For many students and grads, your campus career website will be their first impression of your company.

So, if you want to hire the best, you need to have an egg-ceptional online presence. You also need to know what job seekers expect from your career site so you can develop a resource that suits their needs. Fortunately, a recent research report from Talent Board has provided some valuable insights on this very topic.

After surveying 100,000 candidates from 200 companies, their findings revealed the top 3 things job seekers want from your career site. Read on to see how your company stacks up!

1. Values

It’s not surprising that company values were the top choice for survey respondents. Candidates want to work somewhere that aligns with their beliefs and where they feel like they ‘fit in’ – and values are a big part of that equation. This is especially true among millennial job seekers. Gen-Y is characterized by their active involvement in social causes, so a potential employer’s values are a key evaluation tool in their career search.

To communicate your values effectively on your career site, practice the ‘show, don’t tell’ approach. For example, if your company prides itself on its results-focused culture, describe the ways in which this mindset is encouraged, such as through incentive programs or friendly office competitions.

Tip: Partner with TalentEgg to position your brand as the perfect place for Millennial talent. From employer profiles to career guides to Challenges, you will be front and centre as students and grads navigate the school-to-work transition.

2. Products and services

Candidates are evaluating your company just as much as you’re evaluating them. If your career site doesn’t clearly explain what your company does – for instance, what type of product you sell or service you offer – you could be missing out on top talent. Young professionals today tend to connect their identity with the work that they do, so they need to know right off the bat what type of organization they’re applying for and what they can expect if they land the gig.

This is why it’s so important to make your messaging quick and easy to understand. This is not because Millennials are impatient or have short attention spans – they are just better at identifying what they want – and don’t want – to engage with. This particular generation values transparency in their employers. Therefore, if your career site is full of unfamiliar jargon and buzzwords, you risk losing their interest – or worse, they may get the impression that you have something to hide.

As a recruiter, you may be questioning the usefulness of this. After all, you’re not trying to sell your organization’s products or services to a job applicant. However, if a young professional identifies with what they are selling or promoting, they are much more likely to commit to the company as an employee. To help explain what your company does to a potential applicant, try adopting a marketer’s mindset. Here are some simple tips from

Here are some simple tips from Forbes.com:

  • Keep it short. Your explanation should not be more than a few sentences.
  • Identify the problem your company is solving. In one sentence, explain the problem your potential customers are experiencing.
  • Simply explain your solution. In one sentence, describe how you solve the problem you’ve just outlined.
  • Explain what your solution means for your customers. In one sentence, what is the end result of your service or product? Does it save money, make their life easier or give them new opportunities?
  • Personalize it. If at all possible, make your explanation relate to the person you are speaking to. Has the problem you are solving affected them? Do they know anyone with this problem? The more interactive you can make your pitch, the higher the chances that your audience will be receptive to it.

3. Employee testimonials

Whether it’s featured through a video or a blog post on your website, one thing is clear: employee testimonials work. Because they are based on individual experiences, they communicate important information about your workplace culture, day-in-the-life experiences, and benefits in a way that feels much more genuine and relatable to potential candidates.

To really reap the benefits of this approach, you need to make sure you don’t just focus on the ‘what,’ but also the ‘why.’ A candidate can learn about what the role entails from the job posting, but effectively illustrating why people choose to work there, and why they stay, is something that can only come from the people themselves.

If you have the time and resources, video testimonials tend to be most interesting and engaging to Gen-Y job applicants, because they provide more information through tone, facial expression, and other nonverbal cues. Also, videos are highly shareable – you can post them to your Facebook page or include them in your TalentEgg profile for maximum exposure. To best tell your narrative, choose employees who accurately represent your culture and have compelling stories to tell about why they choose to work at your company.

TalentEgg worked with TJX Canada to produce this fun video testimonial – take a look!

As you can see, optimizing your campus career site doesn’t have to be a huge undertaking. There are plenty of resources available to help you and your team impress potential applicants – head to TalentEgg.ca to learn more about we can do for employers like you.

Discussion: How do you optimize your career site for students and new grads?

Related Articles