“Visual Recruiting:” 7 Easy Tips

You wouldn’t buy a home without going to an open house, so don’t expect job seekers to “buy” into your job opening without seeing some visuals.

According to a CareerBuilder survey, 75 percent of job seekers reported that the look and feel of a job description influences their decision to apply. Job postings with videos are viewed 12 percent more than postings without -- and receive a 34 percent greater application rate.

For example, check out how Salesforce.com -- voted by Forbes as the #1 most innovative company in the U.S. -- lays out its careers page for sales jobs. They include a photo of their team followed by videos of their hiring managers!

That’s how it’s done! Job seekers love to see who they would be working with -- and adding graphics is the way to communicate this.

But before you bust out your camera, figure out what’s best for your jobs. Consider these seven ways to improve your hiring process using visuals:

1. Show Photos Of Your Team

Include as many photos of your team -- with names and roles -- as possible. That way, a job candidate can begin to envision who they might work with (or at least see around the office). Team culture is important to job candidates and employees. Hit two birds with one stone and showcase how awesome your team is right in your job description.

2. Show Photos Of Your Office

Employees will come into the office most days, so do your best to show off what the workspace looks like. Consider including common areas such as the kitchen, conference rooms, break room, and individual workspaces.

Company culture is key. If you’ve got it, flaunt it.

3. Show Your Products

Everyone shops around before they make a purchase, especially in larger purchases such as hotels, houses, and cars. Businesses from Amazon to real estate agencies use visuals of their products to attract customers.

Your product or service has some visual element to it, too. Whether it’s a screenshot of software, a physical product, or some type of service, showcase your product using visuals. This is helpful not only to your customers, but also to job seekers considering your company for employment.

After all, you want them to understand your product too.

4. Show Your Logo

You put some creative juices into your logo (at least hopefully you did), so show it off to your job candidates. It says something about you. Add it to your careers website if it’s not already there, in addition to on each job description.

Keep branding alive via your job description. It’s too easy to be bland.

5. Show A Visual Map Of Your Location

If you have a physical space, show exactly where it is using Google Maps. You might even consider adding the Google Street View of your location.

Using Google Maps, you can create a map, pinpoint your locations internationally, provide easy access to directions, and officially add your business to Google Places. Let people know where you are and make it easy for them to see it visually.

6. Utilize Video

Did you know websites with video are 53 times more likely to show up on the first page of a Google search? Video is an amazing recruiting tool, but it seems large, established brands are slow to utilize video or pictures in their job descriptions. The U.S. Army does it, why not you?

A great example is this combative recruiting video by Kixeye. It’s from the perspective of a job applicant on an interview with satires about other companies. Do you think it gets the job done?

7. Leverage Third-Party, Image-Oriented Websites (Facebook, Glassdoor, etc.)

Images and videos are at the heart of Facebook -- that’s one reason CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently spent $1 billion to buy Instagram. You might consider setting up a careers section of your Facbeook page. Facebook makes it easy to upload pictures or videos, and your team can be seen visually (through their profile pic) if they participate.

Once you’ve decided what visuals you’d like to include, create a Flickr page for your company and/or career opportunities and leverage Flickr images from your team. You could also the visual bookmarking website, Pinterest, to leverage your photos. Internet reputation leader, Klout, recently created a job description and 15 people pinned it to Pinterest.

Finally, don’t be limited by the old static job boards (such as Monster and Craigslist) for your job descriptions -- they don’t easily allow your pictures or videos or anything visual. The job boards successful in the future will be highly visual.

For more “visual recruiting” tips, you might also check out “Visual Recruiting? The Importance Of Image”.

Making that first impression count during your hiring process will improve your applicant pool and hiring rates. After all, you do only get one chance.

Have you ever considered using visuals in your company’s job descriptions?


Rob Kelly is CEO of Ongig, a platform that creates shareable, visually-appealing job descriptions. Connect with Rob and Ongig on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.