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July 05, 2017

What do jobseekers want on a website?

By Sophie Karlsson

We are living in a world of rapid change and this seems to apply to the job market too. Jobseekers are increasingly more likely to move countries to seek challenges and opportunities and the so-called millennials are entering the job market with a whole new way of looking at careers. With all of this is mind, Comprend’s Careers spotlight reports highlights information on how companies can attract and keep candidates.

Understanding your candidates

A tricky part when trying to attract potential candidates is the fact that generation, employment status and seniority affects what type of information jobseekers look for. To cater to all needs it’s important to know what each target group are looking for and how their requests differ from one another.

We found that respondents in the age group 35-44 considered career websites and apps to be important whereas respondents in the 18-34 age category preferred the use of personal contacts. The respondents that were 45 or older were the only category to still use newspapers and magazines as a preferred source for career opportunities, with 29 % answering that they did so. We could also see that the age group 35-44 were more interested in knowing what it like to work at the company they applied for than the other two age groups. It’s interesting to note that respondents with no university degree preferred more traditional ways of looking for a job, while respondents with a university degree largely relied on LinkedIn (46 %).

The importance of transparency

Transparency is, perhaps, most commonly associated with the financial market. However, for the second year in a row our survey shows that transparency is considered to be important to jobseekers too. Prior to deciding whether to apply for a job or not, many of our survey respondents look for reviews and opinions from current employees about the workplace. 38% of our respondents consider information about employee satisfaction to be equally as important.

Being transparent also means being trustworthy. However, our Career Survey show that candidates are somewhat sceptical towards digital corporate channels. In general, the problem lies in the fact that respondents feel that corporate communication channels are used for marketing purposes and the information shared might be biased. 

To counteract this, Comprend has provided some tips on how companies can increase the trust in their digital channels. Making sure that the content that is being shared is honest and clear while at the same time responsive towards the stakeholders is a good start. Contrary to what one might think, sharing bad news (and how the company deals with it) can also help increase the trust as it assures the reader that the information shared is not biased.

This article is a summary of our findings. To learn more about what jobseekers want out of a website when they are looking for a job and during the application, we invite you to read our full report.

Want to know more?

Our Web Management Spotlight Report and Capital Market Report provide insights on what information Web Managers and Capital Market Stakeholders hold as important on a website.