5 Ways to Maximize Your Use of Job Boards

As the owner of more than 30 job boards, I know a thing or two about using them to recruit. Here are my five best ideas to help you get the most out of your job board recruiting experience.

1. Refresh the Date. Perhaps the most important tip I can offer. Job seekers tend to stop applying to jobs if they see its more than a week old. So as the “older” a job gets, the resume submissions will drop off. Avoid this by refreshing the date on the job posting at least once per week. Many job boards offer a way to do this yourself. If they don’t call and ask them to refresh the date for you.

2. Make sure the title & description match. I had a client post a job called “Telephone Communication Specialist” and she said it wasn’t attracting the right candidates. So I reviewed the ad and noticed the job description didn’t match the tile. It was more of a “sales” position so I had her rephrase the title to Telephone Sales Specialist. The resumes started flowing.

3. Categorize the job properly. Many times the person posting the job does not put the job in the proper category. Pay careful attention to this part. Miscategorizing a job can prevent people from applying. Changing a category mid stream sometimes can also help to give it more exposure. Some jobs are obvious but others are not.

4. Give explicit apply instructions. Make the job seeker follow exact steps to apply for that job. Explicitly tell them what to do. This will help you weed out those who can’t follow instruction. I also recommend letting them know what will happen to their resume once its received.

5. Brand the job posting. Add your logo. Many job boards will allow you to create some kind of company profile. Use it to brand your job. Briefly describe the company culture and unique benefits offered. Try to answer the question...why should you work for us? If you’ve done a podcast or video on this subject link to it.

Chris Russell is the founder and CEO of AllCountyJobs.com, LLC. He runs more than 30 niche and local job boards that serve job markets along the east coast including Connecticut, Southern NY, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and 3 Mid-Atlantic cities.

Comment by Heather R. Huhman on December 18, 2010 at 12:47pm: Hi Chris,

Great post, and great information on how to maximize the use of job boards!

Knowing that job boards turn great results, using a job SEO and marketing strategy can really broadcast your postings and reach those passive candidates who spend their time on search engines alone. Talent communities (like Cachinko) optimize your job listings to rank higher on search engines (like Google, Bing, Yahoo!) as well as post the listings to job aggregators (Simply Hired, etc.), for a two-birds-with-one-stone effect.