If you’re searching for answers about how to create a recruitment website, there are plenty of options. One that comes to mind is WordPress, a Content Management System (CMS) that provides the framework for over 40% of websites globally. But the question remains: is WordPress good for professional recruitment websites?
WordPress lets you build sites on your own or pay for a pre-configured design. It’s popular for a reason: the huge number of themes and plugins available on WP can make it a great choice for a building a wide variety of websites. But for recruitment website design, the story’s a little different. Our teams have worked on enough projects to know the nuances of recruitment website design and how to optimise candidate conversions.. There are ways to configure WordPress, but depending on your requirements, it might not be a good fit for your agency.
It all comes down to what your business needs. We’ve put together some pros and cons to determine if WordPress will be sufficient to make a reliable business website for your agency.
What features recruitment agency websites need
There are many site builders out there, whether it’s a more open-ended option like WordPress or a platform that’s specific to recruitment websites. So before making a choice, it’s best to know what features will benefit your agency.
Some of the elements you might look for in a recruitment website are:
Candidate portals
Application forms that pull from LinkedIn, Seek, or other job sites
Integration with your CRM or ATS database
SEO optimisation
Security and data protection features
With that said, let’s look at how WordPress stacks up when it comes to recruitment website features.
How WordPress works for recruitment websites
1. Configuration
There are plenty of choices if you decide to go with WordPress. It has a library of over 31,000 themes and 55,000 plugins, making it highly configurable.
There are recruitment-specific add-ons in the WordPress Plugin Directory. They include things like simple job boards with job alerts, or integrations between your WP site and your CRM/ATS. It will be up to you to decide which extensions to install, which adds time in setup at first and maintenance later. You’ll also have to manage licence keys for every plugin and the site theme.
If you don’t have the team or time to support this extra work, then this may be a clear sign WordPress isn’t the right fit for your agency’s website. However, asking a developer to do this will keep the clock running and could be costly, and makes it difficult to budget accordingly.
2. Themes & plugins
Because WordPress is so configurable, choosing the right elements will be one of your biggest projects.
Anyone can upload WordPress plugins. While that opens the doors to a huge number of site features, it also means that there’s no quality control. Some developers know their stuff, others will code with bugs all over the place. To build your recruitment website securely your team will have to dedicate time to screening the plug-ins to ensure they are fit for purpose and don’t put your site and data integrity at risk. This can never be a one-time project. When your agency grows and adds a new specialism, there’s more time to invest in updating your site. When a developer stops working on a key plugin, and you need to install a new one, that’s another item to add.
Likewise, many unknown developers create theme packages and templates you can get for free, but the same caveats apply as for the plugins. Volcanic offers recruitment agency website templates that our developers then customise to your needs, all backed with rigouruos testing, regular updates and security always in mind.
Concerns about keeping a website updated and protected can apply to just about any platform. The difference with WordPress is the number of different elements you’ll need to use to create a recruitment-specific website. To keep a WordPress site up to date, the best practice recommendation is to install updates on a weekly/monthly basis (for plugins) or quarterly basis (for site or core updates). It takes time and a dedicated team to keep up with these projects, so planning ahead is key.
3. Security & GDPR
Keeping data secure is one of the highest-priority obligations that a recruitment agency has. For obvious reasons, you’ll look out for how to manage GDPR requirements in any website builder.
WordPress’ core software is GDPR-compliant, but add-ons need to be managed one by one. Most plugins that have data collection, like a contact form, should come with a simple option to delete that data. All WordPress themes, plugins, and the core software must be continuously updated. If they aren’t, the problem isn’t just lost functionality. Any outdated element could be an opening for a data security breach.
Plugin developers will sometimes abandon what they made or start a new version while stopping maintenance on the one you use. This can create the same opening for security risks. Security and GDPR compliance are things to plan for no matter the platform. When working with WordPress, planning comes down to managing the different parts that make up your site.
Pros & Cons of WordPress Recruitment Websites
Choosing WordPress or a dedicated recruitment website platform will depend on what your business needs.
Here are some of the main points in favour of both options.
A recruitment website platform is a better choice if...
You are looking for a website platform specifically tailored to the recruitment industry with functionality that offers intuitive job search and optimises candidate conversions
You prefer to have your site built by designers that are experts in the recruitment industry and can work with you to best showcase and differentiate your brand
You are looking for integrations with market-leading recruitment technologies such as multi-job posting tools for ease of use
You want to be able to SEO optimise your jobs and content via your website CMS, rather than having to outsource every time you want to make updates
You want to be sure you have the right GDPR and data security protections in place
Visibility of your candidate sources, applications and conversions is important to you, rather than just web traffic stats
You want to invest in solution that will be maintained and developed on your behalf to free your team for other projects
WordPress is a better choice if...
You prefer the flexibility of WordPress’ configuration and have time to review all the available themes
Installing plugins meets the requirements of your recruitment cycle
Your team can screen WP themes and plugins before installation to ensure they are still being maintained
You can commit to updating WordPress elements on a regular basis to uphold your site’s integrity
Your agency branding matches an existing theme, or you have access to a design team to add it
The business can manage GDPR and data protection settings for all plugins
Why choose Access Volcanic for your recruitment website?
At Access Volcanic, we’ve developed a recruitment website platform specifically for agencies and recruiters.
Here’s why we believe Access Volcanic is the best choice for recruitment websites and hundreds of agencies around the globe do too:
Our highly experienced design team specialises in building websites for the recruitment industry and will work in partnership with you to showcase your brand
We care about helping you cater for the needs of all jobseekers and look to build recruitment websites that are digitally inclusive
Our content management system (CMS) is uniquely designed for recruitment marketing and makes adding blogs, case studies, jobs and content a walk in the park
Volcanic’s SEO job search feature gives your listings the edge
We build with GDPR and data protection top of mind, using consent capture and multi-location hosting to keep your data safe
Our sites come with built-in reporting for actionable insights
We offer integrations with leading recruitment CRMs and other technologies such as multi-job posters
Our platform is hosted on Amazon’s AWS Servers providing an average 99.5% uptime ensuring peace of mind
Hackers are kept at bay through our vault architecture, meaning your website is secured behind multiple firewalls with security protocols regularly reviewed
Easily digestible monthly payments eradicate an initial costly outlay
Conclusion
At the end of the day, every agency is unique. From website design to recruitment processes, you’ll need to carefully consider what will help your business thrive.
After reviewing all the pros and cons, and considerations of building a recruitment website, we hope you’ll feel better equipped to make the right choice for your agency.
If you’re interested to learn more about how Access Volcanic’s recruitment website platform can support your business, speak to one of our website experts.
