Are Prospective Applicants Saying "No"--Based on Your Website? by Joyce Gioia A new survey released by WetFeet.com, a leading provider of in-depth, "insider" information on companies, careers and industries, reports that despite the millions of dollars spent by corporations on online recruiting, one out of four job seekers reject potential employers based on their websites. The study also found that one out of two job seekers responded that the quality of a company's website is "important" when deciding where they want to work. With unemployment at the low mark of several decades, companies are doing anything and everything they can to attract quality applicants. Branching out to the internet to help with recruiting is a natural step; after all, if you're doing business on the web, you can bet potential employees, as well as potential customers, are out there. "A company may spend as much as a million dollars on its website with a key objective of strengthening the company's recruiting efforts," said Steve Pollock, president of WetFeet.com. "Corporations know that the Web is quickly becoming one of the most important ways to attract talent. Our research shows that more than 90 percent of student job seekers visit corporate websites during their job search. Unfortunately, our study also shows that in spite of their best efforts, companies often make a few deadly mistakes in their site design--mistakes that can still be rectified relatively easily before the next wave of college recruiting begins with the new school year." 90 percent of student job seekers visit corporate websites before making their decisions? You read right. And with that, many applicants are potentially judging your company based on web pages alone--or even based on websites in part. Thus, it's crucial that your page be top-notch. Other Web Recruiting Study 2000 Findings That 90 percent number isn't the only startling number the survey turned up. Some other interesting results follow: Students spend an average of four hours on a corporate website during their job search 75 percent of students who use the internet for their job search use career and company information sites in addition to prospective employers' sites More than half of students (58 percent) seek or read career advice on the internet during their job search Only 44 percent of undergraduates and 33 percent of business school students on the internet use job boards during their job search More than half of students (60 percent) look for articles on the internet about companies they're interested in What Does it All Mean? Don't pick up the phone right now and hire a web designer so hot and so high priced that he or she will put your company out of business. But do log on to your website this afternoon. Don't do it as an employee, but, instead, put yourself in the shoes of a potential employee. Things to look for: Do your graphics stand out? Is information easily and readily available? Can applicants contact persons within the organization without difficulty? Are there pages just for prospective employees? Is your website too customer-based? Is there anything that makes your site memorable? Anything that makes it different from what's out there? Don't just visit your own website. Log on to your competition's website(s), too. Log on to places like Yahoo and Excite! See which sites are logging the most traffic, and then visit those to find out why. You don't have to have the best, fastest, most exciting site on the internet. You do, however, have to have a site that's easily readable, interesting, and sophisticated enough to attract and hold the attention not just of your external customers, but your internal customers as well. Spend an hour or two surfing. See what's out there. Make sure your pages are up to snuff.

[ Home - About - Tools - Information - Stay Connected - Main Page of the Herman Group ]