How can you use job boards effectively when searching for talent?

Since their first appearance in the 1990s, job boards have been a handy tool for connecting employers, employees, and recruiters. They provide great channels for advertising your job to a wide pool of talent, while compiling a range of suitable vacancies and alerting candidates as they appear. They have been an invaluable part of the recruitment process, but there are also some downsides to using them, which is why companies are trying alternative approaches like hiring through social media or searching for niche jobs boards and online communities. How can job boards be used effectively and meet the needs of recruiters?

What are the advantages of job boards?

Job boards give you the opportunity to advertise your role to thousands of job seekers in just a few clicks. They can be a fantastic way to easily compile applications, helping you to manage your recruitment process. Applicants can easily create a job profile and use it for several applications with just a few simple tweaks.

You can also set up automated tasks that will help you weed out unsuitable applicants, therefore, eliminating the possibility of an unmanageable amount of talent that doesn’t match your requirements. Additionally, if you have your own automated tracking system in place, it could be integrated with your chosen job boards.

Are job boards useful?

They can be. Established job boards will have systems in place that will help you efficiently manage your applications, collect data to improve your recruitment process and communicate with applicants quickly and easily. Get the best out of job boards by posting your jobs on the right job board. Some are more relevant depending on the career level, types of industry and even by geography. Do you know which job boards work best for recruiting in your industry and niches?

As with all recruitment opportunities, however, there can be complications. Advertising your vacancy to such a large database of people will inevitably invite a lot of ‘spam’ applications that can slow down the process, making it a frustrating endeavour of sifting through countless unsuitable CVs.

What is the downside of using job boards?

Depending on the job board you are using, there are a few things that you may wish to consider for a successful recruitment process. Many companies are now finding their employees through social media, which makes perfect sense. Your following likely includes people who share your values and who are avid supporters of your company, making them excellent potential candidates. Lack of social media integration could be a potential downside.

Application process is changing too. Many recruiters are no longer interested in reading through a two-page CV and may prefer more creative approaches like video applications. If this is the case, finding a job board that allows for those features will be crucial.

Advertising on large sites gives you access to a large pool of talent, but it can also be hard to narrow down the right candidate. One downside you may wish to consider is how likely the website is to have your ideal employee on their database. Maybe niche job boards could be the way to go for your company.

And last, but by no means least, advertising on several websites and trying to integrate your automated tracking systems with each can be difficult to manage. Avoid this by choosing a select few or even just one that best suits your needs and is most likely to connect you to the candidate you are after. Job boards are expensive, at a minimum cost of £400 per job posted, you have to make sure you have identified the right platform for the talent you are looking to recruit. More than that, you need make sure that your advert is attractive to your prospective candidates and makes it easy to understand. This is sounds simple, but in practise there are so many ads that contain info that isn’t relevant to a candidate, or doesn’t sell the opportunity to them. If you make your job overview confusing to applicants, they will find it difficult to identify clearly how they fit your recruitment criteria. Worse, they may just decide to not bother applying.

Which are some of the more successful job boards to use?

LinkedIn and Reed offer up good quality candidates when looking for particular roles. Indeed also returns well when you are recruiting for more entry to mid career roles. There are specific niche job boards that are ideal for recruiting certain types of roles or experience. However, as with everything the quality of the job ad will determine how you can filter those candidates through. You also need to be prepared to weed out the exceptional candidates from the spam applications. Get ready for unfocussed applications, CVs from candidates who have no relevant experience or who haven’t bothered to tailor their CV to identify how they fit the job requirements. The risk with carrying out the recruitment process by yourself is the number of potential candidates that might be overlooked. By missing out on that exceptional talent, your business takes a hit as a result.

Work with a recruiter rather than navigate job boards

The benefits of using a recruiter for your business is time. Recruiters not only filter out and find the best candidates for your role as well as cultural fit, they also identify time wasters and will be able to support with keeping those great candidates engaged. If you’ve run a recruitment process but missed out because a candidate has been snapped up elsewhere, feel that you aren’t finding the type of applicants you want for your business and you feel like something is missing, get in touch.

What does working with Auxeris look like?

Our network of experienced specialist recruiters cover most areas. A good recruiter will send you no more than 5 CVs for a role, which will be the best matched candidates to your opportunities and fit for your organisation.

You will work with recruiters that are well versed at finding the best candidates for their clients’ roles. Working as an extension of your brand, they represent your business and get to understand your company culture so that they can find the right matched candidates for your roles. That makes the process much easier for your HR department and hiring managers. Find out more about Auxeris here.