A recruitment website is essential for any recruitment agency of any size. It should be one of your priorities when you’re setting up a new business and be constantly updated as you grow. The reasons for its importance are manifold, from being your own platform on which to advertise your jobs, to a vital advertising tool, but key is the fact that a website never closes. Your website will act as your online ambassador day and night, long past the close of business hours. It is your recruitment consultant that never sleeps.
First port of call in a digital world
We live in a digital world, where we turn to the internet for pretty much everything. That intensified over the pandemic when having to stay at home meant we relied on the internet like never before. And that trend is here to stay. The first thing people do when researching anything is check online and if you don’t have a website that will undoubtedly reflect negatively on your business. With the increase of video meetings and interviews, in some ways your website is more important than your physical office. It is often your website that people will see first and they will gather information about your agency and your recruiters from it before ever making contact with you. First impressions are all-important which is why it is essential that your recruitment website is professionally designed and built.
Your online identity
Just as your recruiters represent your agency in the way they conduct themselves when speaking to clients and candidates, your website is a reflection of your business. It is your online identity. It must therefore read well, look the part, provide a positive user experience and answer the questions most visitors will have. In that regard, it is a vital branding tool. From obvious elements such as incorporating your logo and its colours into the design to other, subtler aspects such as the tone of your copy and the types of images you choose, your website offers a fantastic opportunity to boost your branding.
Always open
Your website certainly doesn’t replace your recruitment consultants – all roads should lead to a call to action to either contact a member of the team or to register or apply for a job. What is does do is provide a window into who you are, what you represent and how your services can help whoever is visiting your website. And it does that whether your agency’s opening hours are over or not. This is vital since many people looking for a job are still working and therefore job searching or investigating the possibility of a career change needs to primarily take place outside of working hours.
The voice of your recruiters
Your website is also the voice of your recruiters, through the elements you choose to incorporate and the personality you project through the copy. If you add a blog page to your recruitment website, it can literally be their voice. Articles on your website written by your recruiters, from career advice, to interview techniques, to industry pieces and news, offer an insight into the knowledge and expertise your team possesses. It is an exercise in trust-building as much as anything else. If you include videos your recruiters become even more accessible. This is also why a Meet the Team page is so important. Including images and a brief bio of your recruiters means that every visitor to your website can ‘meet’ them and get to know them a little better before ever physically meeting them in person or on a video call.
Be dynamic
Your recruiters don’t ever sit back and let the work come to them and neither should your online recruiter – your website. Don’t simply leave your website to ‘do its thing’ once it launches, make the most of your online portal. Update it with fresh blog content, add every job you have to it, incorporate new pages as you grow. Utilise its huge potential as your very best marketing tool and its ability to reach a huge demographic at any time of day or night. Quite apart from the importance to SEO of adding fresh content and keeping your website updated, visitors will keep returning if they know there will be more to see. A proactive approach to your website will also help to impress your general work ethic upon visitors.
Without a website, you run the risk of becoming invisible. If people can’t find you online, automatically the level of trust plummets and you run the risk of losing business at the starting pistol. With a professionally designed and built, high-quality recruitment website, you are always present, always open, always approachable and can be assured that your business is being represented well. Your recruitment website is your online recruitment consultant who works hard for you day and night – if you let it.
