Executive Grapevine, March 2006

Betty Thayer is Chief Executive of exec-appointments.com.

You’ve just invested £ thousands in your new website. You’ve agonised over branding, wording, navigation, colours and overall impact. You’ve made sure that there is a careers area to advertise your vacancies and information about how to apply. You’ve built it – now you can site back, relax and wait for the candidates to arrive.

For the first two weeks nothing much happens. Your technical team assure you that ‘it takes time’ for search engines to find your site. A month goes by. Your lovely site, so carefully crafted, is still there, but the visitors aren’t.

Two months later the technical team are suggesting that you start paying to drive traffic through keywords and pay-per-click campaigns. Suddenly the budget for the project is soaring as you scramble around trying to make your website work as imagined.

Sound familiar? Why do so many companies end up disappointed when it comes to how their site works and what it delivers?

The key reason is that your website should be just one strand to a multi-dimensional strategy that attracts, manages and delivers candidates for your vacancies. Placing all your bets on your website is at best naïve, at worst a time and resource wasting exercise.

We work closely with our clients to help them to get the best out of their web-based candidate attraction strategies. Using a combination of techniques including advertising jobs online is essential to derive the most benefits and increase cost effectiveness.

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For example, we are working with a top global investment bank to help them reduce their overall cost per hire while at the same time increasing the calibre of candidates that apply for jobs.

We have developed a custom template for their job ads that mimics their new house style. This reinforces their branding and ensures that the quality image they have worked so hard to develop is carried through all their advertisements.

They are also reaping benefits having their website featured on our homepage. Exec-appointments.com has a very high google ranking, and through cross-links we increase their site’s free listing rankings substantially.

They are also sponsoring all executive searches in Financial Services and Investment Banking, so those candidates who are in the industry see their logo and can easily find their jobs.

Sponsorship of specific pages that relate to their industry and job functions also brings targeted traffic, often from passive candidates.

Their investment in their own website, coupled with these tactics, is ensuring that they get the best outcomes – top candidates at a fraction of the cost of traditional methods.

Concerned that your web strategy is not up-to-speed? Want to get instant results from our experience and expertise? We can help you evaluate your current situation and assist you in making significant impacts quickly and effectively.

Reprinted from Executive Grapevine, March 2006