Should You Develop a Company Careers Blog?

As a HR or marketing professional in a small or medium sized business one question that you will have to answer at some point or other is whether you should develop a company careers blog, given the massive hype surrounding internet marketing.

Well, if you want to attract more candidates to your careers page then you should have a blog. A study by bestwebhostinggeek.com reveals that businesses that blog 20 times per month generate 5 times more traffic than those that blog fewer than 4 times per month. They also found that companies with over 51 blog articles on their site have a 77% lift in median monthly leads. Having a blog will drive more traffic and potential job applicants to your careers site, plain and simple.

But, simply having a blog is not enough. It needs to be effective which means it needs to contain the right kind of content to attract candidates with the right skills for your business, and to also encourage them to make enquiries, refer a friend or simply apply for jobs on your site.

So, what kind of content should you be including on your blog? One of the best ways to attract qualified and relevant job candidates to your blog is by posting articles on topics around industry related skills, trends and issues. This will attract pre-qualified candidates to your site from search engines, that is, candidates who were searching on industry relevant topics. This is quality traffic which is much more likely to generate job applications.

But, that’s not all you should blog about. Studies are showing that candidates are increasingly being drawn to a company due to its positive employer brand as reflected through its: company culture, values, employees, activities, etc… So, another type of content that you should include on your blog should be employer branding content which could include things like your most engaged employees blogging about what their jobs, corporate social scene, work-life balance, industry views and opinions – anything which reflects the vibrancy and appealing nature of your business.

You should seriously contemplate including some video content on your blog, such as an office tour, a day in the life etc… as studies show, including this one from Careerbuilder which shows that job postings with video are viewed 12% more than postings without and jobs ad receive a 34% greater application rate when they add video to their job listings.

Another great type of article to draw relevant candidate’s to your site are industry specific ‘How to’ articles, with an emphasis on career development in the sector and profession that you hire for. This means if you were looking for programmers you should write some articles on topics such as: ‘How to write a resume for a software developer, etc… You might want to write about how to move from being an accountant to a finance manager etc…. Make sure the articles are written within the context of your business and use plenty of keywords that are relevant to your business to ensure you attract the most relevant talent.

So, in conclusion, yes should develop a company careers blog, but you need to ensure you develop the right kind of content to ensure you attract a healthy, lead-rich pipe line of talent and potential job applicants, in order to get your return on investment.

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