Job boards are a great way to drive traffic to your career page and get job openings in front of applicants, but are your openings in front of the right applicants? If the position requires a specialized skill set, not just any candidate will do. Some things to consider before throwing money at a job distribution site is traffic levels, free vs. paid job distribution, niche vs. general job boards and the quality of candidate you need.
You have to be strategic about which job boards you select. Currently Indeed, Career Builder and Monster are driving the highest volume of traffic. Job boards like this would be most effective if you needed to fill many jobs in a short amount of time.
When organizations are considering a free job board, don’t be surprised if your job postings get little to no traffic. Jobseekers like easy, simple and accessible so if your job postings aren’t right in front of them, don’t always expect them to go searching. On the other hand, not all paid job boards get the bang for your buck. It’s important to watch source analytics to control the cost and spend your money where it works for your organization.
This is where niche vs. general job boards come into play. If you are looking for an employee with a specific skill set in a specific location that applies to your industry, a niche job board could be worth your while. If you have a large volume of temporary, entry-level or part-time job openings, a general job board would be more favorable.
Now you have to assess the type of candidate you need. If you are looking to fill a senior or executive level position, Craigslist is unlikely to turn out the results you’d like, but don’t rule it out. If you’re in search of a lower level employee Craigslist may work, but be prepared for an onslaught of unqualified candidates and even spam candidates when posting to Craigslist.
Here, at BirdDogHR we interview many job boards every year and sign on with job boards we believe will bring the maximum value to our customers. We understand that not all job boards are created equal, and we work hard to seek out the very best.