4 Strategies to Create a Frontline-friendly Careers Site

Turning your careers site frontline-friendly doesn't have to be expensive. In the past few months, I’ve visited thousands of careers sites and identified some strategies you can use to make your careers site more appealing and accessible to the frontline workforce:

1.True Mobile-Optimization

Yes, your website might be “mobile friendly” but try going through your careers site and job descriptions. How’s the experience? Is your careers site truly mobile friendly? Is the font easy to read or the font size too small? Are the buttons clearly shown? Is the scrolling experience smooth? Mobile responsiveness alone is not enough. It truly needs to be an simple experience on the phone. 

2. Fifteen-second Application Accessibility

Is your careers page hidden or can a frontline candidate easily get to an open role that they're interested in? It should take no longer than 15 seconds for a frontline candidate to go from your company’s main home page to a job application. Yes, here’s how you could do that.

1. Add a “We’re hiring – click here to apply” banner on your company’s main page – very few actually have this. Ideally, it would be a banner that sits at the top of the page. Here’s an example:

2. Once that is clicked – add a clear “View all jobs” button on the first section of the next page.  A candidate doesn't have to scroll through multiple sections to get to that. 

3. Finally, once that is clicked – having instant filters on the next page is key. The first thing a candidate needs to see is a filter that allows them to choose a location and job category. So make that easily accessible. 

3. Multilingual Support

If you have a diverse frontline workforce, consider offering multilingual support on your careers site. Provide translations of key information or add language options to accommodate candidates who may speak different languages.

The key is to have the language switch button easily visible. For example, have a clear button on your career’s site homepage that reads “Click here to see this in Spanish” – in Spanish of course. 

4. Avoid Account Creation or Logins 

According to a Glassdoor study, most companies have a worrying 80% candidate drop-off rate during their application process. 

Historically, most legacy ATS’s require the candidate to create an account (username/password) in order to submit an application – and I believe that’s where most of the drop off is happening. 

I’ve seen a few of the larger ATS’s (Such as Oracle and iCIMS) allowing candidates to apply without having to create an account. It’s worth checking with your account manager at your ATS provider to see if it’s a feature you can turn on. 

Here’s an example from Oracle: 

By implementing these strategies, you can make your careers site more frontline-friendly and appealing to potential candidates. Remember to focus on simplicity, engagement, and transparency to create a positive candidate experience and attract the best talent for your frontline workforce.