Recruitment sites that attract more applications have seven pages in place: company introduction, job introduction, employee interviews, job requirements, benefits and systems, the selection process, and an entry form. The basic principle is to put what job seekers want to know before applying ahead of what the company wants to say. Build them in order and around 10 pages will be enough.
A recruitment site exists to remove the worries people have before applying
The role of a recruitment site is to show the substance of your company that short job-board listings cannot convey, and to remove the worries people have before applying. Before applying, job seekers search for your company name and look at your website and online reviews. If there is no recruitment information there, that alone becomes a reason to pass on applying.
What job seekers want to know before applying generally comes down to these five things.
- What kind of work they will do
- Who they will work with
- What the pay and time off are like
- How they can grow after joining
- How the selection process works
Each page of the recruitment site is built to answer one of these five questions.
The 7 pages that increase applications
Here are the seven pages, listed in the order visitors should see them.
| Page | Question it answers | What to include |
|---|---|---|
| Recruitment top page | What is it like to work at this company | The kind of person the company is looking for, and photos of the workplace |
| Job introduction | What kind of work is it | A day in the life for each role, and what makes the work interesting |
| Employee interviews | Who they will work with | Why they joined, what they struggled with, and the rewards of their work today |
| About the company | What kind of company is it | A message from the president, business activities, and history |
| Job requirements and benefits | What are the conditions | Pay, days off, working hours, benefits, and training programs |
| Selection process and FAQs | What will happen to me | The number of days from application to job offer, and frequently asked questions |
| Entry | How do I apply | An application form and contact details |
1. Start the recruitment top page with photos that show people at work
The recruitment top page is the entrance that shows the kind of person the company is looking for and what the people there are actually like at work. Rather than a group photo lined up by job title, a photo that captures people's expressions while working helps visitors picture themselves after joining. In the catchphrase, use the job seeker's own words to describe what they will gain from this workplace.
2. Write the job introduction as a day in the life
In the job introduction, include a daily schedule for each role. When visitors can see the flow from the start of the shift, morning tasks, lunch, afternoon tasks, and clocking out, the work becomes concrete in their minds. Writing about the tough parts as well helps prevent a mismatch after they join.
3. For employee interviews, feature 3–5 people answering the same questions
For employee interviews, ask the same questions of 3–5 people of different ages and roles and present them side by side. Four questions are enough: why they joined, what they struggled with in their first year, what makes their work interesting now, and what the workplace atmosphere is like. When answers to the same questions appear side by side, job seekers can more easily find someone similar to themselves.
4. On the About the company page, include the president's words and the substance of the business
In the president's message, write why the business was started and what is expected of the people who will join the team. Facts such as client and product names, the year of establishment, and the number of employees also belong here.
5. Write the job requirements and benefits in numbers
For pay, break out base salary and allowances separately. For days off, give the annual number of days; for overtime, give the monthly average hours. For training, state what is learned over how many months after joining. The guidelines under the Employment Security Act require job information to be displayed accurately, and if a fixed overtime allowance is included, the corresponding hours and amount must be clearly stated (from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare's guidelines on the accurate display of job advertisement information). Job ads with vague conditions damage trust.
6. Spell out the selection process, down to the number of days
Lay out the flow from application to job offer, stage by stage. Stating within how many days the document screening result will be communicated, how many interviews there are, and what to wear and bring lowers the barrier to applying. In the FAQ, include whether people without experience can apply, whether there are job transfers, and how much overtime there is.
7. Keep the entry form short
If the application form has too many fields, people give up partway through. For the first application, accept just the name, contact details, desired role, and a brief self-introduction. A résumé can be collected at the interview stage. Since many people apply from a smartphone, always check that the form is easy to fill in on one.
Steps for building a recruitment site
- Define the kind of person you are looking for. Put their attitude toward the work into words, rather than experience or qualifications
- Ask 3–5 employees on site to take part in interviews
- Take photos. Prepare three kinds: the workplace, people at work, and employees' expressions
- Have HR and accounting confirm the figures in the job requirements
- Write the page copy. Match the headings to job seekers' questions
- Test on a smartphone whether you can get all the way through to applying
- Publish, then review the pages that serve as application entry points every month
Allow roughly 1–2 months for production, including interviews and photography.
Build it to appear in search and Google Job Search
Build your recruitment site so that job information appears in the search results when someone searches for your company name. Google provides a mechanism for displaying job postings in search results using structured data for job listings (from Google Search Central). If you describe the job title, salary, work location, and employment type on the job requirements page using structured data, the page becomes eligible to have its job information shown in search results.
You can also use articles on your recruitment site to cover the pages that appear for searches such as “company name reviews” or “company name jobs.” Adding columns that explain working styles and company programs in detail lets you give job seekers the answers they want in your own words.
Common mistakes with recruitment sites
It stops at introducing the company
A recruitment site that only lists company history and business activities does not answer job seekers' questions. Only when the work, the people, and the conditions are all present does it become material for deciding whether to apply.
It is full of nothing but nice-sounding phrases
Phrases like “a friendly, family-like workplace” or “an environment where you can grow” are used by every company. Unless you write what people do to grow, and what “family-like” actually looks like in practice, nothing sticks in the reader's memory.
Outdated information is left in place
A site whose job requirements are not updated after a position has been filled leaves job seekers confused. State whether you are currently hiring at the top of the page.
The job requirements differ from reality on the ground
If the way of working shown on the recruitment site differs from the reality on the ground, it leads to early resignations after joining. Before publishing, have the manager on site check the content.
What to check when commissioning production
When choosing a company to build your recruitment site, check these three points.
- Can they also handle the interviews and photography for employee profiles
- After launch, can you update the job requirements yourselves, or request updates
- Do they support structured data for job postings
It is also possible to add only the recruitment pages later, alongside an update of your whole website.
How to conduct employee interviews
With employee interviews, the order of the questions and the way you ask them change how deep the content goes. Allow 40 minutes to an hour per person and proceed as follows.
- Ask what they did before joining and why they chose this company
- Ask what confused them in their first three months and how they got through it
- Ask about the moment in their current work that felt most rewarding
- Have them walk through their day hour by hour
- Ask what they would like to say to someone considering applying now
Do not skip item 2, “what confused them.” Interviews made up only of good stories are seen through by job seekers as fabrications. Presenting the struggles together with the support they received conveys a realistic picture of life after joining. After the interview, have the person read the draft and revise the wording into their own words before publishing.
FAQ
If the seven pages are in place, around 10 pages is enough. From there you add pages while deepening the content, for example by featuring more employee interviews or splitting job introductions by role.
If most people arrive by searching your company name, placing recruitment pages within your website is enough. When you have a lot of recruitment information and want a different look and tone from the company website, build a dedicated site.
Whether to publish a photo is decided with the person's consent. If showing their face is difficult, you can show the work with photos taken from behind or of their hands, or with illustrations.
If applications are coming in through job boards, link from the listing text to your recruitment site. This is because most applicants search your company name to check you out after seeing the listing. With a recruitment site in place, you will not lose applicants at that checking stage.
It depends on the number of pages and how elaborate the build is. Merci Ltd.'s made-to-order production starts at an initial cost of 250,000 yen (around 5 pages) or 500,000 yen (around 10 pages), plus 3,000 yen per month. If interviews and photography are included, we will quote according to the scope.
We decide the structure of your recruitment site together in a meeting
With a recruitment site, results are determined less by the number of pages than by the order in which you answer job seekers' questions. We will advise which pages you need and how to run your employee interviews after hearing about your current recruitment situation.
You can see the production process for a full website, including recruitment pages, and what we can do for you on our website production page.
