10 questions every employer should ask a job board In this article we give you a quick outline of the 10 questions you should ask every job board when you are deciding on your online recruitment advertising.

1: How many people use your site?

This is a crucial question because this is the only way you can know if a site is any good or not. What you are looking for here is general statistics: “Unique users” (which roughly means how many individual people come to the site every month) or “visits” (how many times the site gets visited by people every month) and applications (how many applications job seekers make on the site.) are often quoted statistics. By comparing one site to another you'll get an idea of how popular a site it.

If a job board quotes 'hits' hang up the phone. It's an old and misleading metric that means next to nothing and a reputable job board should not quote it.

2: How many jobs on your site?

Along with how many people use the site you'll want to find out how many jobs are on the site. This gives you an idea of how popular the site is with advertisers. But don't just look at the number of jobs. What you are also looking for is whether the site has employers advertising on it. All job boards will have lots of recruitment agency jobs but having real employers advertising on a site is usually a good sign.

3: What kind of response can I expect for my job?

We accept that this is a very difficult question for job boards to answer. Each job ad is different and the performance of each job ad is consequently different. But a job board should be able to estimate how many applicants you should get for your job. They have years' worth of historical records on job applications so even if they can't tell you exactly how your job will do, they should be able to tell you how similar jobs have done.

4: How much does it cost to post a job and what do I get?

Be sure to find out exactly what you are getting for the price. Some job ads last only a week, some a month; some job ads are branded (they have your logo) and some aren't; some job ads can be edited and refreshed, some can't. Find out exactly what you get in the job posting package.

5: Is there account management?

Many job boards allow you to post a job yourself with a credit card. In general, however, we recommend paying a little more and opting for an account managed service. Account managers will generally be able to help you with your ad. They can check that it is okay, that it will work, they can even make salary suggestions and give you an idea of the market. It's worth availing of this expertise when you are hiring.

6: What else does your job board offer?

Job postings is popular for employers, but it is not the only thing that job boards offer. For example, you can enhance your advertising to improve response by adding banner advertising, targeted emails, home page logo buttons. And many job boards will allow you to search their CV database for relevant candidates. Find out all the options.

7: What deals are on offer?

It's always worth asking what special offers job boards have. Naturally, customer service people are often on commission and they will want to sell you something, so be aware of this; but if they sell you something that works then all the better for you. 

8: Who are your competitors and how are you better than them?

Job boards hate this questions, but you are asking this so that you will get a list of other sites to potentially talk to. Most of the time, sales people will say that they don't have any direct competitors (their site is the best and most specialist etc.) but every job board is in competition; find out who and give them a call too.

9: Who is behind your job board?

In recent years many recruitment agencies have set up job boards. We don't see anything wrong with this if it's made clear. But in many cases it isn't made clear that the job board is recruitment agency owned and we have to wonder whether these job boards are really trying to be job boards or are, instead, trying to attract employers and candidates so that they can use them in their recruitment agency businesses. Make sure you check this for yourself!

10: Testimonials

It's always a good idea to ask for testimonials, and up to date ones at that. This will give you an idea of who uses the site and how it works for them. Again, look for testimonials from real employers like you.

Article updated October 2008

Photo: © Richard Thomas | Dreamstime.com

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