New Reitman’s site demonstrates some career page best practices

Reitman's (Canada) Ltd. has launched a new website (www.reitmans.ca) and its career pages demonstrate some best practices for recruiters. There are no earth-shattering new technologies involved, but a clean and simple focus on the things that matter most to candidates. It’s amazing how often some of these basics go missing from recruitment sites. One important shortcoming, however, is the site’s failure to clearly define a Unique Recruitment Proposition.

Perhaps the most valuable aspect of the site from a recruitment point of view is the high profile given to “Careers” on the home page – it appears in the main menu, holds one of three “permanent” spots on the page, and is one of the three major themes represented by the rotating feature images: “Careers” is given equal billing to “About Reitman’s” and “Financial & Media”.

The careers pages themselves are very easy to navigate and cover all of the key elements clearly. Too often, career web pages miss some of these key elements or make them much too difficult to find. Here are some of the features:

• Quick access to postings and clear delineation between corporate opportunities and in-store positions
• Testimonials/profiles with great photos of 10 employees in a wide variety of roles
• Details that focus on "what's in it for me" in terms of rewards, personal development, and work-life balance – all important benefits to students entering retail
• Easy access to a list of upcoming recruitment events
• A helpful list of FAQs that address the questions Reitman’s has, no doubt, heard many times; it’s great to see applicants’ concerns about the online process so well addressed
• A page specific to students and graduates that addresses their unique interests
• “Share” links that allow visitors to easily share pages on the site via email, Facebook, Twitter, and so on

As I said, the site covers all the basics well. One more thing that could add a lot of impact would be some videos portraying the real-life experience of working there.

Where Reitman’s career pages fall short is in defining a Unique Recruitment Proposition. The main visual space on the careers pages provide a rotating set of 8 headlines that provide details such as “over 10,000 employees”, “over 1 billion in sales”, “over 950 stores” and so on. These all hint at a Unique Recruitment Proposition, but these headlines are too plentiful (8 concepts is too many to have an impact) and too indirect – what does “multi-banner company” mean to me as potential employee? New grads should not be expected to make the leap of logic; not because they aren't smart enough (of course they are), but because they aren't experienced in the world of work. It's important to remember that, for students, all employers are the same until proven different (or better).

One of the headline statements addresses candidates’ concern that they may never progress past the retail floor: “Wide range of career opportunities”. This is important to students considering launching their careers through retail. Most of the other statements may be indicators of potential job security – which is also important to new grads – but they should be directly stated as such. If Reitman’s simplifies these messages into two or three key benefits and clarifies their immediate value to new recruits, then they will have an all-around solid recruitment website.