In many ways, your career page is similar to a landing page. The difference is that instead of selling people a product or service, you are selling them on the idea that they should work for you. Like a landing page, your career page needs to be interactive and engaging to keep job seekers’ attention and get them to answer your call to action.
The Benefits of Creating an Interactive Careers Page
When you add interactive elements to your career page, you can serve up information about your company in an engaging way. This positioning allows you to highlight the things that make your company special, including:
- Telling the story of your company
- Providing examples of your company culture
- Sharing employee testimonials
- Promoting your values and mission statement
- Featuring awards and other third-party honors
- Gathering information from prospects
The key is to take a brand-first approach. This approach will ensure that any interactive elements you use will be authentic and believable.
Any time you include interactive elements on a web page, you increase the time visitors spend. Engaging pages also earn more shares and backlinks. These metrics improve site indexing and help keep your career page at the top of search engine results. That, in turn, leads to more traffic and engagement.
What are Interactive Career Page Elements?
Interactive career page elements are any details you add to your page that encourage more than passive scrolling and reading. They are additions that engage readers, get them to stay on your page longer, and allow you to communicate your employer value proposition better.
Some examples of interactive items that you can add to your career page include:
- Embedded Videos
- Polls and quizzes
- Tools and Widgets
- Online chat
- Infographics
- Social share buttons
While you may not want to include every single interactive feature on your career page, there are clear benefits to adding a few. Here are some suggestions for using each, along with the benefits they offer.
Embedded Videos
Videos are one of the most engaging elements you can add to any web page. They increase time on page, shares, and traffic. Use video to share behind-the-scenes looks at your company culture, employee testimonials, or deeper dives into the position you are trying to fill.
Polls and Quizzes
Polls and quizzes are great data collection tools. You can use them to collect information about potential applicants or gain insights into what people think of your current recruiting page.
For job seekers, polls and quizzes get them further engaged. You can share quizzes and polls that help candidates learn about your company or roles they might wish to pursue.
Tools and Widgets
There are various tools and widgets that you can share on your careers page to add interesting and useful features. One of the most common is Google’s “Share or Embed Map,” which helps applicants find your location for interviews. There are also contact forms and online appointment schedulers to help automate some of the hiring process.
You can also use widgets to share more about your company culture and values. Comparably’s Culture Widget allows you to customize an interactive widget that you can place on your career page to show positive feedback, awards, and D&I efforts to potential candidates.
Online Chatbot
Did you know that most candidates will drop out of the application process if they find it frustrating or confusing? What happens if an interested prospect needs help as they navigate your career page?
An interactive chatbot could provide users answers to common questions, escalate issues as needed, and even use applicant feedback to curate job recommendations.
Infographics
Infographics are great tools for sharing information in a way that is visual and easy to digest. You can embed an infographic to share information about your company history, provide a roadmap of the application process, or highlight important information about your employer brand.
Social Share Buttons
Social share buttons are probably the simplest tool for getting people to engage with your career page. When you place these buttons on your page, you give visitors a fast, easy way to share what they find with others.
Tips for an Engaging Career Page
Of course, you can’t just throw interactive features onto your career page and call it a day. These have to be incorporated in a way that adds value. It’s also important that your entire page be user-friendly.
Make Your Career Page Easy to Find
Your career page won’t see much traffic if candidates can’t locate it without an arduous search. Some things you can do to make your page more visible include:
- Optimizing your career page content for SEO
- Sharing links to your career page on your company social media pages
- Including your career page in your top-of-page navigation on your company website
- Building your career page in a mobile-friendly web format
All of these things will make it easier for people to navigate to your career page. The result will be more visitors and more applications for each position you need to fill.
Avoid Making the Page Busy
Don’t overcrowd your page with bells and whistles. Instead, take a thoughtful approach by adding elements that will truly improve the candidate experience. Too many tools and other interactive features will only make your page cluttered and confusing.
Make it Readable
You have a lot of information to share on your page. Unfortunately, if you present a wall of text, potential candidates will be overwhelmed and likely give up before completing an application. Format your page for readability and to keep the user’s attention.
Start by featuring the most important information in a prominent place. This information includes job listings, job descriptions, and information about your company. Use bullet points, subheadings, and white space to make the page easy to read. Add a search bar to improve navigation and jump links to important information to avoid crowding.
