The growth of the Career site, mobile and candidate engagement

There’s a big focus on employer career sites and perhaps less so traditional job boards.

Steve: Tell me about yourself.

Andy: I run the Talent Leaders and Recruitment Leaders Connect Conference events – conferences for talent acquisition and recruiters.

We have around10 talks at those events and there’s a whole array of different topics discussed. Some of the biggest topics at the moment are around mobile, mobile tech and candidate attraction.

Steve: Focusing on candidate attraction, what are the big trends?

Andy: Like I said, mobile is a massive trend – looking to how the whole application process from attraction to evaluation experience through to on-boarding. It’s all about how mobile currently could enable and speed up the process, make it more efficient – as well as attract the right type of candidates as well.

Steve: What are your observations or thoughts about the future of the industry when it comes to how you attract candidates?

Andy: From what we’re seeing, there’s a big focus on employer career sites and perhaps less so traditional job boards – plus growth in the tools they can use to grow the SEO of their own sites.

Steve: So you’re saying that the employer website is becoming a better-utilized job board, as opposed to soley brand flag-waving?

Andy: Exactly that. Secondly, the employer brand has grown in importance, that’s a huge… Employer brand is just a huge talking point right now.

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Steve: Why has it grown in importance?

Andy: It’s simply the fight to attract the right candidates. Before it was just putting the ads on the job boards or in print, and that wasn’t that long ago. And that’s where you had your employer brand. It was how you designed your advert; there was a huge industry kind of around that.

And although there still is an industry around that, it’s very much part of the overall brand perception. With social media, how the employer brand is reflected through social media. How do your employees talk about you? And what does the company look like from the outside?

Steve: If you were going name one brand that you think gets it really right when it comes to mastering the candidate attraction piece, who would that be?

[chuckle]

Andy: There’s so many to mention. It’s subjective, as well…

Steve: Top three?

Andy: I like some of the Californian tech businesses, the likes of Airbnb etc. I think they’ve got a great employer brand. And they reflect that through their website, through their social media, and how they actually interact with the candidates.

Steve: Removing mobile for one second, what other tech tools do you think are really helping with engagement?

Andy: With engaging candidates? I think Glassdoor. That’s grown massively in prominence over the last few years. As TripAdvisor did with the travel industry, so it’s become an integral part of any employer brand, and how candidates look at a particular company. I’d say that has grown massively and will continue to do so.

Andy Daniel (@andydaniel_TJP) is Director at Talent Leaders Connect.