How to choose a Job Board
Posted By: Thomas Shaw, 11:03pm Wednesday 03 December 2008
This time last year, I wrote an article in AHRI’s HR Monthly magazine (Nov 2007 issue) on Job Boards. The article was based on trends, as well as emerging players in the industry. Also included in the article was tips for employers and recruiters for choosing a job board.
There is a PDF copy of the old article here http://www.recruitmentdirectory.com.au/About/Downloads/p13_sectionid/2/p13_fileid/2
The tips were very well received, and the feedback was very positive. I was informed by numerous recruiters they not only saved $$ in costs, but also time/resources for not using the job board.
This is only a guide of questions to ponder when choosing a job board. You will find that there is no “one size fits all” approach and you should use this in creating your online recruitment strategy. If you need any help in creating this strategy, give me a call.
- Be selective. Use more than one job board – and remember to always advertise on your own careers web site
- Ask for a few free trial advertisements
- Use free job boards – for example http://www.nowhiring.com.au http://www.reversejobs.com.au
- Negotiate. There is no harm in playing one board against the other with advertising costs
- General vs niche. Niche boards work very well and access passive job seekers. Although the number of applications might be low, the quality is very high. Most are linked with industry associations.
- Consult with peers. Ask industry colleagues or friends if they have heard of – or used – the job board. Have you heard of this job board before?
- Research where your competitors are advertising - are they using general or niche sites? Are they utilizing social networks or referral programs?
- Critique the website design/layout. If you can’t work out how to use it, prospective candidates won’t know either!
- Ask the account manager for their site statistics, such as the number of unique visitors, job advertisements, applications, registered users. Importantly, these should be verified by a third party such as Nielsen’s Net Ratings.
New tips...
- The job board MUST have a strong marketing plan - how are they going to attract candidates?
- How easy is it for a user to apply for a job? Do you have to register/login or can you apply as a guest
- OpenID ready?
- Good SEO?
- Dose the job board integrate into multi-posting systems such as http://www.adlogic.com.au or http://www.jobadder.com
- Is the job board optimized for mobile applications such as the iphone
- Are job advertisements indexed on search engines
- Is there functionality for social bookmarking or integration into web 2.0 sites
- Can you maximise your brand awareness by branding the job advertisements or your own profile page with images, video, audio or links to 3rd party sites
- How confident are you that they will attract the right candidates for you?
- Have creative email marketing campaigns
- Job adverts are aggregated to other sites. http://www.recruit.net http://www.careerbuilder.com.au
- Ability to microblog via twitter