Not putting the proper care into building the page could cost a company some qualified candidates — after all, no matter how applicants hear about a job, they’ll almost always head to the company’s Web site before doing anything.

Here are four big mistakes many companies make on their Careers Web page, according to CTO Joe Rotella, speaking at the 2009 Society for Human Resources Management conference in New Orleans:

1. Using a generic e-mail address to collect applications — People want to talk to people, Rotella says. It looks better to the candidate if the company lists the HR manager or a recruiter’s address instead of “hr@company.com.”
2. Hiding the important information — The most useful or most interesting information should appear on a page before the user has to scroll. Keeping the pages arranged correctly involves working with IT to test the site on different browsers and configurations.
3. Ignoring what the audiences wants – The key question when making any decision about the site should be, “What does the target audience want to see.”
4. Dumping all the information into an FAQ section – Rotella calls FAQs the “junk drawer of the Web.” All relevant info should have already appeared in other sections, he said.

For the most part, the answer is yes. Among the HR departments that outsource, 90% are satisfied with the services provided by the outsourcing vendor, according to a recent poll by the Society for Human Resource Management.

Moreover, about one third of companies plan to increase their HR outsourcing next year, while just 17% plan to decrease.

The key to success: outsourcing only in appropriate areas. Companies get the most out of the arrangement when it’s used for paperwork-intensive administrative tasks, like managing benefits and administering 401(k) plans.

Less satisfaction is found in areas that require in-depth knowledge of a company’s culture, such as recruiting, training and employee development.

At the companies planning to get more outside help, the areas most likely to be outsourced are:

• background and criminal record checks (65%)
• flexible spending account (FSA) administration (52%)
• health benefits administration (46%), and
• payroll (34%).

The key question: Does outsourcing help companies save money?

Maybe. Just under half (49%) of the companies surveyed said they’d cut costs as a direct result of outsourcing. On the other hand, 28% said costs had increased, while the rest said they’ve remained the same.