Attracting the best of the best to your company is one of the toughest challenges for business leaders nowadays. We could say the same for talent retention, because in the competitive modern world, top-tier employees have a lot of choices at their disposal.
Worst of all, people don’t have any problems switching companies when presented with better perks, benefits, financial incentives, and company culture.For this and many other reasons, business leaders are increasingly building HR-oriented websites that focus on employee acquisition and retention rather than sales or marketing.
It is still incredibly important to create a synergy between web development and digital marketing, but your focus should now be on creating a thriving employee collective to take your business forward.You can also decide to build a new website for your business with this exact purpose in mind, for which you’ll need to build social proof, create amazing content, build a brand identity, and design the pages just right.
It’s a lot of work but it’s definitely worth it if you understand what you’re getting in the long term.With all of that in mind, let’s take a look at what it takes to build a thriving HR website and integrate the right HR solutions. Here are 7 smart strategies for a building a whriving HR website
#1 Developing your employer brand
There might be many reasons why job seekers should choose your brand over the competition, but if only you understand these reasons, people are going to pick someone else. Why? Because you don’t have a powerful employer brand with a unique identity, website visuals, and a tone of voice that speaks to your target audience.
And remember, your audience is no longer the customer, it’s the talented employee. With that said, be sure to:
- Research and analyze your new target demographic.
- Develop and optimize your brand values, mission, and vision.
- Weave your brand’s visuals into the site’s design plan.
- Create a simple and intuitive website structure.
- Highlight the perks of working with your brand.
- Guide the visitor on a journey through your site, from the point of first contact to the realization that your company is a great place to work.
- Integrate the right website plugins to collect user data and make filling out forms quick and easy.
- Be transparent about your positions and what they entail, salaries and benefits, company culture, and everything else you offer and expect.
- Make it easy for people to apply and get in touch with CTAs scattered throughout the site.
#2 Know your audience and personalize the site
To build a thriving HR-oriented website on WordPress, you need to conduct a thorough market analysis, and understand your target demographic to personalize and humanize your website as much as possible. Why? Because personalization is one of the key elements of any business endeavor nowadays, whether it is to boost sales, make your marketing campaigns more impactful, or maximize the potential of your support department.
Everyone in your company needs to understand your customers and audience, and align their tone of voice and presentation to achieve the desired outcome for that department. That said, it’s not just about the employees, it’s also about how your customers perceive your website.
Your site can seem cold and corporate, or it can incentivize and inspire people to get in touch – it will come down to the level of personalization in your tone of voice and content. This is why you need to research your audience, and develop detailed employee avatars.
These employee personas will tell you exactly what your potential employees are looking for, what they like or dislike about employers, and much more. This information will be invaluable in optimizing your entire website to appeal to their unique sensibilities.
#3 Take HR and employee management forward
HR technology is revolutionizing this field, but experienced business leaders understand how this tech can take their entire company forward on all fronts. Nowadays, employees want and need to work for highly organized companies that run like well-oiled machines, meaning that their time is well utilized and that the job is as stress-free as possible. You can only achieve this with the right tech.
Make sure to emphasize on your site that you’re using tech to elevate the employees’ quality of life, and that your scheduling and rostering software allows you to personalize all rosters, optimize their time at work, and align your operation according to the needs of your employees. This creates a thriving employee collective and shows the world that you put your peoples first.
However, this isn’t something people should find out upon accepting a job at your company, it’s something they should find out upon landing on your site. Use your HR technology as a selling tool, explain the nuances and how you use the tech to their benefit, and inspire people to get in touch.
#4 Use content marketing to boost your HR site
The best way to use your tech and other website elements as a selling tool is through inspirational and diverse content. Modern WordPress websites thrive on content diversity and creativity, which is why you should optimize it and create content in various forms to appeal to the top talent in your industry.
With the right content marketing strategy in your hands, you can create the perfect symbiosis of written content, video tutorials, infographics, promo videos and snippets, free resources like eBooks and guides, and more to educate your audience and inspire them to reach out. Be sure to use written content strategically, and try not to overwhelm your visitors with drawn-out website copy.
Instead, make sure to:
- Keep your website copy short and to the point.
- Make impactful statements to capture peoples’ attention.
- Use strategic CTAs to guide people towards different outcomes.
- Break chunks of text up with videos and authentic images.
- Use infographics to explain something in an efficient and effective way.
- Integrate a drop-down Q&A section to answer all the questions your potential employees might have.
- Invest in free resources like eBooks, podcasts, and interviews with leaders and your existing employees.
#5 Pick a winning domain name
One of the most important parts of building a website is picking out the ideal domain name for your brand and your goals. If you already have a website, you can create a subfolder to fit your new HR site nicely into the overarching structure. Refrain from going with subdomains, because these can confuse the users.
If you’re building a new website, then your job is to choose the ideal domain name. Refrain from using any special characters, confusing spelling, or other elements that might impact domain name stickiness and retention. Choose a branded domain to improve brand stickiness online, and pick a top-level domain extension such as .com, .me, or .net to instill trust in Google and your audience.
Don’t forget to choose your web host carefully, because you want to build a performance-driven site that loads quickly. You also want to ensure constant uptime so that you don’t lose any potential candidates.
#6 Follow the web design rules and best practices
When it comes to designing your WordPress HR website, it’s important to follow the best practices and meet the standards of the industry. People expect a modern website to boast a certain look and feel, and deviating from that expectation can cause more harm than good, even if your goal is to stand out in the competitive job market.
To that end, be sure to:
- Stick to a minimalist structure and design
- Leverage plenty of white space to frame the content
- Intersperse written copy with illustrations and pictograms to guide your visitors
- Stand out with focal points on your site, such as contrasting colors or an eye-catching image
- Explain the process to your users by creating a tutorial landing page, similar to an on-site product tutorial
- Make sure that your branding is consistent across your site
- As always, leverage inspirational CTAs to achieve your micro goals
#7 Focus on delivering the right messages
Last but not least, you have to make sure that your HR site is sending the right messages to your existing employees, potential applicants, and the online world in general. Messaging is one of the most important elements of impactful website design nowadays, and it can either attract or deter users.
Your messaging needs to be consistent and positive, and it should focus on the employee instead of your brand. Remember, nobody wants to hear how good you are, or that you’re a leading this and that in your industry – they want to hear what you can do for them. By creating messages that focus on your employees and their well-being, you will incentivize people to stick around and newcomers to reach out to your company and apply for a position under your brand.
Wrapping up
Building a thriving HR website is not an easy task, because this is a very nuanced challenge that demands a careful and calculated approach. Be sure to use these tips to make your HR site stand out in a competitive environment with its branding, performance, messaging, and its overall promise to your future employees.