The Access Group’s recent whitepaper examines what recovery might look like for the recruitment industry and how to navigate your way through this new landscape. Given the varying impact of Coronavirus by sector, with healthcare and IT booming whilst construction and others ground to a halt, we recognise it won’t be a rapid bounce back across the board. The next phase will undoubtedly be equally mixed and we will see different sectors experiencing their own journeys of recovery.

As an outcome of the uncertainty our reliance on technology has risen to the fore as our primary way to collaborate and communicate. With your website core to your marketing strategy, arguably now more than ever, your online presence is vital in differentiating your brand to attract and engage candidates and clients.

Keep reading for key take-aways from Volcanic, an Access company, about how to market your way out of COVID-19 and use your website as a central tool to drive success.

How can you use your recruitment website to navigate through the next phase of the journey to recovery?

Brand check – evaluate where your business is now. Does your website still represent who you are in the most professional and engaging way? Does it differentiate you from your competitors? As we move from a candidate-centric to a client-led market, is there more you could be doing on your website to attract and engage new clients? How are you showcasing your expertise?

Optimise your website for inbound candidate attraction – your website is your virtual shop window, make sure you look open for business! According to our Recruitment Pulse Survey, 33% of recruitment agencies reduced job board spend at the start of the lockdown period. Be sure to maximise your own candidate attraction by publishing all of your jobs on your website and making them fully GoogleForJobs optimised.

Consider your employer branding – sadly some agencies have been forced to let good staff go as a result of Covid. If you are in a position to hire new talent into your business having a strong employer brand will be key, particularly as people are likely to be concerned about job security and employee satisfaction given their recent experiences. Employer brand actually works two-fold, because it can also help in attracting clients as they look to work with recruitment firms who are forward thinking, have good values and a strong culture.

For those agencies now focused on attracting new clients, how can their website help?

Optimise content that showcases your brand, culture and values – research which keywords to use in blogs and web page content. Understand what potential clients would be searching for when looking for a specialist agency. How can you create and share resources that will support them in the next stage of their own post-Covid journey?

Case studies and testimonials – evidence how you’ve attracted candidates in various positions (especially hard-to-fill roles), multiple vacancies or sector-specific roles. Even having similar vacancies advertised on your site tells clients that you are equipped to help them with their requirements, and are likely to have a database of relevant candidates.

Hiring portals – for better client engagement offer hiring managers the ability to interact within a secure portal (branded either for your agency or for a specific client). Better visibility of the entire hiring process will facilitate faster placements and enable you to provide a more personalised experience. Candidates can be pushed from your CRM into the hiring portal where the hiring manager can login and interact with your shortlist, view applications and accept or reject candidates, saving you time and giving you competitive advantage. For more information on Hiring Portals, click here.

How can you use your analytics to help you improve your performance?

Review what’s working and what isn’t working and ensure you optimise your content to attract and engage candidates and clients.

Understand where your traffic is coming from and the various engagement levels across your site. How does your traffic compare across different sector pages? Are particular jobs getting traction and have others fallen off a cliff? Is the story different from where you were three months ago?

Look at your top performing pages, as well as bounce rates – if page views are high and the bounce rate is low, this is a good sign meaning this is a relevant content piece that is attracting the right audience who may have gone on to view other pages on your website. If the page views are high and bounce rate is also high, this isn’t actually a well-performing piece. Essentially it means the title of your blog post has captured attention, but once people have landed on this page they’ve realised it isn’t relevant to them and have left the page within seconds.

Look out for patterns and changes in behaviour that can provide good indicators for areas that you should focus more or less attention. Particularly in the current climate, it will help you identify those green shoots of recovery.

Do you know how well your website is performing?

From years of creating recruitment websites for some of the world’s leading recruitment brands (including over 30 of the UK’s top 100), we know a thing or two about what makes a high performing recruitment website.

Find out your recruitment website performance score!

Request your personalised website health check today including an overview of your:

• overall website performance
• SEO
• mobile optimisation
• security

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