Job board advertising for employers

Job board advertising offers employers one of the most cost-effective and time-effective ways to recruit. However, getting job board advertising right means making sure you know what you are doing. 

Know what job you are filling

You’d be amazed how many employers begin recruiting without really knowing what job they are trying to fill. For example, an account manager in a records management company will require an entirely different set of skills than an account manager in an advertising agency. Before you begin recruiting be sure you know what job you are hiring for.

The easiest way to be clear about that is to sit down and write a job specification. Writing a job specification will help you define the tasks, duties and responsibilities of the job. It will also help you decide what skills and qualifications are absolutely necessary to do the job and those that, while not absolutely necessary, you’d really like your new employee to have. Writing a job specification will also help you get a feel for the kind of person you are looking for.

Choose the best job board

Well, this is what whatjobsite aims to help you with. You can use our search engine to find quality job boards that we think are the best in their field. You can also search for niche job boards for particular job roles, industry sectors or locations.

On the other hand, you may have found your job board on Google, or have used it before, or someone may have recommended it to you: whatever way you go about finding job boards, be sure that the one you are using is the best one for your vacancy.

You wouldn’t try to sell your car on a property website. Well, job boards are the same. Finding the right job board means finding the job board with the best audience for your vacancy. And this involves a little bit of research on your part. You are going to have to ring up the job boards and ask them about their audience. How many people of the kind you are looking for do they have? And talk to a few to get an idea of comparison. It’s a little bit of work, but it’s worth doing if you really want to fill that job.

Writing the job ad

Writing job ads for job sites is a little different to writing job ads for other media. You have to ensure that job seekers find your job on the job board. For that you’ll need to think about the “keywords” and “key phrases” that job seekers will use to search for it. And, of course, to get the people to apply for it, you’ll need to write something that makes them want to apply for it.  It’s a job advertisement you are posting not a job specification. Ads sell things. So, make sure you sell the job.

Monitoring for success

When your job is being advertised on your chosen job board, do check that it is really working. Are you getting good candidates applying? Are you getting anybody applying? If things are going wrong, find out what’s wrong and make changes. Talk to your job board account manager. They will be able to help. Luckily, job board advertising isn’t a ‘one off’ bet like a newspaper ad. You can, therefore, make changes in the middle of things and still succeed.

Responding to candidates

Be sure to respond to candidates promptly. It’d be shame to go through all this effort of recruiting on a job board and then blow it by not responding to applicants. Don’t let it drag out. You’ll create a bad feeling for your company. And remember, these candidates might just be your customers too. Treat them with respect.

Next step? Check out these articles

• When is a job board not a job board?
• What are Job Search Engines and Job Board Aggregators?
• What is a niche job board?
• An Introduction to Job Sites and Job Boards