form to make that first step even easier for your clients. The branding and language used on the site will be a good indicator to clients that your agency will be a good fit.

You and Your Team

You need to have an easy to use CMS (content management system) that allows you and your team to make any changes or update the site quickly, without having to contact a developer each time. An easy to use system not only saves your team’s time, it also means that anyone in the team can do it.

Integrating your CRM is vital as it allows you to pair your website and contacts, giving you just one place to manage all your key relationships. Hurrah, we hear you cry! Gone are the days of multiple systems that need cross referencing before every call.

We are often asked to integrate recruitment websites with job aggregators so when a job is posted it is distributed to all the right channels… seamlessly. This integration will save you time organising jobs, searching and filtering through applicants, again allowing you to give your clients the personal touch.

You might want a back-end or CMS that helps with your workflow or processes. For example, having checks in place to ensure candidates have been contacted in a timely manner, that interviews have been booked and feedback filed. Additionally, your website could even automate some of these responses for you saving your team even more time and making sure candidates get the right information when they need it.

Automation is the name of the game! Automatic social posting to Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn will get your jobs out there quickly and to a wide new audience.

All of these changes will mean less admin, allowing you and your team to focus on the personal interactions with clients and candidates, and actual recruitment.

The Shameless Bit

Now you didn’t think we just loved telling you all about recruitment websites and what you need to know when thinking about a new one did you? At Applecado we’re proud to build awesome bespoke recruitment websites and jobs boards that suit your needs. We’ve worked some fabulous recruitment companies including Peoplesource, Annapurna Recruitment and Beringer Tame, so we understand the industry and know we can take your ideas and make them a reality. Get in touch now to have a chat about what we can do for you.