Talent Management Processes

Careers Website Best Practices Yield Improved Candidate Quality

by Taleo Research

Quality talent is a key differentiator for corporate success in today’s competitive, service-driven economy. The new “knowledge economy,” distinguishes itself by having a large amount of the value of the company residing in the head of the employee instead of in the tangible assets of the company. In the last decade, the relative importance of several intangible assets has been growing. Research studies such as McKinsey’s War for Talent and Watson Wyatt’s Human Capital Index establish some direct links between human capital management and positive financial performance. Factors most commonly cited as contributing to a company’s intangible assets are brand, intellectual property, and increasingly, the “human capital” existing in a highly trained, highly motivated and focused team.

Developments in Internet technologies have been rapid. The use of the Internet platform for activities central to the employment process has emerged as one of the most successful of all Internet applications. Large corporations that enjoy strong branding are realizing the potential inherent in using the corporate Careers website as the key portal for attracting and communicating with quality talent. The Taleo study Value Creation Through Corporate Careers Websites analyzes the trends in Careers website and Careers website best practices adoption by the Fortune 500. The study found that the percentage of Fortune 500 companies using the Careers website as a corporate job board has increased, with 83 percent of companies in 2002 posting open job positions to the Careers website, compared with three-quarters (75%) in 2001.¹

Best Practices

The corporate Careers site is not significant only because it can create value for the corporation through generating savings in processing and sourcing costs, and reducing opportunity costs. Perhaps most important is the potential it brings for improved candidate quality. Identifiable Careers site best practices can increase the targeting, identification and quality of candidates on the Careers site and create bottom-line value for the corporation by improving the overall quality of hire. A corporation may achieve a competitive edge in recruiting the most qualified candidates quickly, gain financial benefits from direct cost reductions as well as opportunity cost savings and value creation due to a faster, higher quality recruiting process.

Best practices that contribute directly to improved candidate quality include the implementation of anonymous job application, email to a friend functionality, and job agent and pre-screening tools technology. The Email to a Friend best practice, although not technically difficult to implement, can provide powerful results.

The Email to a Friend best practice on the Careers website is the functionality that enables job descriptions to be sent to an email address. A jobseeker may click on a link or button to activate the Email to a Friend feature while reviewing the complete job description for an open position. Among Fortune 500 companies, this best practice has shown a year-over-year growth of 66 percent, from 20 percent adopting the best practice in 2001 to 33 percent in 2002.

The Email to a Friend feature creates company benefits from the increased exposure to its open positions. It increases the reach of the Careers website beyond its immediate visitors, to include those visitors’ friends and contacts. In this classic example of “viral marketing,” the job opportunity propagates to each site visitor’s network of contacts. The company does not have to expend any marketing resources to attract those additional jobseekers, therefore benefiting from a larger pool of candidates at a lower sourcing cost per candidate.

Notably, the Email to a Friend feature pays big dividends to the corporation in the quality of the increased exposure. People are often very adept at knowing their friends’ job skills. A job description emailed to a friend is therefore very likely to be going to someone whose skills match the requirements of the job. In this regard, a job application resulting from a “virtual referral” comes with a significant degree of pre-screening.

Several Careers site best practices can create value for the corporation by increasing the targeting and identification of quality candidates coming through the Careers site, thereby impacting and improving the overall quality of hire. Quality of hire is the staffing department’s contribution to corporate productivity. The implementation of best practices can drive the development of a valuable, high quality candidate pool. A consistent staffing process enables steps to quality to start at the corporate site and continue throughout the process. It is key to understand the tangible and intangible financial impact and value creation, and to embrace Careers site best practices as a means to achieving a quality workforce.

¹Value Creation Through Corporate Careers Websites. iLogos Research, 2003. Available at www.ilogos.com