10 questions every employer should ask a job board What do you need to know about a job board before you choose to advertise on it? There are ten simple questions that you need answers for.

1: Who uses your site?

This is the most important question you can ask. If you are looking to find a 'Sales Manager ' then you should ensure that the job board covers sales manager jobs. There's no point in advertising a Sales Manager vacancy on an engineering jobs site. But make sure there are a good number of your jobs on the site. Ask the job board how many jobs like yours are on the site. And how many other employers are advertising. All job boards will have lots of recruitment agency jobs but having real employers advertising is a sign of a quality site.

 

2: How many people use your site?

The key to successful job board recruitment is getting lots of relevant people looking at your ad. That is, to get applicants for your job you're going to need lots of eye balls looking at your ad. No eyeballs means no new employees for you. So, before you choose to advertise on a job board find out how popular the site is.

Job boards will usually answer this question by quoting internet statistics like Unique users, Visits, or Applications. We cover online statistics in detail in our guide 'An introduction to statistics for recruiters' but by way of quick explanation 'Unique users' roughly means how many individual people come to the site every month. If you know that one job board has 10,000 unique users a month and another site has 120,000 unique users a month, then you know that the latter is more popular and will be better for you ad. But, just be sure that these unique users are relevant.

 

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

Each job ad is different and the performance of each job ad is unpredicable. But your job board should be able to give you a rough idea of how your job will perform. They have many years of historical records on job applications. So even if they can't tell you exactly how your particular job will do, they should be able to tell you how similar jobs have done in the past. Find out how many average views or applications you can expect.

 

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

Get the price and be sure about exactly what you are getting. For example, on some job boards job ads last a month (which is the duration whatjobsite would recommend) while on others they last only a week; some job boards allow you to have your logo while others charge extra for this; some job boards allow you to edit your job ad after it has gone live, while others don't. Some job boards will include a CV search as part of the advertising while others won'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 online with a credit card. Often, this is the cheapest way of advertising the job. However, whatjobsite would always recommend paying a little more and opting for an account managed service. If you are new to job board advertising, your account manager's expertise will be invaluable. They will be able to help you with your ad, check that it is okay, optimize the keywords, make salary suggestions, help you when things go wrong, and give you an idea of the market. It's worth availing of this expertise when you are hiring.

 

6: What other products does the job board offer?

Posting a classified job ad on a job board is popular among employers, but it is not the only product that job boards offer employers. For example, you may be able to enhance your advertising with banner or button display advertising, targeted emails, home page logo buttons. And, as we said above, many job boards will also allow you to search their CV database for relevant candidates. Find out what other products and services the job board offers that might help you in your online recruitment.

 

7: What deals are on offer?

It's always worth asking what special offers job boards are running or what deals they will do for you. All job boards are eager for your business and they may be willing to do a deal to get your business. And be sure to check the whatjobsite Recruiter Discount for exclusive offers. 

 

8: Who are your competitors?

You are asking the job board this question so that you will get the names of other job boards to talk to. Many times sales people will say that they really don't have any direct competitors. Obviously, that is seldom true. There are over a thousand job boards in the UK alone, so everybody has a competitor. When you get the names of some competitors, talk to them too. Doing so will give you a better idea of what job site is the best for your job ad.

 

9: Who is behind your job board?

In recent years many recruitment agencies have set up job boards. We at whatjobsite don't see anything wrong with this if it's made clear that the job board is owned and operated by a recruitment agency. Unfortunately, the relationship between the job board and the recruitment agency can be unclear or, in some cases, deceptive. Is the job board really a job board or is it, rather, simply trying to attract employers and candidates that can be used in the recruitment agency businesses. If there is any hesitation or evasion from the job board in this matter, stay well away.

 

10: Testimonials

As with any service you are buying, ask for testimonials. Do a search and see if there are reviews of the site. That being said, if you have found the site on whatjobsite then you can feel secure that we have done a lot of the due diligence for you . Every job board that we profile in our search results has been checked and verified. It's one less thing for you to worry about.

Next step? Check out these articles

• An introduction to online recruitemnt statistics for employers
  
• CV Databases: an introduction
• Job Site Products and Services
• When is a job board not a job board
• How to choose a job board

Photo: © Yuri_arcur... | Dreamstime.com

 

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