Attracting Gen Y/X Candidates- Job Portal Style…

It’s pretty rare that I jump up and proclaim a product’s merits from the rooftop. However, once in a while, I use something that’s so intuitive, so easy to use, and so effective, that I have to say something.

First, let me say this. How many job portals or jobsites do you like? One? Two? Any? There are not many jobsites that make a candidate or a talent pro sit up and take notice. For a small company, a well-manned intern blog might do the trick, but the staff has to be there 24/7 to engage. Many larger companies settle for the large, legacy sites that leave a job seeker more frustrated than engaged. You know the type: upload your resume, copy and paste your resume, enter your first name, last name, SSN, whoops, you’ve encountered an error, please start the 35 minute process all over again with no assurances that your resume will even make it into the hands of a living, breathing human who gives a flying burrito.

That’s why I think a SaaS like StandoutJobs “Reception” is such a fantastic solution for companies large and small. I’ve mentioned the service before here and here. But, since leaving the third party world and entering the corporate line of work, I’ve discovered that the customized job portal service has more to offer than I orginally thought.

First off, unlike other portals in a box, Reception allows you to fully customize the site, in-house, with an easy click and go interface. Your colors, your pictures, your logo. Very nice. The site is a complete extension of your employer brand and rarely shouts SOJ! You can then take the SEO optimized web address and have it fully housed within your corporate site. Oh, any jobs you post will be forwarded to free sites like Indeed.com (automatically) and to paid sites that target your market directly like Dice.com (optional).

Second, it functions as a de facto ATS, allowing you to bookmark sourced resumes with the Talent Scout bookmarklet and keeping tabs of all applicants by name, job applied for, steps taken and so forth. Anyone authorized to view the candidates can go through and vote “yea” or “nay” on the candidates and add notes about thoughts, phone interviews etc. Also nice are both the auto-reply feature to let applicants know their resume is being reviewed and the email templates you can customize for each job.

But, the best part of Reception is that it lives up to its name. When the candidates come to your site, they are greeted with photos, videos, live chat, blog entries and anything else you can think of to promote working for your company. Benefits are neatly listed along with special notes about each job you are trying to fill. You can also keep potential candidates notified about jobs yet to come with RSS feeds.

There are lots of other features that I have yet to explore. My point is, with all the talk about community and so many companies trying hard to project a “young ‘uns welcome here” sign, StandoutJobs offers a tremendous tool at a very small price tag. My bet is that medium sized companies will get the most out of it, as it lends itself nicely to a small HR team being in communication. However, it’s completely useful as a tool for a small business as well, keeping everything web based and easy to access, while allowing a small company to advertise intangibles such as culture and flex time. I am thinking the market for big companies will be as an alternative job site, to capture top shelf talent, the type that knows she shouldn’t have to enter her mother’s maiden name or take a typing test five times to secure a phone interview. But that’s just my market analysis, what do you think?