Importance of Linking to Jobs Page from Home Page

Question:
Upper management does not want to include a link on our home page to our jobs page. How do I convince them that we need to add that link?
Answer:
A prominent link to “jobs” or “employment” — or better still, “careers” — should appear on the home page of all organizations. The link should lead directly to the main page of your site’s employment section.
If you put this link on the “About Us” or some other interior page, you will frustrate job candidates. There is solid evidence via web usability studies that frustrating website visitors increases the chance that they will leave your site without completing their objective — finding the right job for them. And it does not help you achieve your own objective — finding, screening, and hiring qualified candidates.
Using the word “careers” as your link name implies that you view employees as valuable assets and expect them to grow within the workplace. Simply put, a “career” is much more appealing to a job candidate than a “job.”
The best way to demonstrate the effectiveness of this best practice is by example. Pfizer’s corporate website contains a “Careers” link clearly marked on the employer’s home page. Not only is this link prominent on the initial site page, it appears in an area where the visitor’s eye naturally goes first — the top left section of the page.
If you navigate to this site and click the “Careers” link, you’ll see a menu for the “Careers” section of the site in that same familiar position on the page. Site designers use this positioning to “train” the visitor to view the most important links first.
Another example is the home page for Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu. Instead of a set of vertical links, you’ll see links listed horizontally. This arrangement caters to the reader’s instinct to read from left to right. On this site, the “Careers” link is the second link from the left. In this case, the job seeker is very likely to see this link as soon as the page displays.
In case you’re looking for an example of a site where the link is difficult to find, check out General Electric’s. The employment link is buried in the lower-left corner, which is the least visible location on a page. If you were seeking a career with General Electric, what would you infer from the placement of that link? Think about the message this employer may be sending to job seekers!