The recruiting market is tough right now.

Qualified candidates are worth their weight in gold right now. But even though talented people may seem scarce, they are out there – you just have to find them…and convince them to apply!

In a recent Big Ideas Newsletter, "Optimizing Your Career Portal for Response," we explored 5 ways to attract, engage, and convert site visitors to eager job applicants. Below we share tips from that article on how to get job seekers to stick around once they find you.

How to keep job seekers engaged on your website.

The longer a job seeker spends on your career site, the more likely they are to apply to a job. What's more, return visitors to your career site are twice as likely to apply!

Add response-optimizing content and technology to maximize engagement, return visits and ultimately, conversions:

• Improve your information architecture. When a job seeker lands on your career site, how many clicks does it take them to find the information they need? Think through your career site's information architecture to make it as easy as possible for job seekers to find the content they want (and the actions you want them to take).
• Use CTAs effectively. Tell job seekers exactly what you want them to do, and provide multiple ways for them to take action:
• Forms: Easy to find. Easy to complete.
• Navigation: Intuitive. One click to anything.
• Fly-ins and pop-ups: Semi-intrusive, visually engaging, compelling CTAs.
• Sidebars: Banners, buttons to drive action, promote jobs.
• Inline CTAs: Text links, buttons, graphics with compelling CTAs.
• Consider integrating a chatbot. As natural language processing – how computers understand and interpret human language – continues to improve, so does the value of chatbots in recruiting. How can a chatbot generate more responses from applicants?
• Improve candidate experience by providing 24/7 assistance. With the right functionality, a chatbot can answer candidates' basic queries about your firm's policies, benefits or culture – and alert a human recruiter if it cannot assist someone.
• Improve recruiters' efficiency. By handling routine, time-consuming tasks (e.g., gathering basic data, prequalifying applicants, scheduling interviews), a chatbot can give your recruiters more time to spend converting their strongest candidates.
• Use live chat. Unlike a chatbot, a live chat feature allows candidates to engage directly with recruiters in real time without picking up the phone.
• Add job alerts. When candidates come to your website, can they opt-in to receive job alerts? Can they save searches to be automatically notified when a new job that matches their criteria is added? If your career portal doesn't offer job alerts, and allow you to automatically send candidate re-engagement emails, it's time for a better career portal!
• Include more than just jobs. A great career site is more than just a job board; it's a destination for job seekers at every stage of their journey (i.e., whether they're gainfully employed, exploring their options, or actively seeking a new job). Build a robust site with resources that drive visitors to take action, including alternatives to applying (e.g., filling out a form that allows you to market to them after they've left your website). This way, even if an individual isn't ready to apply today, they'll be more likely to come back to you when they are. Here are a few things you can offer:
• Automated job alerts (more on that below)
• Newsletter opt-in
• Salary guides
• eBooks and whitepapers
• Interactive quizzes
• Webinar registration
• Click to call
• Free resume critique
• Invest in re-targeting. While technically not part of your career site, re-recruiting is an effective, low-cost tool for keeping your brand visible and bringing potential candidates back to your website. It uses Facebook (and Google and Instagram) to show display ads to people who have previously visited your website or engaged with your firm in the past.

Need a better career site?

Let Haley Marketing design you a feature-rich site that can help you become a candidate magnet. Learn more about our career sites or contact one of our marketing educators.