Careers pages - as dull as ditchwater

Hello and a warm welcome to the tenth edition of the 2to3days newsletter - for people in business who are responsible for hiring decisions and who want to accelerate the pace of change when it comes to women’s equality. I was always led to believe that the fundamental premise behind recruitment is that it’s about finding the best person for the job.

Once a month I attend, at the Grand Hotel in Brighton, a wonderful business networking event hosted by Maarten Hoffmann from the Platinum Media Group Ltd ?

At the last one I got chatting to the inspiring Stefan Buss from Storm12, a gem of a boutique creative and digital marketing agency nestled away in the charming Sussex village of Handcross.?

Once we had got passed the ‘what do you do’ part of the conversation we found ourselves having an animated conversation about the dullness of the majority of careers pages. I made the point that companies do themselves a massive disservice by not investing in them properly, or treating them as an afterthought, with the result that they end up repelling rather than attracting potential candidates.?

Harsh but true!?

All too often I hear women moaning about how awful they are, and then I hear in-house recruitment teams apologising for their inadequacies. What on earth is going on?

Stef and I decided that over a coffee in his favourite coffee shop, we would pool our shared knowledge, insights and frustration and come up with the content for this week’s newsletter.? So that employers can instead attract the talent, and from 2to3days’ perspective the female talent, you need to fill your pipeline.

Staying competitive?

Due to a whole load of macro factors, including Brexit and Covid, unemployment is at a record low, so the war for talent has never been so tough. To stay competitive, companies need to give their career pages a revamp. It’s a lost opportunity not to.

Also, employees have had enough. They don’t want to slug their guts out for a company that doesn’t take care of them. So future employees want to know what sort of company they are joining. Even companies who are already on the front foot and take the well-being of their staff seriously, need to ensure that this great work is visible on their careers page. There is no value in hiding the good work you do under a bushel?

The tables have turned?

There are a couple of major ‘elephants in the room’ that create the disconnect and explain why most career pages are as dull as ditchwater.

Firstly, too many members of senior leadership teams are still stuck in the ideology that ‘you are lucky to have a job.’ This attitude permeates down through the organisation.?

Candidates are now, and increasingly so, interviewing their future employer. Therefore, you need to be able to address the following concerns as these will govern the questions, they ask you at interview.??

?Candidates of all ages are demanding to know: -

• Will I fit in here?
• Are there people like me here already??
• Can I work flexibly here??
• Can I progress my career here?

They need to get a genuine sense of who you are as an employer.?

Secondly, there is often internal discord between the sales team dismissing the work the brand team do as ‘pink and fluffy’ (that phrase in and of itself is demeaning to, primarily women). The sales team will sell better if the culture and employee brand values are well articulated and communicated both internally as well as externally. Gone are the days when companies can simply paste some impressive mission statement behind reception like glorified wallpaper and expect it to mean anything. Staff will walk past it every day and not have a clue what it really means, or even what it says!

It’s the ‘pink and fluffy’ that encapsulates the essence of your company culture. Get this right and your staff will stay longer, and you will find it easier to attract people, saving you time and money. The value of the ‘pink and fluffy’ is shining through as Stef is increasingly seeing more website briefs that include more of an emphasis on career pages -hooray!?

Once you have you can bring your careers page to life by including: -

• Videos (not soulless corporate rubbish but of real role models)
• Case studies?
• Testimonials?
• Relatable imagery?
• Benefits on offer
• About us - I appreciate it’s hard if you employ a huge amount of people but if you only promote the SLT you are missing a trick. The opportunity here is to find a way to bring your staff members to life.?

A taboo

Here’s an insight. Senior management are frightened to ask their staff how they really feel about the company they work for and what they would like to see changed. They’re scared to open up a can of worms. The truth is it can be incredibly valuable. So ‘flip it’ and ask the questions – you’ll discover some amazing gems, the ‘stuff’ your colleagues are super proud of and ideas to expand upon. Great stories, great data that you can use to bring your career page to life. Every business has a distinctive character; the trick is to encapsulate that internal brand and market it externally on your career page, so that it attracts the candidates, or in 2to3days’ case the women you are keen to find.?

So ditch the ditchwater and think more Lake Como - far more tantalising!?

Celebrating the changemakers

Wates and Aviva’s career pages are more Lake Como!?

I will end with a quote that Stef reminded me of? by Peter Drucker, one of the most widely known and influential thinkers on management which I thought was rather apt and food for thought!?

‘Culture eats strategy for breakfast’

What have I been up to?

• The last two weeks passed me by in a lovely haze of simply enjoying the wonderful weather. I am blessed to live in West Wittering where I get to swim in the sea, have drinks on the beach and just BE.?
• Our house project is also coming to a close and now my inner ‘Alan Titchmarsh’ is coming into play. I’ve spent hours and hours in our local nursery learning the Latin names for all sorts of palms and grasses that now form the backdrop to my garden.?
• And I have fallen in love with lentils! My latest dish that I devour I copied off my big sis. Cooked green/puy lentils, finally sliced red onion, raw spinach leaves, cherry tomatoes chopped in half, a generous glug of homemade french dressing mixed together and with feta cheese crumbled and scattered on the top - divine.

Who am I?

I am Juliet Turnbull, the founder of 2to3days, the company I set up because I believe that women in the 21st century?have a fundamental right to reach their full potential at work. I believe the UK plc needs a female focused talent marketplace that supports women, inspires women and connects women to organisations that want to hire more women to work flexibly. I myself have worked flexibly for the past 20 years. I don’t believe you can have it all but I do believe you can ‘have both’ - a great work and home life which comes through integration.?

I am a straight talking, crack on and make it happen sort of girl. I believe in speaking truth to power and being your authentic self. I am on the third chapter of my career - I started life as a Chartered Surveyor before moving into business coaching and now I am an entrepreneur building a purpose-led business.