5 Ways to Enhance Your Career Center for a Great Member Experience
Associations need to find ways to enhance their career centers or job boards to make them as dynamic and enticing as possible. Why? Professionals — members and non-members alike — are attracted to associations through career centers. It’s often the first point of contact with an association. And they’re incredibly powerful tools for converting job seekers into members. Similarly, career centers serve as a great opportunity to engage your existing members who are looking for ways to further their careers.
So, how can you enhance your association’s career center to attract more job seekers, turn them into members and offer your existing members a great experience?
We’ve assembled five ways that your association can enhance your career center for maximum member engagement and an optimal experience.
Here are Five Ways to Enhance Your Career Center for a Great Member Experience
- Make it easy to find
When potential job seekers or members are perusing your website, make sure your career center page is easy to find. Don’t bury it at the bottom; put it front and center as a tab link or with a call to action above the fold of your homepage (above the fold simply means you don’t have to scroll down to find it). You want your career center page to stand out, loud and clear. Part of making it easy to find also means using a keyword strategy specific to your industry with your search engine optimization (SEO). In the copy found on your career center page, use these keywords so that you show up when someone Googles careers related to your industry.
- Fill your career center page full of rich content
Rich content is content in various forms, like assets, whitepapers, eBooks and videos, that have the explicit purpose of getting the viewer to take action and engage. That action could be filling out a form, clicking a button or emailing the association. When “actionable” content is abundant, it compels the visitors to participate and puts them in a funnel toward your desired outcome. That outcome can be becoming a member or becoming more engaged with your association by signing up for email alerts.
- Include a mix of industry-specific career guidance and softer skill improvement guidance: Career growth/Personal branding
Don’t silo your career center into one purpose only. You can leverage every aspect of career development for your career center because professionals aren’t just looking for jobs — many hope to improve multiple areas of their work life. From offering content on personal branding to webinars on having an enriching career life, expand your offerings so that you can captivate a broader audience and create a much deeper and long-lasting engagement with your members.
- Lean on filters for easy job searches
Make it easy for job seekers to find exactly what they’re looking for with filters. Nobody wants to sift through hundreds of job listings to find their ideal career. When you include filters, you give users a better experience while they’re searching your career center and save them time. This will attract them to return to it until they find their next career. You’ll also attract well-qualified candidates and have a better chance of matching them with the right employers. The more successful matches you make, the more successful your career center will be with more opportunities to increase engagement and earn non-dues revenue.
- Put muscle behind your job posting program to ensure a robust mix of employers
As it is with anything, you only get out what you put in, and your career center is no different. By installing better-performing software, and offering tools that will increase members’ value to employers, like mentoring, learning resources, assessments, career fairs, salary guidance, and certifications, while placing an emphasis on quality content, your career center will thrive. As a result, you’ll attract more employers, which, in turn, will help your bottom line by drawing in more job posting sales. Your career center is more than just a job board. It’s a hub that can potentially change lives. And the more energy you put into it, the more you will empower your members and further your mission.
Your members want a better experience when searching for their next job. Why not give them the best chance at connecting them with a great career and draw in more employers and job seekers while growing member engagement and non-dues revenue? Career centers are a win-win. But they only work when your members and non-member job seekers enjoy their experience. When you give your members an advantage in a competitive job landscape, you engender loyalty and foster a culture of engagement. You also give your association the opportunity to stand out as a leader in your industry.
Naylor helps associations empower members to build new skills and grow their careers. Want to find out how? Talk to one of our career center experts.
David Butler; Senior Director, Business Development has worked tirelessly within the association community for over 12 years as the Senior Director of Business Development at Naylor. In that time, he has assisted association colleagues by providing the thought leadership necessary to maximize opportunities to drive non-dues revenue, acquire and retain members, and advance their unique missions. Outside of the office, David enjoys watching football with his family and visiting the local dog parks with his Goldendoodle and Toy Poodle.
