Promote your company’s culture and gain a competitive edge

By Anna Dunder

When analysing the Webranking results for each country, it is obvious that, in almost of the participating countries, companies struggle to meet jobseekers needs. While jobseekers are more demanding than ever, companies throughout sectors are seemingly less likely than ever to actively listen to what they are saying.

Jobseekers tend to need more content, more details, and more perspective. For example, requests for information on the work environment increased from last year, earning a 93% importance score. At the same time, the average company performance has dropped 6% from last year, to an overall score of 39%.

What follows is our results roundup, including insight into how different sectors are approaching this problem, as well as suggestions on how you can improve your careers site.

Careers information – a sector-wide challenge

On a sector level, the overall Webranking scores were very similar. Companies operating in the financial services and real estate sectors faced the biggest challenges, while the chemicals, automobiles & parts, and insurance sectors had the highest scores.

Across all sectors, HR contacts were often not shared on careers sites. This could be due to an attempt to avoid receiving unnecessary emails. However, it should be noted that 91% of jobseekers rated a general HR email address as important, but only 25% of the ranked companies provided this. There is a clear disconnect here - jobseekers want the possibility to contact the hiring companies while most employers are unwilling to share their details.

Companies are also limiting the ability to apply to vacancies through a LinkedIn profile. Once again, only 25% of the ranked companies included this option on their careers sites. This was one of the criteria where sector differences were more pronounced - almost half of the surveyed health care companies offered the option, compared to less than a third of companies in other sectors. Jobseekers want a fast and smooth application process. While LinkedIn is just one possible way of guaranteeing this, it is the most well-known and it scored highly in terms of preference.

Compensation and benefits - a way to fight the recession?

Compensation and benefits can be a way for employers to show that employees matter to them. They also offer an occasion to showcase the company’s culture. Benefits were also the topic that brought up the biggest differences between the sectors: more than 50% of companies in the automobiles & parts and insurance sectors included information on compensation and benefits, while only 20% in the financial services did the same.

Sector differences are large, but all companies should make use of this type of information to attract the right candidates. Recession is very much a part of corporate market outlooks and salary talks with candidates are challenged by this trend. In light of this, compensation and benefits can help make your deal more attractive, as was mentioned by Glassdoor.

Showcase the soft values

While 59% of companies don’t have any information on benefits, those that do are still struggling to offer an overview of varied, location-specific benefits. International companies should be especially mindful of this. For example, while a position might include a gym membership, those details would differ across locations. Showcasing examples from multiple countries can communicate how the company cares for the employee’s wellbeing. Nestlé did this particularly well.

Another good example of soft values, this time showcasing a company’s commitment to strengthening family ties, comes from Deutsche Telekom and this year’s Fastest Climber in Finland, DNA. DNA provides an overview of their soft values and even explain their “Granny leave” policy as an example of benefits the company offers.

Whether it’s free coffee at the office, gym benefits, learning and development funds or special leave allowances, new candidates might be more enticed to join a company if the company would be prouder of what they do for their teams. Keep your jobseekers informed and let your careers site shine!

Italian companies on the podium in careers information

Many companies have stellar career sites to be inspired by. Here, we have listed the top 20 best performers and sector-specific results in jobseeker communication.

Several Italian companies can be found in the top 20. They were outstanding performers, who offered detailed jobseeker information, from how to apply to what to except when joining the company. L'Oréal also has an inspiring careers site, where candidates can find information from different career areas to global possibilities and recruitment. 

Career results per sector

Average fulfilment score for careers criteria 

The top 20 companies in Careers information

The top performing companies among all ranked companies.

Read more about Webranking 2018-2019

Photo by Mack Fox (MusicFox) on Unsplash