Just how important is a great career site for attracting and engaging talent? Very important, it turns out. According to joint research with the Talent Board and SmartRecuriters, career sites are the number one recruiting technology survey respondents deployed to attract and engage candidates with specialized skill sets. With high competition for skilled talent, a career site has to be better than good—it has to be amazing.

What does an amazing career site look like? 

An amazing career site is not just about pretty graphics and good photography; it’s about the functionality behind the site, compelling copy, and user experience that guides candidates to the right jobs and information.

The team at SmartRecruiters Attrax shared these examples from companies around the world. For each site listed below, we highlight three key features that keep job seekers engaged along the hiring journey. Let’s dive in and discover the features that move a career site from good to great.

Greene King promotes diversity across its diverse set of brands

Greene King operates 2,600 pubs, restaurants, and hotels in the United Kingdom and has 39,000 employees. Its locations span from country pubs like Chef & Brewer to family-oriented establishments like Wacky Warehouse. Needless to say, the reasons people come to work at a Greene King-owned establishment are varied. Greene King’s career site won the prestigious Happy Dance Award for “Best New Careers Site” at the 2023 Tiara Talent Acquisition Awards.

The site takes several approaches to capturing various candidate interests in a straightforward, yet inspirational way.

Location search

With establishments around the UK, the central Greene King career site offers location-based search by asking for town/postcode. It also delivers results by reading the IP address once users have opted in. These features allow busy chefs, part-time waiting staff, and students to find opportunities closest to them, whether or not they know the full suite of brands that Greene King operates.

Branded mini-career sites

When searching for jobs, candidates may go to the individual establishment’s website instead of the central Greene King site. When they click “Work with us” on any brand site, they get directed to a brand-specific career home page, such as this one from Hungry Horse. 

Clicking on “View our current job opportunities” takes candidates to the main Greene King site, but the jobs are filtered for Hungry Horse and remain in the Hungry Horse brand colors, as shown in the example below. This emphasis on branding lets Greene King bring each brand to life in its own way.

A podcast supports inclusion and diversity

Greene King’s mission to “pour happiness into people’s lives” doesn’t stop with customers; the company has a strong inclusion and diversity ethic for its employees. As champions of “celebrating what we all have in common, as well as what makes us unique,” the talent attraction team developed a podcast highlighting diverse voices from around the company. 

In a press release, Lindsey Stone, Greene King’s Head of Talent Attraction & Resourcing said,

Our mission is to be a trailblazer when it comes to inclusion in the hospitality industry. We want to embody this commitment to everyday inclusion through our new site. We chose to partner with SmartRecruiters to build a site that mirrors our brand values and culture and brings those aspects to life by delivering an excellent candidate experience.

SRG Senior Living gets specific about targeting candidates

SRG Senior Living operates 19 resort-style luxury senior living communities across six U.S. states. With a variety of jobs spread out over thousands of miles, it’s important that candidates find relevant jobs in their area, as well as understand the values and culture that make SRG different from competing facilities.

Link to individual community location pages

From the jobs homepage for a state, candidates can click on the community closest to them and learn more about it. They can also get inspired by clicking on a link to an article about a local employee’s career progression from Aide to Director.

Embedded videos from the YouTube channel

Not everyone knows what it looks like inside a senior care facility. Embedding videos from the company’s YouTube channel gives candidates a behind-the-scenes view of the impact they can have working within these communities. 

Categorized blog posts

Career site blog posts serve a double purpose: they introduce candidates to your brand by attracting organic search traffic, and they inform candidates who are ready to apply by giving them information about your company and how to progress in their careers. 

SRG’s blog posts are organized into categories that cover various topics, including employee stories, career advice, and diversity & inclusion. They also cover role types offered at SRG, such as caregiving & clinical, maintenance, and drivers.

Endeavour brings its brands to life with interactivity

Endeavour Group employs 28,000 people in Australia across its network of retail outlets, hotels, pubs, and beverage brands. 

Distinct branding consistent with the company homepage

The company’s distinct brand image is conveyed on its career About Us page on the career site with compelling copy, bold graphics, moving elements, and employee images in a format consistent with its company home page, giving candidates an indication of the friendly environment at Endeavour.

Brand landing page

At a company as large as Endeavour, candidates might not know all the opportunities to expand their careers with its different brands. Candidates get a quick, interactive experience on the brand page by clicking a + next to each brand to learn more.

Unique footer

Endeavour shows that a footer can offer more than just links. The company used the career site footer to talk about its commitment to the voices, stories, and cultures of First Peoples. If a candidate scrolls to the bottom of the page and doesn’t find what they’re looking for, a “Sign up for job alerts” button ensures Endeavour captures data from interested candidates who aren’t ready to apply.

Rentokil Initial encourages candidate engagement

Rentokil Initial is a pest control company that employs 59,000 people and offers innovative services and solutions in over 90 countries across 1,800 local branches. 

To personalize the candidate experience across its diverse global candidate audience, Rentokil’s career site deployed themes driven by the location of the visitor, ensuring that candidates receive the most relevant information no matter where they live. 

Because the company might not be top of mind for job seekers, it’s important that Rentokil’s career site keeps candidates engaged while bringing its career opportunities to life through video and written content.

Sticky call-to-action button

The careers home page offers employee stories, links to blog posts, and company information. As job seekers scroll down the page, a “find your role” CTA button follows them, making sure they’re always one click away from a job search window. The floating button improves the candidate experience by eliminating the need to scroll back up the page. Additionally, a job search window appears on the page footer.

Graduate hub

The Rentokil corporate graduate scheme gives recent college grads the opportunity to work in different divisions of the company. A graduate hub on the global career site lets prospective applicants read first-person testimonials from those who have completed the program. The images on the page also show the fun side of grad schemes, reminding candidates that it’s not only a career choice but also a social experience.

Options for “No Results” job page

Sometimes candidates don’t find a job they want – but that doesn’t mean Rentokil won’t have a job for them in the future. On the “No Results” page, candidates can sign up for job alerts and find links to other job opening categories they might have missed.

Career site features add up for a better candidate experience

The Talent Board survey found that for companies that reported filling jobs faster than a year ago, adding career site content targeted to skilled talent was among the top three improvements made to the candidate experience. An engaging career site helps candidates by giving them the information they need to self-select while helping your company attract more of the right people. To learn more about the Talent Board research findings, download the report below.

Through this tour of four companies’ career sites, we’ve shown 12 unique features companies can use to attract and engage candidates. Whether or not you’re in the market for a new ATS, you can take advantage of these features by partnering with SmartRecruiters Attrax. Get in touch with us for a demo today.