Maximize Your Job Board Recruiting With These 7 Strategies
When my team was recruiting for a senior-level marketing position, the free job board postings we were using weren’t cutting it. We were getting flooded with irrelevant applications (sound familiar?).
We switched gears and invested in a sponsored listing on LinkedIn. Not only did the quality of applicants improve, but we were able to speak with three highly qualified candidates within the week. Did it cost more than the free boards? Yes, but it paid off in the form of speed and an experienced, highly skilled hire.
Job boards are a cornerstone of recruiting, but they’re not the one-and-done solution they once were. Relying on job boards without a well-defined approach can lead to wasted time, missed opportunities, and that avalanche of unqualified candidates most of us know all too well.
To get the most out of job boards in today’s market, you have to be tactical and use them as part of a broader hiring strategy. Let’s look at seven ways to use job boards to maximize efficiency, expand your reach and increase the quality of the candidates you attract.
1. Choosing the Right Job Boards
Not all job boards are equal. Some are geared toward certain industries, like sales and technology, while others are a better fit for creative and independent roles, like writers and designers. Selecting the right platform can make or break your recruiting success.
General vs. niche job boards
Large, general job boards like LinkedIn, Indeed, and ZipRecruiter offer a board reach, making them great for high-volume and entry-level hiring. Niche boards focus on specific industries or roles, like AngelList for startups or Dribble for designers, can help you reach more targeted talent pools.
Do your research to see which platform is right for you. One trick I use is taking a look at the number of search results that come up when you look for similar jobs in your industry. This will tell you what the competition is like. You can also research average conversion rates employers get from recruiting on different sites. This information is easily available on Google, and it will help you out in the long run.
Related: The Best Places to Post Jobs to Maximize Reach
Candidate habits
Next, spend time learning about where your target candidates are most active. Tech professionals may gravitate toward Stack Overflow Jobs, while healthcare workers often frequent Health eCareers. Your current employees can be a great source of intel about where they searched for jobs and discovered their current position.
Balancing free vs. paid postings
Free job boards can offer exposure, but as I touched on earlier, they don’t always provide the best results. Incorporating paid postings (sometimes called promoted or featured listings) into your strategy can increase visibility and ensure your opening gets in front of a more relevant audience. Evaluate your budget and experiment with a mix of free and paid listings to find the most cost-effective strategy.
2. Writing Job Descriptions That Convert
Your job ad copy is extremely important. It’s often the first impression a candidate will have of your company. If you just paste a couple paragraphs of text like the job description, it’s not going to catch a lot of attention. Not to mention that the best candidates are discerning–they’re looking for something more than run-of-the-mill openings. A clear, engaging job post can significantly impact the quality of applications you attract.
Crafting an engaging job post
Avoid bland, generic language and focus on writing in a way that speaks directly to your ideal candidate. If you’re a modern company built by millennials, include that in your copy. If you offer certain benefits other companies don’t offer, play that up in your description. Be specific, not vague. Here’s an example.
Vague: Great company culture and benefits!
Specific: Growing, collaborative workplace with full health, vision, and dental coverage.
Remember, candidates are looking for a job, but the best ones want to work for a company they’re excited about. This is truly an ad for your organization, and you should treat it as such.
Related: How to Write a Job Description
SEO best practices to increase visibility
To ensure your job posting gets found, follow SEO best practices like you would when building a website.
Just like on Google, job boards use keywords to help rank the different jobs and display them to the correct audience. Spend some time researching what it is people are searching for within your industry. This may be things like, “SEO content manager” or “sales recruiter.” Whatever is most popular–and most relevant to the job you’re advertising–will help you rank on the first few pages of the job board. This is important because most people don’t continue looking after the first few pages. Use these popular keywords throughout your job copy so that the boards know how to rank your job listing.
Avoid jargon that candidates aren’t likely to search for. Phrases like “marketing rockstar” don’t just sound cliche, they’re things no one is typing into a job board when they’re job searching. Instead, be direct, including frequently searched terms like the position title, years of experience and location. Location is important even for jobs that are remote, as many job seekers filter by location.
