A Careers Page for a Business That Is Always Hiring

Always hiring, nowhere to apply

Some businesses hire all year: production lines, kitchens, cleaning crews, garden centres in spring, shops in December. Staff move on, seasons turn, and there is always a role open somewhere.

The hiring happens through job boards, a sign in the window and word of mouth. The website says nothing, or one line at the bottom of the About page.

Applicants look at the site first, because they want to know what they are applying for. Finding nothing, they phone reception, walk in at a busy moment, or apply somewhere that explains the job.

What an applicant needs to know

• The roles you fill, by their real names.
• How pay works, including shift premiums, overtime and raises.
• The hours, with start times, weekends and how schedules are set.
• What the work is like on an ordinary day.
• What you provide, and what they need to bring.
• How to apply, and when they will hear back.

The fourth is the one most pages leave out, and it does the most sorting. A plain description of the work lets the wrong applicants rule themselves out before anyone books an interview.

Roles, not a slogan

We are always looking for great people tells an applicant nothing. It does not say what the job is, so nobody can tell whether it suits them.

List each role you hire for repeatedly, by the title used on the floor, with two or three lines: what the person does, which shifts it covers and whether experience is needed.

Mark which are open now and which you take applications for all year. That one distinction answers the most common phone call.

Say how pay works

Pay is the first question for most applicants, and the one most careers pages avoid.

State the starting rate or range if you can. If you cannot, explain the structure: hourly pay, premiums for evenings or nights, overtime, when the first raise happens, and when benefits begin.

An applicant who knows the structure can decide whether to apply. One who does not phones to ask, or applies to an employer who said.

Describe the work honestly

Every job has parts that suit some people and not others: standing for a full shift, heat, noise, early starts, lifting, repetitive tasks, working outdoors in November.

Say so plainly. The people who would have quit in their first week will not apply, and the people who do apply arrive knowing what to expect.

Say what is good about it too, in concrete terms: training from the first day, steady hours, a crew that has worked together for years, a shift that ends in time for school pickup.

A worked example

A plastics manufacturer in an industrial park on the edge of a suburb runs injection moulding machines on three shifts, making containers and parts for other companies. It hires machine operators and packers most months of the year.

Its website said only, at the foot of one page, that the company was always looking for hard-working people and that resumes should go to the general inbox.

Applicants phoned to ask about shifts and pay. Some arrived for interviews not knowing the night shift started at eleven, or that the floor is warm and loud, and a few left in their first week.

The mechanism ran both ways: people who could not see the job had to ask about it, and the people least suited to it found out on the floor.

The new careers page describes both roles, the shifts and start times, how pay works with the night premium, the training period, and the safety boots and hearing protection the work requires.

A short form asks for name, phone, role and available shifts, and goes straight to the production supervisor. The page says when applicants will hear back, and the date it was last checked.

Make applying easy

Many applicants for shift and seasonal work apply on a phone, and many do not have a resume ready. A short form that works on a phone, with the resume optional, suits them.

Ask only what you need to decide on an interview: name, contact details, the role, availability and perhaps relevant experience. Leave everything else for the interview itself.

If you accept walk-ins, say when, so nobody arrives during the lunch rush. And give a phone number for questions, with the hours someone will answer it.

The questions people phone about

Ask whoever answers the phone which job questions come up every week, and answer them on the page.

They are usually practical: whether there is parking, whether a bus runs at shift change, whether training is paid, how long probation lasts and what to wear on the first day.

Each one answered on the page is a call reception no longer takes, and an applicant who does not give up waiting for a callback.

Keeping it current

A careers page goes stale faster than any other page. A role filled in March and still listed in October produces calls, walk-ins and disappointed applicants.

Give the page an owner and a monthly check. Show the date it was last reviewed, remove filled roles, and note when seasonal hiring starts, such as February for the spring rush.

Link to it from the main menu or footer, and point every job board ad and social post back to it.

The counter-case

A business that hires once every few years needs less: a short paragraph saying how to express interest, and a note when a role opens.

Roles filled entirely through referrals or a staffing agency may not need a full page either, though the agency's ads should still point somewhere that describes the work.

And a careers page will not fix a job people do not want. It will make sure the people who apply know what they are applying for.

For anyone hiring every season, the page is worth its afternoon: roles, pay, the work, and one way to apply.

This month

1. List the roles you hire for every year.
2. Write three lines about each one.
3. Explain how pay works, including premiums.
4. Describe an ordinary shift honestly.
5. Add a short form that works on a phone.
6. Send applications to the person who hires.
7. Put a review date on the page.

Step six is where applications most often stall. A form that lands in a general inbox waits for someone to forward it, and shift workers often take the first job that calls back.

Writing it for the applicant rather than the company follows the same logic as pages written from the owner's point of view.

Frequently asked questions

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.