There are all sorts of ways that recruiters find candidates for placements. Networking, career events, referrals, cold calls… but online job boards are still a key player in the process. Do you ever feel like your job board isn’t producing the results you’d like? Wish there were ways to drive more candidate response from the job board?
There are a few things you can do to ramp up your job board’s effectiveness. And they’re simpler than you may think. Let’s take a look at four key ways to drive more candidate response from your firm’s job board.
#1: Think of postings as advertisements, not job descriptions.
It’s easy to think of the postings on your job board as job descriptions. But don’t make the mistake of thinking that your job board postings are only job descriptions, because the truth is they’re more than that. They’re advertisements.
Job board postings are advertisements for the job itself, for the company, and for your staffing firm. Think about what makes the posting stand out for the candidate, rather than thinking about what the job entails. Candidates want to know what’s in it for them, rather than only seeing a laundry list of the job requirements and responsibilities. Does the role offer three-day weekends? Opportunities for advancement? Advertise what’s great about the position, and you’ll see more response from those postings.
#2: Focus on the candidate, not your staffing firm.
Remember to keep the focus of job-board postings on the candidate themselves as well as the employer, rather than on your staffing firm. Candidates want to know about the employer and the opportunity, not about the firm presenting it. When writing job postings for your job board, consider your audience: it’s the candidates, so direct the post to them.
#3: Keep it clean.
Rule number one for crafting job postings for your job board: keep them short and sweet. Between 300 and 800 words or so is the magic range. Longer than that, and candidates tend to lose interest because they’re not able to get to the meat of your posting quickly enough. Shorter than that, and there’s too little information to intrigue a candidate.
In addition to length, a few best practices can keep your job postings clean and enticing to candidates. Use headings and bullet points to make the post easy to scan. Avoid industry-specific language or colloquialisms that could throw certain readers off.
#4: Invite the candidate to the job board throughout your site.
The final tip for driving more candidate response from your job board is a simple one: make sure you’re inviting the candidate to the job board at multiple points throughout your site, and on social media. It’s not enough to simply have a job board and hope candidates find it – you must drive them to it repeatedly. It’s only when you encourage traffic to your job board that you’ll start to see the results you want.
Keep job postings clean and short, think of them as advertisements rather than job descriptions, and focus on the candidates instead of your firm. And remember to invite candidates to your job board repeatedly through your site and social media channels. Taking these simple steps will drive more candidate response from your job board and boost your placement numbers as a result.
Need a better job board?
Haley Marketing’s industry-leading career portal delivers a great user experience and is designed to convert more job seekers to applicants. If your staffing firm’s job board isn’t delivering the results you need, let’s talk – we can help!
Learn more about recruitment marketing:
4 Ways to Get More ROI from Job Board Spend (7-minute educational video)
Recruitment Marketing Tune-Up (1-hour webinar with ASA passive CE credit)