Related: How to Use SEO for Job Postings to Increase Visibility
Avoid common job description mistakes
Avoid these missteps that can drive candidates away from your postings.
- Being too vague. The right candidates can’t apply without understanding what the job entails. Give specific details about the duties and expectations for the role.
- Overloading the requirements. We’re seeing more and more companies opt to loosen rigid requirements on things like education and years of experience. Instead, focus on the tangible skills required to do the job and the performance milestones the right candidate will need to meet.
- Neglecting your employer brand. Avoid bland postings by infusing your company’s values, mission, and culture into the job description.
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3. Leveraging Job Board Features
Job boards offer a range of tools to help you refine your search and reach top candidates faster. Be sure you’re using every available feature to get the most from your listing.
Sponsored job posts vs. organic reach
We’ve seen a number of clients go for the cheapest option when posting on job boards and then come to us asking why they’re getting bottom-of-the-barrel candidates. In these cases, the old saying holds true: you get what you pay for. Spending money wisely can help your listing be viewed by higher-quality candidates and help you reach targeted professionals for hard-to-fill roles.
If you can afford it, spend the money on a featured listing because this can get anywhere from four to ten times the normal amount of applicants as a non-paid listing. Some job boards will also promote sponsored jobs on third-party websites, which allows other users outside of the job board to see the listing. This is the best route to go if you want the most qualified applicants.
Proactive sourcing with resume databases
Many job boards come with access to massive resume databases. If you’re not taking a look at these databases, you’re missing out on a big opportunity to source candidates rather than waiting for them to apply proactively.
Just a month or two ago, one of my recruiters was using such a database and came across a profile that seemed like a perfect fit for one of our open financial roles. The candidate hadn’t been active in months, but my recruiter decided to reach out anyway. Lo and behold, the candidate had forgotten he’d made a profile on the site but was more than happy to take a call with us to hear about a new opportunity.
Make no mistake, combing through these resume databases takes work, but it can pay off. Use Boolean search techniques to whittle down the list to certain skills, industries, and experience levels. There are also a number of AI-powered tools that can comb through job board databases for you.
Listen: How to Use Artificial Intelligence Tools for Sourcing and Screening
How to use filters
One of the problems with job boards is that there are so many recruits. People who apply to your job can do so without any problem, even if they’re not qualified. Thus it is important to use the correct filtering questions.
To make sure you aren’t getting resumes that aren’t applicable or qualified for your job, you need to be sure you use filters appropriately. Make sure you have enough filtering questions on your job application so you’re only getting qualified applicants. Some of these questions can be:
- How many years of experience in the JOB INDUSTRY do you have?
- What’s the highest level of education you have attained?
- How familiar are you with XYZ?
Once you have a few of these questions in place, you’ll narrow your applicant pool significantly. But, if you’ve forgotten to add filtering questions before you made your job ad, you can still use filters when sorting through resumes. Most every job board allows you to filter by education, job experience level, and so forth. You should always use these to your advantage.
4. Optimizing for Mobile and User Experience
An overwhelming 89% of job seekers report using their phone to search for jobs. This means companies must make it easy for them to find openings and apply on the go. Optimizing for mobile can dramatically increase your reach and reduce candidate drop-offs.
Make job descriptions mobile-friendly
Keep job descriptions succinct and to the point. Use bullet points to improve readability. Compare different job boards to ensure you’re using one that’s easy to navigate on a phone. When your posting is ready to publish, test it on a variety of devices to confirm it’s easy to read across screen sizes.
Simplify the application process
A lengthy or complicated application process can drive candidates away. When a client comes to us complaining of a low application completion rate, this is one of the first things my team checks. We often find that completing an application requires clicking through multiple screens, duplicating information multiple times, or entering information that’s not necessary for an initial screening.
Combat this by paring down the required fields to only what’s necessary for you to make an initial assessment. Better yet, allow candidates to apply with their LinkedIn profile or via resume upload (but don’t then ask them to enter the same information from their resume on another page!). Upon submission, send an email notification to confirm their application has been received and communicate next steps.
