Keys to job board success for employers

In these recessionary times many employers are choosing to avoid the sky-high costs of recruitment consultants and to recruit for themselves. Many of them are choosing to use job boards to recruit.

As simple and straightforward as job boards are, however, too many employers are still failing to use job boards effectively.

To find out how employers could make better use of job boards we surveyed job boards in the United Kingdom to find out. Our survey comprised a list of twenty typical elements of job board advertising which we asked the job boarders to rank as ‘very important’, ‘important’, ‘no so important’, and ‘unimportant’. What follows is the combined wisdom of some of the best and most popular job boards in the UK that we hope will offer real benefits to employers recruiting on job boards.*

 

What is Very Important

Clear Job Title

This was the one thing that all job boarders thought was very important for employers to get right. A clear job title allows candidates to find your job. Candidates look for job by using popular job titles. Candidates do not search for jobs with strange, peculiar or opaque job titles. So don’t use strange, peculiar or opaque job titles. If your job can be called something straightforward call it something straightforward. If you need to explain certain peculiarities of the job to show how it is different, use the job description to do so. But give candidates a clear job title so they know what it is.

Good Copy

Again, most job boarders considered writing good job advertising to be very important and it’s where we got the most feedback from them. The most common complaint from job boarders was that too many employers think of job posting as simply a matter of cutting and pasting a job description onto a job board. It’s not. It’s job advertising, not job descriptioning. You are selling something. So don’t describe it; sell it!

What’s more, don’t think of the job ad as a classified ad in a newspaper. You have plenty of space to describe what the job is and the person you are looking for. Think broader too. This is a web document so include relevant links that will enhance your job ad. Are you on Facebook? Got a Twitter account? While these things might not be directly relevant to the actual recruitment, they allow candidates to get a better picture of the kind of company you are.

Finally, check the ad for the obvious things like spelling and odd bits of HTML code. It’s amazing how many job ads on job boards are a mush of strange HTML code.

Specific job location

Location is another element of a job ad that job boarder consider very important. If someone lives in Hull, they will search for “jobs in Hull.” Unfortunately, candidates don’t search for “nationwide jobs”. And they can be even more location specific than that. If someone lives in North London, they’ll probably want to search for jobs in North London and be averse to going ‘souf of the river.’ Be sure to add a specific job location.

 

What is important

Apply online option

There are few things more frustrating for job boarders than poor application processes by employers. Too many employers ask candidates to apply on their website but then don’t direct candidates to the correct place or job on their own website. Candidates will simply not go searching for your job —especially since they have found it already.

Even employers that do direct candidates to the right place often have hugely complex application processes. The web is all about making things easier. Sadly, it’s a fact that redirecting candidates away from the job board to apply will result in a significant fall off in possible candidate applications. If you do decide to have candidates apply off the job board, make the application process as easy as possible for them. In web terms, keep the number of clicks to a minimum.

Apply by email option

While most job boards prefer to have candidates apply by web form on their own website (because they can then track those applications), they are also happy for employers to include an email application option. Indeed, most job boards consider providing this option very important. Email is simple and straightforward for candidates. It takes a candidate no time to rustle up a covering letter and fire over their CV.

Specific Salary

Nine times out of ten, when a job ad is failing on a job board it’s because there is no salary on it. There may be many reasons for not including a salary on a job ad (negotiation positioning or internal politics): but whatever the reason it’s a bad idea. Candidates nearly always search by salary. Candidates don’t ever search for “competitive salary.” Having a salary allows candidates to find the job and at the same time determine the level of the job and screen themselves in or out of the application. So, not only will you get more candidates applying for your job if you have a salary on it, you’ll also get more relevant candidates applying for your job.

Include a logo

This is an important aspect of a job ad that is too often overlooked by employers. Many of the jobs on job boards are recruitment agency ‘jobs’ and when candidates apply for these ‘jobs’ they discover that the ‘job’ has ‘just this moment been filled.’ In reality, of course, there was probably no job at all and a recruitment consultant was simply trying to pull in CVs. It’s a sad and unfortunate practice.

Candidates like logos, therefore, because logos let them know quickly that the job is from a ‘real’ company (i.e. not a recruitment agency).  A real job from a real employer is very attractive to candidates. Indeed, anecdotal evidence suggests that putting a logo on a job ad will result in a doubling of the number of people looking at it.

Career Opportunities

Job boarders say that it is important to outline the career opportunities of the job. Candidates do like to know where the job is going. If you are looking for someone to grow and develop with your company, let them know. If you are planning the development of your team, let them know. Money is important but career progression is important too. The job ad is a sales process: you are selling the job, your company and, in a way, a possible future for someone.

