A website is usually built with clients as a priority but they are not the only ones looking at it.
When a strong candidate sees a job listing that interests them, they look at the company’s website before they do anything else. Not the careers page. The whole site. What they find either confirms that the application is worth making or quietly removes the company from the list.
They are forming a view before they speak to anyone
A candidate worth hiring does their research. They want to know whether this is a business worth committing to and whether the role is actually what the listing suggests.
Your website is the only unfiltered picture of the business they can get before making contact. In the time it takes to read a few pages, they have formed a view that is surprisingly hard to shift.
None of this is a conscious critique of your design. It is a gut reaction to whether the business looks credible and serious. A website that falls short often ends the process there.
The website tells them what the organisation is probably like
Candidates read between the lines.
A website with thin content and generic stock photography suggests a business that does not invest much thought in how it presents itself. A site where services are vague and client work is invisible suggests a business that either lacks confidence in what it does or does not think carefully about its audience. A poorly structured site that makes basic information hard to find suggests an organisation that is probably equally hard to navigate from the inside.
None of that is fair. A business can be excellent at what it does and have a website that says nothing of the sort. But the candidate is not in a position to know that. They draw conclusions from what they can see.
The candidates who look carefully are the ones worth having
There is a tempting argument that a weak website does not matter because good candidates will see past it. In practice, the opposite tends to be true.
The candidates who apply without much research are also the candidates who accept roles without fully understanding what they are walking into. The people who look carefully before committing tend to think carefully about most things. They are also more likely to stay once they arrive, because they made an informed decision rather than an impulsive one.
A website that puts off undiscriminating applicants is not necessarily a problem. A website that filters out the thoughtful, selective ones is.
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Clients and candidates are looking for the same things
The qualities that make a website compelling for a prospective client are largely the same as those that make it compelling for a prospective candidate.
Both want to know whether the business is credible. Both are looking for specific evidence rather than general claims. Both respond to real stories about real work rather than a page of values statements.
A case study that describes a real project in plain language tells a candidate as much about the culture as it does about the capability. An About Us page that reads like it was written by real people tells a candidate something about what the place is actually like to work in. Team profiles with genuine photographs and a bit of substance beyond job titles make the business feel specific rather than generic.
The investment in getting these things right serves both audiences at once. Most businesses treat that work as client-facing. It has never only been that.
What a website that works for talent looks like in practice
It does not require a dedicated careers section, though one helps for businesses that hire regularly. The foundations are the same as for every other audience.
Photography that shows real people doing real work. Copy that describes the business honestly and specifically, not in language that could apply to any company in any sector. Case studies that give candidates a genuine sense of the standard of work and the clients the business serves. A team section that treats people as worth introducing rather than listing names as an afterthought.
These are not additions to a client-focused website. They are what a good website looks like. The recruitment benefit comes as part of that.
If you are thinking about a new corporate website and want to understand what it can do across every audience, get in touch or read more in What Makes a Good Corporate Website Design.
About Lemongrass Media
Lemongrass Media is a boutique website design agency based in Milton Keynes. We design corporate websites that look great, work hard and deliver real results for your business.
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