Gerry Crispin of CareerXRoads claims that about 55% of corporate careers websites cannot answer the question, “Why come here?”
That means most candidates are lost as soon as they stumble on one of these sites, Crispin told a pre-conference workshop at ERE Expo on Tuesday.
As you contemplate your own system, check out a few other insights Crispin shared with attendees:
On virtual career fairs:
“I see some pieces to this, but I don’t see it adding value to the candidate experience. If the company doesn’t provide any additional data or value, in the end, it doesn’t add value to your candidate experience,” he says.
He points out that Phillips has the “most interesting approach” to this, with a series of people willing to talk to you.
On checking your careers site:
“I challenge any company to check their own jobs at least once a month,” he says. Many sites, he says, lose credibility with broken links, outdated job postings, etc.
On internal movement:
More positions are filled with internal employees than any other source, he says.
“It is kind of fascinating to me,” he admits.
The most important thing is a map on the corporate careers site to show how people move within organizations. Look at source of hire, be transparent, and let people choose to come to you.
“You say you develop employees, but not a single company in the United States publishes internal employee movement. Most won’t even reveal it to their own employees,” says Crispin.
“The only company I know that does it in a transparent way inside their company is Pepsi. Every month they publish how many people were promoted from division to division, level to level, etc. Those figures are then broken down by race and gender,” he says.
On managing job expectations:
“You have to be able to say why you come and why you stay,” he says.
He points to RIM’s site, as well as KPMG’s site.
At KPMG, for example, prospective applicants get deep data in terms of a profile of an individual and why they are there.
“Different value propositions can let you search on profiles of partners. If that person isn’t like me, it’s very simple, and I can navigate it quickly, and that adds a lot of value to me,” he says.