What kind of website do recruitment agencies need?

I’ve Got A Feeling

New Technology – something about these words put together excites us. It conjures up images of intelligence, sleek function, and the ability to save our time, and for once it feels like there is equilibrium between technology and humanity. Now the dust has begun to settle from the 12-year Social Media marketing storm, more and more of us in the Recruitment Industry are in a position to see what this market really values, and it really does boil down to how New Technology makes us feel.

So maybe you have a tonne of great features on your site, but take a step back for a moment:

• Does your website have a clearly defined Search function? It’s the first thing a candidate will look for – make it easy for them.
• 50% of the human brain relies on visual stimulants – don’t be lazy with your stock images, try uploading shots of your own office/staff instead. Honestly, if you’re not creative with your uploaded images, you’ll come off to candidates as a bunch of American Psycho-types who simply don’t care, and your clients won’t know who they’re working with.

Fox are promoting Vince Vaugh’s latest movie by parodying this very point: read here.

• Is your website mobile-friendly? If not Google might have something to say about…)
• How is your User Experience? If it's lacking then you are losing candidates, and with that yu are losing money

A Leg To Stand On

So, you’re a Recruitment Agency, and you have to stand out – the problem is that many of your competitors are, digitally speaking, jumping up and down waving their arms about, and you can’t afford to waste your resources trying to convince your target audience that you can jump higher. Your candidates want stability, not showmanship, and you don’t look very stable when you’re hopping between platforms and cluttering up your website with unnecessary commodities. In the quest to appear innovative, you can end up intimidating potential users.

• LinkedIn is THE recruiter’s network tool. Have you got a ‘Sign In with LinkedIn’ button? It’s pretty popular…

Still having to juggle your Social Media channels? Drop it and condense them into a Social Stream, it’s about time! Eventbeat have it spot on – don’t waste another second, and make your site easier on the eyes.

A Beta World

There is a line between innovation and function, and the answer is in the Cloud. Cloud-based CMS systems feel exciting because the control over your content, look, and data is shared, not just presented to you without consultation. The reason we’re so excited about our system here at Volcanic is because it has all the ease and flow of new technology without complicating the function. There’s nothing more frustrating than a website that feels like a Beta test, so be honest with yourself about how your current site feels.

A nice quote here from Opposing Views here says:

Although adopting new technology can be very beneficial -- even necessary -- for a business, every new technology also presents a unique set of new risks. Without proper employee training in how to use a new software system, for example, technology can actually decrease productivity and even reduce employee satisfaction.

http://science.opposingviews.com/technology-affects-business-operations-1659.html

User experience is the central focus of the Volcanic system – we simply didn’t see why recruitment website design couldn’t be 100% intuitive to our customers right from the start.

I’ll leave you with this thought – how long did it take you to get bored of asking Siri awkward questions? We might love the idea of pitting our humanity against machines, but ultimately it’s far from satisfying. So then why present yourself as a robotic recruiter?

Inject some humanity, some gut-feeling into your website, and show your clients and candidates that you understand what they’re looking for.

Feels good, doesn’t it?