Know Your ‘Ideal’ Candidate
Ultimately, you won’t always know the perfect person for a job until you find them. Still, it’s worth considering your ‘ideal’ candidate on paper before you post your listing anywhere. This is important for ticking all of your recruitment boxes more generally, but knowing things like the skills and experience you require from a candidate can also help you to choose the ideal job board depending on things like board specialities, niche focuses, and so on (which we’ll get to in a little while.).
Most obviously, creating a strong ‘ideal’ candidate profile will include asking questions like –
- How many years of experience does the role require?
- Is this an entry-level or a higher-profile position?
- Which skills are most crucial to the role?
- Do candidates need experience with certain computer programs or software?
- And so on
Once you know these things, you’ll find it far easier to narrow down which job boards are suitable. It may also be worth considering things like your past recruitment drives, including where your top candidates came from, and whether those same boards would be useful in this instance.
Understand the Purpose of Each Job Board
There are now countless job boards online, and each of them caters to a slightly different kind of candidate. Obviously, some roles might see you posting across various boards, but you should make sure that each of them is likely to bring you closer to that ideal candidate scenario.
Generally speaking, taking this time to find the ideal job board means that you can automatically post here with confidence for every recruitment drive. Before that’s possible, however, it’s worth considering the purpose of the most popular job boards out there as follows –
- LinkedIn: 75% of people who are going through a job change will use LinkedIn, a job board that operates on a social media model to drive networking-style connections between employers and professionals. LinkedIn is best used for advertising highly skilled or professional roles within a business setting.
- Indeed: Indeed is one of the most recognisable job boards in the world, and is host to 225 million resumes worldwide. Indeed job searches allow candidates to filter roles based on things like necessary skills and levels of experience, making this a great all-round board for recruiters.
- Monster: Monster is a long-standing job board that’s still experiencing significant growth. With limited free listings, postings here can be expensive, but Monster is a tried and loved platform for employers seeking freelance, contract, or part-time workers.
Consider Niche Options
It’s only natural to reach for high-profile job boards like the ones listed above but, for particularly niche roles, these boards often fall short due to their lack of speciality. If things like specific programming knowledge, industry-specific skills, and industry experience are crucial for a role, you may be better off with more niche options. These could include boards like Dice for tech-specific roles, or even FlexJobs if you’re looking to fill a more flexible position.
The slight downside with boards like these is that they tend to attract a slightly smaller number of candidates and applications. Advertisements here can also cost a little extra. However, smaller talent pools aren’t always a bad thing for a role of this nature, and the ability to more accurately appeal to relevant candidates means that you should soon see returns on this investment.
Learn From Your Competitors
There’s a lot to learn from your competitors in business, and job boards are no different. If you’re at a real loss as to where you should post your job listings online, then a little market research never hurts. After all, your competitors might have enjoyed hiring successes on a certain job board already. Not to mention that, if you position your listings on the same platform, you can secure top talent that they might snap up otherwise.
Luckily, a lot of job boards provide some pretty interesting metrics about each listing, which may include –
- Date posted
- Number of applicants
- Times viewed
- Etc.
All of this will help you to get ahead by identifying what’s working for competing companies, and also what isn’t, all without you needing to waste money on job boards that don’t serve your recruitment requirements.
Simplify Job Postings With HireHive
Identifying the right job board can make a huge difference to the success of your current employment drive and your recruitment processes more generally. By doing your research and getting this right early on, you’re far more likely to appeal to the right candidates, while shortening the time you spend sifting through resumes overall.
Once you know the best place to put your job listings online, HireHive can help you to get even more from each posting. As well as automated posting to your preferred boards, HireHive enables you to keep track of crucial job listing metrics, including the number of applications from each board, and your overall return on investment for each platform.
Choosing the ideal job board to power your recruitment drive has never been easier. Start enjoying more effective job postings today by trying HireHive for free.
