If your Job Boards disappeared tomorrow, how would you get your candidates...

If your Job Boards disappeared tomorrow, how would you get your candidates?

Obviously a hypothetical, but given continued job-board pricing hikes against the budget-cutting and uncertainty facing corporate America, I think it's a serious question for talent and sourcing acquisition leaders.

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Permalink Reply by Vikki Hawkins on November 12, 2008 at 2:45pm

Well they definitely aren't going anywhere and honestly some of the best people I have billing, I found on a job board. Now with that being said I also found them doing an archive search, hitting people who's resumes had been out there forever and just started networking with them. The two I'm thinking of have been a pure gold mine for me.

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Permalink Reply by Marianthe Verver on November 12, 2008 at 3:35pm

Even with concise job descriptions unqualified candidates greatly outnumber qualified candidates that apply to generic job boards like Monster. It is becoming labor intensive to disposition and sort through the applicants. Although I do get good leads from job boards, I cannot afford to recruit solely by the post and pray method.

I find greater success with linked in, user groups, networking groups, Boolean searches and referrals. If I am referred a candidate that has a great skill set and demeanor but not a fit for our positions, I will email them leads to find employment. Numerous fills have come from individuals who were not hired but referred others.

To address Maureen's question regarding the internet going away, our company would first be in trouble because we host webbased applications and websites. lol Aside from that, I believe to be successful you need a combination of recruiting strategies and not be reliant on just a few sources.

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Permalink Reply by Amy Hoster on November 12, 2008 at 4:33pm

Oh my I have to address the low hanging fruit comments. I understand that jobs in recruitment are not always difficult but as a brand development manager for a job board. Let me make something perfectly clear, the goal of any job board is to deliver better candidates than "low hanging fruit" if that's what you are truly getting them change something. Either change your postings or change your recruitment choices. I can only speak for myself but I WELCOME feedback, I am in the middle of a redesign because frankly our customers wanted more out of what they saw. I have a new product and I STRIVE to always give the best candidate.

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Permalink Reply by pam claughton on November 12, 2008 at 4:41pm

I don't think 'low hanging fruit' is meant to be a negative, is it? I thought it just meant that they're easy to get to. I've found some excellent candidates on the boards or from postings. All it means is that they're active.

Amy Hoster said:

Oh my I have to address the low hanging fruit comments. I understand that jobs in recruitment are not always difficult but as a brand development manager for a job board. Let me make something perfectly clear, the goal of any job board is to deliver better candidates than "low hanging fruit" if that's what you are truly getting them change something. Either change your postings or change your recruitment choices. I can only speak for myself but I WELCOME feedback, I am in the middle of a redesign because frankly our customers wanted more out of what they saw. I have a new product and I STRIVE to always give the best candidate.

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Permalink Reply by Kelly on November 12, 2008 at 6:17pm

It is an interesting question and even more interesting reading the various responses posted.

I am the founder of a job site in Australia, Six Figures www.sixfigures.com.au a premium job site for $100K+ job opportunities across all industries and professions, so the question raised attracted my interest. We are niche site and focused on integrity, transparency, quality, and providing our advertisers and job seekers (members) with a great service and experience.

As a HR and Recruitment professional and Career Coach I have worked in the industry for 12+ years both in corporate and agency. I have always found that the majority of job seekers out there are talented people. They source new employment opportunities utilizing various channels and often find the job seeking process frustrating, time wasting, degrading and various other things. We then as hirers have to ask ourselves why? Why is it so unpleasant for so many to look for employment and why is there no respect?

I am disappointed with the ‘Low Hanging Fruit’ comments as job seekers are like you and I and are great people with skills, experiences, goals and are looking to earn a living. Many job seekers I think are missed and mislabeled due to ineffective and transactional driven recruitment practices.

Let’s be realistic great people can and are sourced via print, job sites, social networking, referrals, general networking, employee referral programs and so on. It requires a strategic approach.

Job seekers can only go by what is in the job ad and far too many of these are poorly written and generic which results in people applying who may not be suitable, as from the vague nature of the job ad it is difficult for them to even determine what the job is about. I myself have been guilty of such ads in the past, you get busy, you don’t have the best client brief and so on – as a result too many sub standard ads litter job sites, recruitment sites and company careers websites! In my experience those advertisers who write great job ads and have a professional and service driven hiring processes - attract the right people. It is very much a case of Quality in and Quality out!

I know many talented people who use job sites and with my own site the amazing talent that we have registered with Six Figures is mind blowing and inspiring. If job sites are so ineffective why then do so many businesses and job seekers utilize them? Perhaps view the Harvey Nash report http://sixfiguresblog.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/harvey_nash_europ... on Executive job sites and their success. This survey provides some pretty amazing results and data around the types of people that are securing employment through job sites. Using Executive Job Sites is an important part of an increasingly large pool of executive’s job search and is only set to grow. Those who have secured jobs via job sites include 24% of CEOs, 23% MDs, 26% Directors, 24% Senior Managers and 28% of Managers.

Obviously it is a case of each to their own and selecting the right sourcing channels for you and your clients. However I would suggest that it is too easy to blame the sourcing channel when you don’t get great people – it starts with the company and the job ad and goes from there. The problem of advertisers not attracting the right people is a greater problem than the job sites.