The dangers of free job boards for recruiters

Free job boards don’t cost you anything so what can be wrong with them? A free job board has got to be worth a shot, right? Alas, no. In this article we show you why free isn’t always good and free job boards seldom are.

Why are job boards free?

The job board sector is full of sites that allow you to advertise jobs for nothing. You can post all the jobs you like; review their candidates; and use their applicant tracking system – and all for free. But why? Why do they give away their service for free? It’ll come as no surprise to learn that the reason most free job boards are free is that they aren’t very good.

New job boards are free

It’s quite common for new job boards to offer free periods and trials. This, of course, makes sense. By offering free advertising to recruiters the new job board is allowing people to trial their site and services. And some clients might eventually spend some money.

What’s more, by offering free advertising such job boards attract more job ads and, by attracting more job ads, they attract more candidates. The more candidates they have visiting the site, the better. In the end, with lots of candidates using their sites, recruiters might just pay to advertise.

However, the reason new job boards are free is that they currently have few candidates. So, it goes without saying, new job boards that are free are seldom a good option for the recruiter.

Bad job boards are free

At the other end of the scale you have old job boards that are free. Once more one has to wonder why an established brand and business is offering free advertising. But once more, it’ll be no surprise to learn that such job boards just aren’t very good. If they have been around a long time and are still offering free advertising, there is a reason why nobody will pay for them: they just aren’t very good.

Zombie job boards are free –most of the times

Just like zombies in the movies, Zombie Job Boards look like real job boards. They carry lots of jobs like real live job boards. They have lots of different clients like real live job boards. But, in reality, they are dead job boards and aren’t very good.

Because it costs very little to keep a job board going, many effectively defunct job boards continue to persist on the internet and in search engines. What’s more, most of the time, the jobs they carry are all carried for free via one of the automated job posting services.

The danger of Zombie Job Boards is that while they look like live job boards, they aren’t. While they look like they are carrying lots of jobs, they are only doing so because listing is offered for free. Worst of all about Zombie Job Boards is that, while they will offer free advertising to recruitment consultants, should you advertise on them as an employer it’s unlikely that you’ll get free advertising. And, if recruitment consultants won’t pay for them, why should you?

The free product isn’t any good

Many job boards give away free products on their site because they simply aren’t very good and hope that you will purchase a “better” paid-for product. For example, some job boards will allow you to advertise jobs for free; but to add a logo or additional text or even to make the job ad work effectively you are “recommended” to buy some additional product. Again, the free option isn’t very good.

It’s not really free at all

What you may also find is that the “free” advertising actually depends on your buying something else. That is, you might have to buy an ad in an associated trade magazine or newspaper. Of course, this is not ethical (and probably not legal) but it does happen. So when you are offered “free advertising” be sure to check exactly what is free – and what isn’t.

Poor customer service

Ninety-nine times out of a hundred if a job board is free you will find that the only customer service is online via a web form. There’s no telephone number because the job board doesn’t want you ringing up. Why? Because either they don’t have anybody who can help you or they don’t want to deal with clients (in order to keep their costs down). Whichever the case, it’s a poor option for quality recruitment.

There is no quality assurance

In general, if a site is free it is unlikely to have any quality control on its content. All kinds of jobs will appear. Do you ever wonder why free job boards are full of candidate scams and “work-from-home” rip-offs? Nobody is checking the site or what goes on it. Do you really want your company being a fellow-traveller of recruitment scammers and fraudsters? Besides, the truth is that quality candidates don’t like these sites. Again, it might be free, but it’s not very good.

And it does cost: in time

A free job board might not cost you any money but it will cost you time. You’re going to have to register with it, upload your ad, check your settings, make your edits and monitor your response. Although you haven’t spent a bean on the ad, think of all the time you are using (or more correctly, wasting).

If the site is any of the ones we mentioned above, it’s unlikely to be very good anyway. And you’ll probably have to post the ad on a paid-for site in the end. Save yourself this wasted time and choose a quality job board.

What’s wrong with free job boards

The truth of the matter is that if you are in business to provide a compelling service for clients, somebody is going to have to pay for it. And the reality of the matter is that if you are good at providing a service, people will be happy to pay for it. Job boards are no different. You pay for quality.

Choose your free job board carefully

There are some free job boards out there that are very good. We even have a few as recommended sites on whatjobsite. But most of the time a job board is free because it is too new to be any good, it is old but still not very good, it is not really free at all, it offers a poor service or it is just down-right dangerous to your recruitment brand. Recruitment is about the single most important thing you can do for your business. So, if you are going to choose a free job board, choose a good one. The old adage applies: “if you pay peanuts you’ll get monkeys.”

Next step? Check out these articles

• How to choose a job site for your vacancy
• Ten questions every employer should ask a job board
• Generalist job sites versus Specialist or Niche job sites
• Combining job boards for recruitment success
• How to choose the right niche job board