The Whatjobsite Approved Website Criteria

Launched in 2009 and now in its third year, the Whatjobsite Approved Website initiative is designed to help recruiters like you choose quality job boards to advertise your vacancies.

The Whatjobsite Approved Website Award is given to job boards that we believe offer a quality online recruitment product and service for employer recruiters. Websites that carry the ‘Whatjobsite Approved Website’ have been audited by the whatjobsite team to ensure mark must meet the criteria set out below.

To be an approved website and carry the ‘Whatjobsite Approved Website’ mark a site:

1. must be a dedicated recruitment website and not an employer’s own corporate website or a recruitment agency’s own corporate web site. (Some recruitment agencies own and/or operate job boards that are distinct from their own corporate websites. Whatjobsite will approve these job boards if and only if it is made clear on the job board website or on the whatjobsite profile that it is owned and operated by a recruitment agency.)*
2. must be a real, stand-alone job board and not a sub site of and/or part of another recruitment website. (Many of the thousands of job boards in the UK and Ireland are part of job board networks. These are sites that advertise or syndicate the same job ads across numerous different sites. For example, xyzjobs.com might have other sites such as xyzjobsinLondon, xyzjobsinWandsworth, xyzjobsinSurrey. The Whatjobsite Team will apply its discretion in including indicative “core” job sites or job boards in such networks — once, or course, they meet the other whatjobsite standards.**
3. must carry its own vacancy inventory from different employers and recruitment agencies. (Many very new sites (or old and poor sites) advertise only jobs from recruitment agencies. Such sites offer free advertising to recruitment agency clients via recruitment job posting services in order to create the illusion of lots of jobs and a vibrant website. Similarly, other job board pull jobs from job syndication services which are not their own. Such websites are seldom a quality option for employers and will not be awarded the Whatjobsite Approved Website Award.)
4. must charge an advertising fee rather than a placement or service fee. (Some job boards advertise jobs on a placement fee basis. That is, you pay a percentage of salary when the job is filled. However, by operating in this way, such sites are effectively recruitment agencies and subject to recruitment agency standards and legislation. Whatjobsite will not approve such sites.)***
5. must provide and/or sell online vacancy advertising as a stand-alone product. (Some newspapers and trade publications offer job board advertising only if you first purchase a print ad in their publication. As this is not a stand-alone online recruitment product, Whatjobsite will not approve such sites.)
6. must offer clear and transparent pricing. (Clarity in pricing is essential for recruiters. It is not uncommon for large job board networks to charge recruiters different prices for the same product or service. Whatjobsite will only approve sites that provide clear and transparent pricing.)
7. must offer the option of an account managed service. (To be award the Whatjobsite Approved Website award job boards must provide the option of an account managed service to employers. For less expert recruiters the account managed service can make the difference between success and failure. Poor quality job boards often do not offer this service as they have neither resources nor expertise to support it. )
8. must be based in and/or have its principal audience focus in the UK and/or Ireland. (Our focus is on identifying quality job boards for recruiters and employers in the UK and Ireland. While many international job boards have presences in the UK and Ireland, Whatjobsite will only approve such websites if they have a competitively-significant and verifiable audience in the UK and/or Ireland and meet our other standards.
9. must be in compliance with web site legislation in the relevant jurisdiction. (Web businesses in the UK and Ireland are required by law to meet certain legal standard and provide information such as company number, registered office address etc. on their website. Only sites that are compliant will be approved.)
10. must provide full contact information such as address, email and telephone number on its own site. (Whatjobsite requires this so that you as an employer can easily contact the site if you need to. )
11. must have been in operation for at least 12 months (Whatjobsite requires a job board to have been in operation for at least 12 months)
12. and whatjobsite must be able to verify to its satisfaction all information supplied to it by the job board. ****

To be clear, Whatjobsite Limited, may charge job boards for the audit work for the Whatjobsite Approved Website Award. However, irrespective of charges, only sites that meet the criteria are award the Whatjobsite Approved Website.

To see all sites that have received the Whatjobsite Approved Website 2012, click here.

* On occasion whatjobsite may include job boards in its search results that do not meet all of our job board criteria and/or do not participate in the ‘Whatjobsite Approved Website’ initiative. Even though these sites are not approved, we include them in order to offer you a better picture of the advertising options available. However, we identify their status clearly in the profile page.

** The whatjobsite A to Z Job Board Directory is separate to the whatjobsite search results. We include many more job sites in the A to Z directory in order to provide you with a more complete picture of sites available even if we cannot recommend these sites. We advise all recruiters to conduct due diligence when choosing a job board.

*** Free sites do not charge an advertising fee but we are happy to approve them if they meet our other job board standards.

**** We charge job sites a small fee for inclusion on whatjobsite and participation in the whatjobsite approved initiative.  

The whatjobsite team.