How to use your employer branding to attract talent to your startup hiring funnel, rather than repel it
While startups often begin with a single idea and person, you’ll need to bring more people on board if you want to start growing. Hiring is a big deal. Although it can be enticing to run your business alone, it’s been shown that teams outperform solo operators by 163%! The right team means the difference between rapid success and failure.
Once you decide to hire, you’ll spend plenty of time building the perfect job ad and making it as visible to your target audience as possible. If candidates click on it, their next stop is your startup’s career page… Make sure you don’t lose them there. After all, you’ll only have a few seconds to grab their attention and prove that you’re the best employer on the job market. Are you unsure if your career page is up to the task? Check and make sure you’re not making these four fatal startup career page mistakes.
1. You don’t have a CTA
It seems obvious, but potential hires can’t apply for a job if there’s nowhere to hit “apply.” Make your CTA buttons simple yet visible so that they don’t have to think twice about it. Just as your CTA can’t outshine the rest of the information on your career page, it also must stand out so that talent can see what’s available, what the deadline for applying is and whether they can take direct action after reading your carefully crafted job description.
Remember, while you aren’t selling a product, per se, you are still selling you and your startup’s work culture, so the user experience can’t be janky or confusing, or you will lose talent within seconds. Make it easy for your dream candidates to apply – you might get more lug-heads in your funnel, but in the long run, hiring is a numbers game, and those numbers work in your favor.
PRO TIP: It’s vital to remove postings once they’re filled or update their deadlines. There are plenty of application tracking systems and recruitment software, such as Recruitee, to help with this.
2. Your employer brand isn’t believable enough
Your company site is one of the most effective talent branding tools available to you! Be sure to use your startup career page to really show off what your company is about. This includes your values, vision, and goals. It’s important to tell your startup’s story, but don’t make it all about you. Potential hires also want to know what it’s like to work for you. No one knows that better than your current employees. Let your workforce showcase their experience at your startup. Testimonials, images, and especially videos will go a long way. If top talent feels like they can fit in with your culture and contribute to the overall team, they’ll be far more inclined to click the CTA you’ve tactfully placed.
This will also save you time and money when hiring the best candidate for your business because the wrong candidates won’t apply. Ninety-one percent of managers in the US agree that finding the right fit for the company culture is equally if not more important than possessing the right skills and experience.
3. You forgot about the perks
Two of the top five things visitors to your startup career page want to know are salary expectations and the perks they’ll receive. In your actual job descriptions, be transparent about compensation and salary. Then, take the time to lay out the best parts about working for you. Maybe you have an incredible office space, competitive pay, or have a reward system for deals closed. You’ll have spent hours building a solid EVP to help recruit top talent — don’t forget to use it!
Even if you don’t have a luxurious mountain view, stock options, or benefits to die for (pun intended), keep in mind there are less material perks that many candidates are looking out for nowadays: flexible hours, mentorship and growth opportunities, fun and unique team-building exercises, or even demonstrated social responsibility and environmental sustainability policies.
4. You’ve built a maze
Besides optimizing your site for SEO purposes, it should be easy to navigate for visitors. After all, first impressions matter. Easily navigated, mobile-friendly, and professionally designed sites simply perform better when it comes to landing top talent. It sends the message to potential hires that you care about your business, your brand, and about bringing in the best possible people. With the time it takes to perfect the content on your site, make sure it’s presented as beautifully as it deserves to be.
We won’t sugar-coat it. Building a fantastic startup career page can take a lot of time and effort, which is a lot to ask when you’re busy running every other aspect of your business. Not only is Pivot + Edge an expert when it comes to recruiting and hiring, but we can also help you out big time with your career page. Sometimes, it pays to leave it up to the pros! Consider it practice for delegating to your new team — connect with us today to get started.
Looking to build your startup recruitment strategy? Download your copy of the Ultimate Guide for Hiring Great People for Your Startup today.
