If you were looking at your own business, what would you think?

Have you ever looked at the journey a jobseeker goes on when trying to apply for a job with your company? Where do they go to find opportunities? What does this process look like? And finally what messages are you providing them along the way?

Clarity is a big issue in the job market. It can be unclear to the talent where they should start looking for opportunities within your business. Should they go to your web site and send a hopeful email into ‘Careers@blackhole.com’ or should they engage with a recruiter or trawl the job boards and social media hoping you are going to post there? Helping people understand where you hire is vital, even when you aren’t hiring.

Some brands may have a blank careers page, an email address or a ‘check back soon’ message, with no focus on selling your brand to these jobseekers. Forcing talented people to either keep checking back or give up and send in an application to an email address, never to be heard of again. This becomes a frustrating procedure for talent as they try differentiate themselves from the crowd. Also from the brands side of things it loses this data when they could be preparing for their next hiring period.

This lack of focus with in-house recruitment generally is due to the cost of acquiring or managing technology. Most brands would love the ability to present their brand and culture to people who express an interest in a career with them but after prioritising their budget it becomes lost by the wayside. In order to attract better talent, recruitment is now about marketing your jobs better.

While looking at your current recruitment process think, ‘how much am I showing about our culture’ or ‘what an average day with us would look like’. Generally brands know how much they can offer but aren’t showing this off in a way that reflects their own thought process.

Marketing the true value of your business in your job ads and recruitment drive will no doubt allow jobseekers to understand what you can offer them.

Showing them your offices or little things like work nights out or awards you have won will allow them to visualise what a career with you will entail. Sourcing the best talent is all about marketing what you have in the best way possible, no matter what it is.

You were once a talented individual looking for a career. I bet you can remember who did and did not impress you during this process. How you felt when you were applying to brands and how you would of liked to know more information on roles before you applied. Put yourself in your shoes.