When you're recruiting for your tech startup, one of the most important things to remember is that for many prospective employees their first experience of your company will be when they check out your website.
And, if you want to ensure that those folk are interested in potentially working for you, a dedicated Careers Page or section on your website, can help to create that all-important positive and inviting calling card.
With this in mind, here’s our handy guide to help your tech startup do just that!
Why do you need one?
A website without a careers section can create a negative impression when you’re hiring. It can suggest you're not big enough or aiming to be big enough to need a dedicated careers space, or even that you're just not massive into forward planning.
The flip of this, is that if you want to attract talent, a Careers page can help to sow the ‘recruitment’ seeds for your company - its brand mission, company culture, company history, and will also act as a marketing tool to drive talent to your organisation.
As a nod to some tech startups we think do just that, check out Streetbees, Monzo, Hello Fresh and Charlie HR and their respective Careers Pages - we think they are rather neat.
What should it include?
If your careers page is going to be effective in attracting candidates to your company, you’ll need to spend a little time working out what it should include.
It’s not just a place for job listings. It should encompass everything that is great, unique and interesting about you as an employer and paint a positive picture to potential candidates.
Here are some of the key elements that you can include:
Your Vision
If you want to attract the right candidates to your startup, you'll need to make your company vision clear. It should be authentic, inspiring and focus on your long term goals, offering you the chance to motivate and encourage prospective employees to join you and your fab gang.
Company Mission
Not only is it vital to include your startup’s mission statement on your website, it's essential that it's clear, concise and easy to understand. A potential employee will want to grasp what you do immediately.
Overly technical or vague mission statements won't really serve any positive purpose and are likely to turn away potential star employees. Your company mission should be inspirational and actively draw potential candidates in.
Your Values
Be open and transparent about your company values not only to ensure that you attract the right type of candidates, but vice versa. Many candidates want to work for employers whose values align with theirs, so making those clear from the off can be key.
Perks and Benefits
This isn’t just about holidays, and pensions, there are many other aspects to a company that employees would consider as a benefit.
Often it is points such as ‘collaborative and supportive work culture’, ‘personal development budget’, ‘regular coaching sessions’ mixed in with the quirky such as ‘home office plant budget’, and ‘weekly cake meetings’ that resonate most with candidates.
Think about your USP as an employer, what do you offer that other employers don’t, what would make working for you so good? Remember - some candidates may have several job offers on the table, and the perks and benefits package you have in place may be one of the factors that they use when comparing those offers and making a decision.
Cultural Description
Remember that your startup’s culture can be one of the key things that differentiate you from other businesses. It's important therefore to visualise that culture in an engaging and informative way. You want prospective candidates to properly get a feel for what you're all about so they can weigh up whether they'd be a good fit too.
Of course, this cultural picture doesn’t have to be large bodies of descriptive text - it could also include visuals to help even more - whether that's of individual team members, team meetings, events or even your office setup!
Diversity statements
Even if your startup's policy on Diversity and Inclusion is stated elsewhere on your website, it's important to include it on your careers page if you want to show how committed you are to diversity and inclusion. Outline how you are diverse and inclusive and why it matters to you, but be transparent too. If you're not currently at the level you should be at, talk about the journey you're on and where you aim to be.
Examples from team members
Existing employees can provide an authentic voice of what it's like to work for you! On your Careers page, you could perhaps include videos, blogs or Q&As of existing employees. And as much as you can, represent a range of roles, voices and diverse team members.
Team photos
Having team headshots and short bios on your website can really help to give a little personality to your startup as it shows the people behind the brand. And the photos and bios don't need to be dull - you can be as creative as you like - whether that's by using fun unofficial job titles or quirky facts about each team member - it's up to you! Remember too that your team is unique to your startup and this uniqueness will differentiate you from other companies.
The right language
The words you use on your career page and indeed your website really matter. Use language that does not inadvertently show bias or that is gender-coded. And when drafting that job description to go on your Careers page, put your wording through a tool such as Gender Decoder which can help identify any subtle bias which can put off prospective employees.
Recruitment process
Let's face it, the more a prospective employee knows about how you recruit, the better. You should provide a clear overview of your typical recruitment process, outline the various stages, and describe the interview process. You might even want to draw out a visual roadmap. Whatever you choose to do, remember that you are aiming to inform candidates upfront so they know what to expect.
Speculative CVs
If you accept speculative CVs for roles, make that clear! If there are particular areas of the business where you anticipate growth or if there are certain roles and skill-sets that you’ve found it challenging to recruit for, outline that too, so that you build up a pool of relevant CVs for further down the line. It may also be a good idea to manage a candidate’s expectations on this, so perhaps provide info of how long their CV may be held on file for, and so on.
Promote those opportunities
Having a dedicated Careers page which outlines current job openings and job descriptions is of course a must. And importantly, keep it up to date. If you’ve filled a vacancy, remove that listing and if the role is an ongoing requirement highlight it as such.
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With all the above in mind, a dedicated Careers Page on your website can be an important tool in proactively sourcing talent for your tech startup. And, if you’ve already got a Careers Page on your website, but you are missing one or two of the handy tips above, then perfect, we’ve done our job in flagging them up to you!
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Who we are
Offering personalised, consultative service, at TableCrowd Talent we’re a specialist recruitment agency with our finger on the pulse of the startup and scaleup scene. We are committed to matching graduates, professionals and C-level executives to exciting startup and scaleup jobs across London, the UK and Europe.
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