Should recruiters start their own job board?

Lately my job board consulting business is getting calls from a particular audience: third party recruiters. Usually it's a one or two person team that has been recruiting for many years who now want to broaden their offerings through a job board to serve whatever niche they work in. They also want to make more money which a job board can be good for in terms of a supplemental income.

I have always felt that a recruiting firm would benefit from starting their own board. At the very least it would help raise your profile in the industry you serve, attract more candidates to your database and earn you money from occasional postings. Plus an online service runs 24/7 and can become a passive income source depending on what niche you are in.

There is software out now that is cheap and easy to use and you can even combine a job board with a social component by utilizing services like Ning. In other words you can build a focused community with jobs in it that you can tap into for marketing. Simply combine it with a free job board service like Jobamatic and off you go.

Think about it. Companies are creating their own talent communities. Why cant recruiting firms create their own too?

Make no mistake, it will cost you time and money should you wish to start your own. You can create and launch a site fairly cheaply but you'll need to invest in some marketing dollars to get the board off to a good start.

I'd be curious to hear from the Recruiting Blogs community if any of you have your own board and what your experience has been. And if you are thinking of starting one I suggest you contact me for guidance. You can find me at jobboardsecrets.com or by phone at 800-399-6651 ext 101.

Comment by Jeff Dickey-Chasins on August 3, 2011 at 11:07am: Chris, I have worked with a number of recruiters viaJob Board Doctor that went on to launch job boards. Most have had reasonable degrees of success. No millionaires, but some decent income. The key to success seems to be a deep knowledge of the niche they target, and a willingness to treat the job board like a business - not a hobby.

Comment by Chris Russell on August 3, 2011 at 11:11am: @jeff well said: "willingness to treat the job board like a business - not a hobby"

Comment by David Johnston on August 3, 2011 at 11:24am: Chris, I would say that 80% of enquiries in my last role were from recruiters. In fact if you ask Robbie Cowling he would readily say that recruiters should have a job board. The problem I used to find was that a large number thought that they could launch a job board and that advertisers and visitors would come. Many succeeded, but there a lot of zombie sites in the UK, which were set up by recruiters, who thought a JB would manage itself. Ironically Jobg8 makes it very easy for a job board to launch with vacancies, but this can mean that owners don't focus on marketing and actually running the board. As Jeff said if you treat it as a hobby it will more than likely fail.

Comment by Chris Russell on August 3, 2011 at 11:32am: Anyone can start a job board but not everyone can make it work. It definitely takes some knowledge of running an online business. So you have to be comfortable with web marketing toold and techniques. If you are a "web savvy" recruiter you have a better chance over those who are not.

Comment by Jeff Dickey-Chasins on August 3, 2011 at 11:34am: Also helps to be a good salesperson. And to work your *ss off!

Comment by Dr Linda Pakshong on August 3, 2011 at 1:39pm: Can I ask a silly question? Would you potentially lose a significant no of placements & normal full recruitment fee, if yr clients search your jobboard database, post jobs & make placement themselves, for a fraction of the fee? Is that a significant risk?

Comment by Chris Russell on August 3, 2011 at 3:11pm: @Dr Linda, there is a small chance of cannibalizing placements but you can launch the board as close or as far away from your main business as you want. One of my clients likes to position the job board as a secondary (less expensive) offering to his clients. The job board can be a totally separate brand from your main recruiting business. Or you can align it more closely.

Comment by Patricia Bogacheva on August 4, 2011 at 10:01am: Hi Chris,

Thank you for asking this question about recruiters creating their own job board.
Today it is our case. We have created “jobsinvision.com” simply because we had a need in our head-hunting firm that was to reach candidates and recruiters outside our country more easily than using only our network.
The idea also came from the fact that customers don’t want to pay high fees anymore for recruitments, and having the opportunity to have a tool for the research that allows them to interview candidates over the world became necessary.
We believe that Internet tools are increasingly used and that recruiters and candidates needed an intelligent tool keeping the confidentiality as a headhunting firm.
We wanted to create an independent company from our recruitment firm to avoid confusion between the two activities.

We realize that it is different from the approach of the headhunter who clearly defines the potential and capabilities of a candidate to integrate the client company, but we consider that a job board must be a tool for recruiters, headhunters and HR and if it is developed by a recruiter who is familiar with his job, the job board will correspond to the needs of recruiters and candidates.