How Visual Design Influences Applicant Engagement on Job Sites

Job applicants care about visuals. Learn why and how you can use visual design to improve engagement.

One of the most underappreciated factors in getting quality applicants is visual design on job sites.

You can read until you’re blue in the face about writing the perfect job description or offering the highest salary possible. But if your job site doesn’t look good and function properly, qualified candidates won’t apply.

So how can visual design help you get more applicants? Glad you asked…

Visual design elements are:
Free to improve
Easy to update
Proven to increase engagement
When elements are optimised they can dramatically increase how many qualified candidates apply for open positions

What you’ll discover:

Why Visual Design Matters on Job Sites
How Bad Design Kills Applicant Engagement
The Key Visual Elements That Drive Applications
How To Optimise Your Job Listings for Maximum Engagement

Why Visual Design Matters on Job Sites

Visual design and the overall user experience on job sites dictates how applicants interact with your job listings and whether or not they will follow through with an application.

Think about how many job listings your average candidate views in a day.

Job seekers are comparing your posting to dozens, if not hundreds, of other companies all searching for similar talent.

You have mere seconds to grab their attention and convince them that they should not only read your job description but that they want to work for your company.

Visually, that company needs to look professional and trustworthy. Otherwise, candidates will scroll on by.

Here’s how that looks in real life…

One study found that hiring managers could view resume diversity just by reading a job description. If your listing comes across as unprofessional or “messy”, it will discourage certain candidates from viewing it.

Job seekers can also learn about your company culture by visuals listed on a job page. Are there photos on the page? What do the office/environment look like? Where is the job located? Are there unique customer service benefits listed?

If someone is searching for customer service jobs in Tucson AZ or any other competitive role, the listings that stand out visually are the ones that get the clicks. When nothing stands out except for the “bare-bones” info, candidates will likely continue browsing.

That’s why visual design matters.

How Bad Design Kills Applicant Engagement

Bad design wreaks havoc on your application process and burns bridges with potential candidates.

When job site visitors encounter poor visuals it is 100% guaranteed that they’ll drop your job posting and look elsewhere.

They may not come back either.

Your job site is a candidate’s first impression of your company. Make it ugly, difficult to read or use, and you’re already headed for a decrease in applicants.

According to data from HiringThing, 60% of candidates will quit applying if they run into an issue during the application process.

By “issue”, that doesn’t mean making a candidate sign up for an account before viewing a job description.

It means badly written copy, poor layout and spacing, no information about the company, loads of text, no images, and so on.

It stops applicants dead in their tracks.

And remember, once a candidate leaves your site to look at other opportunities, there is a good chance they will never return.

The Key Visual Elements That Drive Applications

Alright, let’s talk about how to increase engagement by using visual design.

Clean Job Listing

Job seekers are busy. They aren’t going to spend ages reading a job description.

Make it easy for them to skim the job post by using lots of white space. Divide the listing into small sections based on the following:

Job Title and Location
Salary and Benefits
Responsibilities
Requirements

This allows candidates to quickly scan a job post and identify whether they want to learn more about the position.

Job seekers have zero patience for long blocks of text on job sites.

Use short paragraphs
Use bullet points wherever possible
Keep sections concise

Mobile Friendly

Yes, this falls under visual design.

Job seekers are using their mobile devices more than ever these days when searching and applying for a job.

Ensuring a job site is optimised for mobile is critical. Job seekers are likely applying on mobile more than most companies realise.

If a job site doesn’t function well on smartphones and tablets, valuable applicants are already being lost.

Job seekers expect smooth, fast technology. Anything that makes the hiring process longer than it has to be is a deterrent.

Visual Branding

Job seekers want to feel connected to a brand. They want to know what the company stands for.

Use high-quality, professional images on job pages. Include images of the team, office space, location and anything else that might entice applicants.

Make sure that the site looks good on mobile too. There is nothing worse than beautiful desktop images that look like junk on smartphones.

Also, make sure branding such as colours and fonts are consistent across the job site.

Ever go to a website that sends mixed messages with their visuals?

If the fonts, colours and visual identity are inconsistent, candidates will subconsciously pick up on this and question the quality of the brand.

Clear Call To Action (CTA)

Where the “Apply” button is placed drastically affects applicant quantity.

Form testing has shown that the closer an apply button is to a job description, the more applicants the listing will receive.

Also, make sure that the apply button is easy to find. There is nothing worse than having to search for it or missing it completely.

Making candidates jump through hoops just to apply for a job is a huge turnoff.

How To Optimise Your Job Listings for Maximum Engagement

Here are some practical tips to increase engagement by optimising job listings.

Add salary up front. If candidates can’t see it, they will assume the offer is low.
Keep applications short. Long applications scare people away. Longer applications have been shown to decrease submissions by up to 70%.
Use visuals. According to research from Appcast, listings with the right content length and visual structure see significantly higher apply rates.

So there you have it…

Keep it simple, make the users’ lives easier, and watch applicant engagement skyrocket.

By improving the visual appeal and user experience of job pages, friction is removed for qualified candidates who were otherwise discouraged from applying.

The key takeaways from this post are:

Layout — Make sure the job listing is easy to read and navigate.
Mobile — Make sure the job site looks great on mobile screens.
Brand — Display consistent, professional imagery that showcases the brand.
Simple — Create short applications with a clear call to action button.