There’s no doubt that the best way to articulate what it is like to work for a business is through the experiences of the people who know it best. The ones who already work there. But what’s the best way to do this? Testimonials? Yes. Video profiles? Of course. But keeping these up to date and relevant can often be a challenge. And do they really give you the best platform to tell your employer story? From our experience nothing supports this better then a good old-fashioned careers website blog. Well, we call it a blog, but it isn’t really a blog. More a publishing platform. Partnered with social media, it can often offer a real-time insight into the activities, beliefs and culture of an organisation. Oh, and it’s very handy for your SEO too.
In this article we’ll be exploring why you need a careers blog, what you can cover on it and sharing some time saving tips in producing the content you’ll need. We’ll stop by some of our own sites along the way to show you some examples.
It’s a powerful channel for your employer brand
We are at a time when candidates want to know far more about your organisation than the job and its rewards. What’s your purpose? What’s it like working for you? How flexible are your working practices, post pandemic? What are the opportunities for progression? A careers blog is a powerful channel to bring your employer brand to life and bring candidates over the line, especially if it’s your existing people who share their experiences.
Candidates are increasingly discerning and will do their research before they apply. Unlike other parts of a careers site that have specific roles to play, the beauty of a careers website blog is that it can cover whatever you want and, over time, become a deep resource of lived experiences. Make a good impression and candidates will be more likely to navigate to other careers pages and your vacancies themselves.
It will support your EVP pillars
The answer to the question ‘Why should someone choose to work for you?’ is what drives your employee proposition (EVP) and defines what makes you a great employer. When you know this, it makes good sense to feature these proposition ‘pillars’ in the content of your careers blog through real life stories and examples.
We work in partnership with the resourcing team at NFU Mutual to produce blog articles for them. Each article is designed to promote one of their key employer proposition pillars. Using their people to articulate and demonstrate these pillars and offer a personal insight into what they mean to them. Take a look at their ‘Our stories’ section to see this in practice, https://careers.nfumutual.co.uk/our-stories.
For other clients, we simply put in place the platforms, helped shape their strategy and let them loose. The ‘Inside Hastings’ careers blog has now been live for over six years and contains over 100 articles. All written by the Hastings Direct resourcing team each is focused around one of the 4Cs that shape the way that they do business – colleagues, customer, community and company.
The SEO juice of a careers website blog
Research from LinkedIn shows the SEO value of a careers website blog. 75% of job seekers will consider an employer’s brand before even applying for a job. And 52% will first seek out the company’s sites and social media to learn more about the employer. A careers blog provides content that ticks both those boxes.
What’s more, a careers blog provides you with a whole host of career related terms for which candidates could be searching. This in turn means that a blog can be the part of your site that effectively ‘lands’ the candidate, in addition to the vacancies themselves. Candidates searching for things like ‘careers in finance’, ‘hybrid working in (your location)’, ‘sustainable work culture’ will be more likely to find those employers whose career blog content shows up in their search results.
Career blog content ideas
Stories that come from employees themselves often make the best content. And that’s because they are relatable, told by people your candidates see as being like them and who they can trust. The good news, as we’ve regularly found, is that your employees will have a wealth of stories to tell and these are usually the ones that attract the most interest. What this also means is that, for a busy resourcing professional, finding the content for a careers blog is less daunting than you might think.
So, what can you cover? There’s stories about progression and career paths. NFU Mutual ran a series on Women in Finance, profiling a number of women in their organisation with their personal stories of career development. Take a look at Alvyda’s story as an example. You can also cover stories about company culture. We work with iconic global brand Miele, also managing content on their careers blog. Here’s an article on their careers site about the diverse and inclusive culture at their global digital hub, Miele X in Amsterdam and why it makes working there so different.
There’s really no limit to the ideas you could use. Stories of roles and purpose, remote and hybrid working, early careers, career accomplishments, personal profiles of life outside work. And, if you want to tempt people back into the office after the pandemic, you could run a piece on your new office, especially if it’s as spectacular as the new Miele X HQ in Amsterdam which also delves into their sustainability values.
A few tips on managing careers blog content
Yes, we know that maintaining a careers website blog can be resource heavy, but the benefits massively outweigh the effort. And we do have a few tricks that you may find useful.
Shape your content around your proposition. What is it that you want to be known for as an employer? What are the points that will differentiate your offer from that of your competitors for the same candidates? If your article isn’t supporting one of your proposition pillars is it worth writing?
Record all interviews (with your employees’ permission). Not only will you not risk missing out on any valuable points they make, you can then send the audio file to a transcription service like rev.com. This will save you hours of time – we know!
Give employees the heads up on what you’ll be covering. Make sure your resourcing team or your agency, like us, gives them a few questions or at least a theme you’ll be covering in advance. This way they can gather their thoughts before you speak.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help. If you don’t have a good in-house writer, consider outsourcing the content creation aspects so that this gets done more quickly. Especially if you don’t llike writing. Give the job to a writer. They know what they’re doing. And they’ll probably enjoy it more.
Each article is little marketing tool. Create each piece of content with a specific aim in mind. And make sure that it can be found, indexed and promoted through the search engines. It could be the way that people find your website.
In conclusion
Because candidates want to know so much more about culture, values, purpose and progression, a careers blog has become an extremely valuable part of an attraction strategy. Not only do they answer the questions candidates may have – often by people they can relate to, they enable a more considered application from more engaged candidates. We reckon that’s highly attractive to a recruiter in a tight talent market.
Need a little help?
If you feel that you’d like some help, support or even a little chat around managing a careers website blog or any aspect of your talent attraction strategy just drop us a line. After all, much of our best work has started with a cup of tea and a Zoom call.