Include benefits

Is there BUPA? Gym? Car? Pension? Many job boarders consider including such benefits as being important for candidates. Healthcare and pension schemes can be important for many senior people, while gym and cars might be convincing for more junior staff. While a car may be a necessity for a job, it’s still a big perk for people. Salary, therefore, is only half the story for many candidates.

Qualifications

If you need candidates to have qualifications to do a job, be sure to mention it. Firstly, qualified candidates tend to search for jobs by qualification. For example, an ACA accountant will search for ACA jobs; a CIMA accountant for CIMA jobs. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, specifying a qualification will allow candidates to screen themselves out so you’ll get fewer unsuitable candidates. In recessionary times like these, when the number of applicants for every job can be overwhelming, anything that helps to reduce the number of irrelevant applications should be considered.

 

What is not so important

Training options

Passing into the realm of what job boarders consider “not so important” we come to training options. Most job boards marked this as a not so important thing to include. However, there was a subtle difference of opinion between certain types of job boards.

Some specialist job board thought that including training was very important. This was especially the case for the professional websites. Clearly, in accounting, in-work training for ACA, ACCA or CIMA qualifications is essential for many candidates. Indeed, it is the only way that such candidates will ever attain their qualification. For these candidates, training, study leave and fees waivers will be real benefits for them and should be included in the job ad.

Company size (e.g. whether they are a large or small company)

Most job boarders said mentioning or promoting the size of your company was no so important for recruitment success. For all the candidates that like the security and assurance of working for a large company there will be an equal number who will prefer working for a smaller one.

Corporate profile page

Corporate profile pages are, effectively, brochure pages on a job board where your company gets to profile itself as a recruiter. A corporate profile page is, therefore, like a mini-careers site on the job board. Intriguingly, most of the job boarders we surveyed said that they considered corporate profile pages no so important to job advertising success.

In talking to job boarders we discovered that while having a corporate profile was a ‘nice to have’ it wasn’t a ‘must have’. Indeed, while it does offer another option to sell your company, there are few things that will make people actually apply for a job more than a well-written job ad. Job board advertising starts and finishes with the job ad.

Screening questions

The overwhelming majority of job boarders said that having screening questions was not so important for recruitment success. When you think about it, getting candidates applying for your jobs has nothing to do with screening. Rather, screening has to do with getting the wrong candidates not to apply for your job.

However, while screening questions might not be essential for recruitment success, they can be essential for recruitment productivity. The fewer inappropriate candidates you have to deal with, the better and more productive your recruitment campaign will be. The important thing to remember is to keep the screening process simple and straightforward.

 

What is unimportant

Include a telephone number

With the majority of applications being conducted online, having a telephone contact will be unimportant for most job board recruitment advertising. One proviso we would suggest: at the very senior level it is often a good idea to provide candidates with the opportunity to have an initial confidential talk to someone about the job.

Mention equal opportunities

Many public sector organizations mention their equal opportunities credentials in their job ads. In expressing something about your recruitment brand, it might be effective but for the job boarders this is unimportant to the success or otherwise of a job ad.

Reporting lines

This is a technical internal HR element of a job and unless there is something unique or telling about the reporting lines, most job boarders believe it will have little impact on the success of your job advertising.

Request covering letter

Most job boarders considered this ‘no so important’ for successful job board advertising. Indeed, if job board advertising is about getting the most number of quality candidates applying for your job, then requesting a covering letter should have no impact.

However, from the recruitment evaluation process, a covering letter can be an effective tool in screening and rating candidates. So, while not important for job board advertising success, a covering letter can be a very handy tool in the recruitment process.

Include holidays

Unless you’re giving lots and lots of holidays, it’s probably best not to mention them.

Postal application option

Most job boarders think this is positively detrimental to recruitment success. Why would one advertise a job on a job board and then ask people to apply by post? It’s simply unproductive and an unnecessary hurdle to recruitment. Recruitment is now an online game.

 

Conclusion

What is interesting about the results is that there is nothing especially technical or difficult about getting job board advertising right. Effectively, success rests on writing good punchy job ad and making the application process simple. We hope that the results of this survey of job boards will be of use in your recruitment advertising. Good luck with your hiring.

For more information on online recruitment and job board advertising visit our Recruiter Zone.

The survey was conducted as part of the Whatjobsite Job Board Survey 2009. 43 job boarders participated in our survey