![\"dead](\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/deadend-freeze.jpg\")
\nI spent a weekend recently helping my youngest job-hunt—he\u2019s looking for a graduate software engineer role. We started with the UK top 300, those companies that regularly hire a tranche of graduates, and sifted from there…<\/p>\n
\nI spent a weekend recently helping my youngest job-hunt—he\u2019s looking for a graduate software engineer role. We started with the UK top 300, those companies that regularly hire a tranche of graduates, and sifted from there…<\/p>\n
While he focused on finding opportunities that would fit his skills and interests, I was noting some potholes developing in our user journey.<\/p>\n
Obviously, we\u2019d expected that the availability of jobs would drop because of the pandemic—even for software engineers. But I was interested by the approach that companies had taken to this on their websites.<\/p>\n
Those companies who were still recruiting had mostly taken the time to explain on their web pages how the pandemic would affect the recruitment process—video interviews instead of group assessment centres, for instance. Often, they talked about how the pandemic might mean remote working. This is helpful to the candidate and shows a realistic and practical approach.<\/p>\n
Some companies chose to put a banner at the top of relevant pages, inviting the visitor to find out more about the company\u2019s response to the pandemic. Some companies added content to each page as a lead-in paragraph.<\/p>\n
However, some of the companies that would normally recruit graduates, but had put in place a recruitment freeze were less helpful.<\/p>\n
Some of the companies who were no longer recruiting simply didn\u2019t show any relevant jobs on the job search page. ‘Apply Now’ links from the usual pages about the graduate programme to the job search pages worked, but there were no jobs available.<\/p>\n
Some replaced the \u2018Apply Now\u2019 button with a button saying \u2018Express Interest\u2019. This enables the company to continue to build their talent pool and potentially identify outstanding candidates for future recruitment. It also lets the potential applicant know that there is no job open at the moment.<\/p>\n
A few companies had deliberately broken the links to the relevant pages, so that when we clicked a link to find out more about a specific graduate programme, it went nowhere. This wasn\u2019t a 404: someone had edited the link and stripped out the destination, so that it simply reloaded the same page. <\/p>\n
Another set of companies had decided it would be better to leave the relevant page in place, but to remove the content—so that we saw a header and a blank page. This leaves all the pages and links in place but is not at all helpful to the candidate.<\/p>\n
This pandemic is difficult for everyone, and you are probably shorthanded. <\/p>\n
But be helpful to the job hunter, especially if your recruitment pause is unusual. Tell them that you are not recruiting up front\u2014don\u2019t hide it. <\/p>\n
If nothing else, being helpful and honest will support your employer brand.<\/p>\n
I spent a weekend recently helping my youngest job-hunt—he\u2019s looking for a graduate software engineer role. We started with the UK top 300, those companies that regularly hire a tranche of graduates, and sifted from there… While he focused on finding opportunities that would fit his skills and interests, I was noting some potholes developing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":53008,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-53006","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-careers","8":"entry"},"yoast_head":"\n