There are so many projects to take on when it comes to making improvements to your recruitment strategy. And whether you’re honed in on data-driven initiatives or the candidate experience, a stellar careers site will inevitably be on your list of hiring must-haves.
There are many resources out there to help you navigate creating your first careers page or improving the one you have. But resources rarely trump the advice of those who have experienced a careers site redesign before.
Recently, Incentro revamped their entire careers site to cater to an IT-savvy candidate community and to highlight their best qualities as an organization. We sat down with the team responsible for launching their new careers site to gain insight into the challenges and opportunities that they faced when taking on this project.
Room for improvement
Like many hiring teams, Incentro started with a careers site that was no longer fit for purpose; “I was quite embarrassed by our last recruitment website because it wasn't a good showcase for Incentro anymore.” Sven Oldenhof shared. Sven is responsible for Incentro’s recruitment and is currently based in one of their Amsterdam offices. “And the website itself was really outdated. It didn't match our current branding guidelines anymore.”
About a year ago, Sven took on the massive project of improving Incentro’s recruitment from top to bottom. The team started with some clear goals in mind:
- Attract more medior to senior IT talent
- Bring candidates closer to Incentro’s work
- And attract the right kinds of candidates for Incentro
And as an IT company, Sven decided to start with one of their most important online products for hiring: their careers site.
Qualification for the careers site
When starting off any project, like creating a brand new careers page, it’s important to list out the most important features and aspects. For the Incentro team, there were a couple of crucial improvements to be made from the get-go.
With an ever-growing demand for Incentro’s consultancy services, their hiring team was busier than ever. “UX was really important. We really wanted the candidates to go through a journey and along the way get the candidates hooked. We needed to get the most out of our funnel and try to catch all the possible candidates.”
The Incentro team also wanted a fast careers site and a great developer experience.“That’s why we used a JAMstack, which means we serve generated static HTML but get our content from services like Recruitee. The site rebuilds itself automatically when content or vacancies change,” shared Thijs van Diessen, a front-end developer who worked on the careers site revamp, “For example, every day if there are new vacancies posted in Recruitee, they will be automatically posted on this website, too.”
Once they were able to build a list of components, “We started off selling a concept within our own company as well.” Sven put together a presentation to demonstrate the value.
Targeting tech talent
Like many teams, Incentro looked at their candidate audience to impress them with not only their employer brand but pride in what they produce as a company- digital solutions.
“One of the things we took as a guideline for this project is that we believe candidates, especially medior and senior [tech] candidates, will inspect your website. So they will get into the code, or they will look at the website, how it's built, what kind of technology is used. And I think a lot of companies miss this component on their websites.” Sven shared.
“So maybe it looks good, but medior and senior developers will get into the code of the website as well to take a look at it, see the level of development, and base their decisions on that as well.” As part of the careers page project, Incentro also included a specific page detailing the technology their team uses and stories from their current staff.
Ultimately, for Thijs, their company mission was a core element to communicate in the careers site update.
We at Incentro make awesome digital solutions with most modern technologies, and that's also exactly what we did with this website.
Thijs van Diessen
Front-end developer
Bringing marketing into the mix
The candidate experience and UX were a big driving force behind Incentro’s careers page. But in order to make sure their page connected with their target audience, they brought a few marketing tactics into the mix:
“And the concept was based on a marketing model, which is called AIDA [Attention, Interest, Desire, Action]. When you look at the website, it's built on those four steps. So we try to grab the attention of the candidate at first with a couple of things like a large video, a large copy, a couple of transitions in it as well.”
“Then, we build on the interest of the candidates. And that's I think the part where the biggest changes were made.” In order to attract more senior candidates, Incentro traded out their team building photos for their work with big brands and state-of-the-art tech. “And I think that's what gets the interest of the medior and senior candidates, in the end,” Sven noted.
Building careers site 2.0 with an HR initiative
“We did something special within the company besides building the careers site.” When faced with finding the resources to take on this important recruitment initiative, the Incentro team didn’t just look internally. The team involved looked to re-engage select employees returning from long-term sick leave or burnouts.
“We do consultancy and we work for clients. It's a really big step for someone to reintegrate within the company and to go to external projects once they're able to make hours again.” Sven shared. Those recovering from long-term sick leave and burnout often need adjustments to their work routines, even after returning to work. Assigning these employees to important but perhaps lower-pressure, internal projects can be a great way to ease them back into a routine work environment.
We created a safe environment within our own company for people to reintegrate. And we managed to get four people reintegrated again within the timeframe of the project.
Sven Oldenhof
Manager Digital Experience
The results and advice on how to get there
Ultimately, the effort paid off, and not just in assisting four employees in reintegrating. Incentro saw an increase of 25% more page views, 80% more users, and 140% more applicants from their careers site after it was launched last September.
For many responsible for employer branding, those stats are envious. Thankfully, the Incentro team have a couple of tips on how to achieve a successful careers site launch:
- Ask yourself the critical questions first: Who are you trying to attract? How can the careers site accomplish that? Only then work your way towards more functional questions like: What should be on the first page? Where should you place CTAs?
- Tailor your website content and job descriptions to the seniority level of your target applicants.
- Review your careers site from the perspective of the candidate.
- Treat your careers site like you would an eCommerce website. Monitor performance, assess drop off points, and continuously improve the setup.
- Use the Recruitee API to make sure that your candidate funnel is complete; candidates will flow seamlessly into your ATS.
With a new careers site locked down, the Incentro team is now able to look beyond the functionality of the page towards establishing a strong flow of qualified candidates into their ATS.
.jpg)
