Andrea Kirby

At a recent Talent Table Think Tank, Megan Twine and Alex Pusenjak from Fluent Commerce presented 'The battle for branding - TA vs Marketing'.

They used their learnings from previous Talent Table events to forge a relationship with their marketing team - to build the employer brand, rethink their website and run campaigns to attract people to their company. What a novel idea! 😉

Notably, they had been to a panel discussion with Laura Johnson, Laura White and Quila Cervelli at the 2022 #Talentpalooza on how these TA practitioners had made it work for them - 'Is marketing really making a difference to People and Culture?'.

A brilliant presentation that can be viewed here. 

Megan and Alex started with a fun game... who owns the career website - hands-on head for Marketing, hands-on bum for TA.  It was weighted more strongly toward marketing. 

At previous events, a TA told us they could not approach their marketing team as the marketers were too busy, and marketing also actively worked against them. At another, TA could not use the extensive customer database to promote jobs at their company. It was just not done.

So are we missing a trick here? 

In today's digital age, career websites have become vital tools for companies to attract and engage with potential candidates. However, a common question arises...

Who should be responsible for the career website - Marketing or Talent Acquisition? 

Marketing's Perspective:

From a marketing standpoint, the career website falls under their purview.

Marketing teams are responsible for branding, promoting the company's image, and attracting potential customers. They utilise various strategies, such as content creation, search engine optimisation (SEO), and social media marketing, to drive traffic to the website. As a result, they argue that they should be responsible for managing the career website to align it with the overall marketing strategy.

Talent Acquisition's Perspective:

On the other hand, Talent Acquisition teams focus on attracting, recruiting and hiring the best talent for the organisation. They understand the importance of a user-friendly and informative career website that effectively showcases the company's culture, values and available opportunities.

Talent Acquisition teams have unique insights into candidates' needs and expectations, making them more equipped to optimise the career website to appeal to the target audience. They argue that career websites should be tailored to the candidate's experience, which aligns with their responsibilities.

However, difficulties arise when there are limited resources on both sides and the needs of the business and the needs of TA make it difficult for the teams to work together. 

The Research:

Our 2022 career website research pointed to missed opportunities in using social media and the career website to attract people to our organisations. 

Only 9% of the 300 career websites we reviewed were considered modern and fit for purpose. 25% lost the look and feel of the website when candidates moved to the registration. A disconnect between the brand and how the ATS functionality works. 

When using social media to attract candidates, 61% of companies Facebook pages had a standard account but no job section or advertising of jobs. Similar numbers were with Instagram and TikTok. 

For many organisations, customers are candidates, and candidates are customers. 4% of websites did not put a career link on their main website/homepage - and those were retail companies!! 🤯 14% had a career link that was embedded in the site and had to be searched for. 

So Houston, TA has a problem…. If we are being asked to do more with less, while it looks like this talent short market will be our new normal, how do we bring marketing on the journey to build a brilliant career site and campaigns, plus use social media effectively? 

Our winner, Coles Group, intends to have over 60% of their applications come directly from their website using campaigns and marketing strategies. A massive savings on our current external spending on job boards and agencies. 

Bridging the Gap:

To effectively communicate the need for more work on the career website, Marketing and Talent Acquisition teams can adopt several strategies:

→ Data-Driven Insights: Talent Acquisition should gather data on website performance, including metrics like bounce rates, conversion rates, and application drop-offs. These insights can demonstrate to the Marketing team that improvements are necessary to enhance the candidate experience and ultimately drive better results.

→ Collaboration and Communication: Encourage open lines of communication between Talent Acquisition and Marketing. Regular meetings and discussions can help both teams understand each other's perspectives and identify areas where collaboration is required. Building relationships and finding common ground can lead to a shared understanding of the importance of a well-designed career website.

→ User-Centric Approach: Talent Acquisition can emphasise the significance of a user-centric approach to the career website. By focusing on candidates' needs and expectations, they can convey that a well-optimized career website directly impacts attracting and engaging with high-quality talent.

→ Benchmarking: Comparing the organisation's career website with competitors can be a persuasive tactic. Talent Acquisition can highlight areas where the company's website falls short and demonstrate the potential impact on the overall recruitment process. This approach can spur Marketing to take action and improve the website's performance, using our annual research showing what the best websites are doing. 

→ Pilot Projects: Suggest running small-scale pilot projects to test new campaign strategies or website features. These initiatives can provide tangible evidence of the impact on candidate engagement and conversion rates. By showcasing positive results, Talent Acquisition can make a convincing case for further investment in the career website.

Conclusion:

The ownership of the career website can be a contentious issue between Marketing and Talent Acquisition teams.

However, by establishing effective communication channels and sharing data-driven insights, Talent Acquisition can help Marketing understand the importance of continuously improving the career website.

Collaboration between the two departments will ensure a user-centric approach that enhances the candidate experience and ultimately contributes to the organisation's recruitment success.

Remember, the ultimate goal is to create a powerful online presence that attracts and engages the best talent in today's competitive job market.

Want more help?

Reach out to Andrea anytime - andrea@talent-table.com - who is happy to continue this conversation. And look out for our 2023 research later in the year when we do another deep dive into the Best Career Websites. 🏆

More reading?

Our friends at attract.ai have recently published a blog article about what they learnt at our Brisbane Talent Think Tank (Megan and Alex presented in Sydney). While not directly related to this article, it has some great learnings for our TA community with some common 'Tips & Tricks'!