5. Tracking and Analyzing Performance
To maximize your job board recruiting success, you need to monitor performance and make data-driven decisions.
Key metrics to monitor
Here are the top metrics my team keeps an eye on for all of our job board listings:
- Click to apply rate: How many candidates apply after viewing your posting
- Dropoff rate: The number of candidates who begin an application but bounce before completing it
- Time to fill: How long it takes to fill a position
- Source effectiveness: Identifies which job boards produce the most interviews and/or hires
- Candidate quality: Assesses how well the candidates you’re getting meet the qualifications for the job
Related: How to Leverage Recruiting Metrics to Improve Your Hiring Process
A/B testing
It’s a cardinal sin to publish a job posting and come back 30 days later. Who knows what’s happening with your listing during that time? Instead, A/B test different variables like the post title, job description, employee value proposition, publishing time, and promotion strategy to see what resonates most with candidates.
Adjust based on the data
If a particular job board or posting isn’t getting traction or delivering quality candidates, don’t be afraid to make a change. Reallocate your budget or experiment with a different platform to find what works best, always being mindful to rely on analytics to guide your decisions.
6. Integrating Job Boards with Other Recruiting Channels
You shouldn’t use job boards in a vacuum. To truly optimize your reach, integrate them into a multi-channel recruiting strategy that includes social media, employee referrals, direct sourcing, and recruiting events.
Using social media with job boards for maximum exposure
Social media and job boards work great when used together. When you publish new postings, share them to platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, X, and Instagram. Encourage your employees to do the same to expand your reach. They can even personally tag contacts who they think would be a good fit for your openings.
Connecting job boards with your ATS
Most applicant tracking systems (ATS) offer the ability to integrate with the leading job boards. This increases efficiency and cuts down on a lot of the manual work involved with using job boards. For example, when you link your ATS to a platform like Indeed or LinkedIn, you can auto-publish to multiple boards at once, organize applications that come in, and track candidate progress as they move through the various phases of your hiring funnel. You can also see all of your hiring analytics in one place.
7. Avoiding Common Pitfalls
Even seasoned recruiters can fall into common job board traps. Here are some of the biggest mistakes to avoid.
Overposting on too many platforms
While it’s tempting to post anywhere and everywhere, this can backfire. Too much exposure dilutes your efforts, brings in irrelevant applications, and makes it harder to track results. Instead, focus on a handful of platforms at any given time and monitor their performance. Then you can make changes in a strategic way based on what is and isn’t working.
Ignoring employer branding in job posts
Every job posting is a reflection of your company. Make sure it’s a positive one by incorporating your mission, values, culture and employee value proposition, all of which add up to form your employer brand. A strong employer brand not only makes your job listings more recognizable, but contributes to a more positive candidate and employee experience.
Failing to follow up with applicants
For the best results, make sure you contact applicants before your job listing expires. You may think you have a really good group of recruits, but by the time you interview them, they may not be the best fit for the job. Instead, contact applicants throughout the entire process. You should be interviewing while the job posting is still up so you can decide whether or not you need to find more candidates or whether you may need to change something on the listing based on an applicant’s interview answers.
Not tweaking your post
To really get the best benefit out of your job board listing, you also need to keep your post updated constantly. Don’t list your job and then wait until the listing expires before you check out potential candidates or make adjustments to the copy. You should check out this on a weekly, if not daily, basis. If you only get a few resumes the first couple of days, then you may need to reevaluate your posting. It could be that it’s lacking the proper keywords or that you need to pay for it to be featured.
If you’re getting many candidates and finding not all of them are qualified, you may need to redo your filters and listing to be more selective. You only know this if you keep your listing updated, so be sure to check it often.
Will job boards lead to a hire for every position that you post? Probably not. Oftentimes, it takes a few postings and some patience before you find a reputable candidate. But is recruiting on job boards worth it? Yes! If you follow the tips above and avoid the mistakes I’ve outlined, you’ll have success in reaching new talent pools and speeding up your hiring process.
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