I have been asked by clients and former employers what job boards I’d recommend they use. You’d think as a sourcer, with 10 plus years experience, I’d have an answer that I’d just whip out of my back pocket! I don’t! You’ve got to look at these job boards from three perspectives:
1. Is your emphasis posting?
2. Is your emphasis searching the resume database?
3. Is your emphasis the job seekers perspective/experience?
If you’re talking the Big 3 (Monster, CareerBuilder, HotJobs), you’ve got to give ’em a test run. With
that in mind, your job board rep is your friend. Granted, he’s your friend that wants to score a sale, but most times, he will work with you to figure out if their site is the one for you. I’ve done test postings, test searches, etc. to see which sites work best for me. I love Monster’s resume database. It has always been my go-to source, as far as job boards are concerned. But, with that being said, I’ve also been a customer of HotJobs and Careerbuilder. I’ve not been as successful with them, but HotJobs certainly did deliver for me from the job posting perspective, when I used them several years ago pre-Yahoo.
Then you’ve got your niche sites – there are certainly a slew of those! Dice is one of my preferred sites in the niche space. I haven’t used it since I came to AIRS, but before that, I thought it was great for sourcing my Engineering and IT candidates. Dice has refreshable job slots, so I could update those jobs every day if I wanted to, and I did! Apply the same investigative energy to your niche job boards as you would your Big 3. You’ll find niche boards for every career path under the sun. Check them out, and do a demo before you sink any of your recruiting dollars into them. And be direct with your rep – if the site’s not working for you – tell them! They appreciate the feedback.
And what about diversity job boards? Don’t forget those! There are so many, you need to incorporate those as well into your recruiting strategy. Don’t just use them to get a receipt to say "I did my diversity recruiting this year" – really use them! You can go for a general site or one that focuses on any diverse subgroup from ethnicity-focused to GLBT to seniors, etc.
And by all means – don’t forget to re-evaluate – boards will make changes, upgrades, etc. If you discount a site, re-visit it in 6 months to see if it’s improved. Check out your sites on Alexa – see what their rank is, are they seeing an increase or decrease in traffic? Also, check their press releases – any new ad campaigns rolling out – after all – how are your candidates going to find this site? And finally, going into the site as a job seeker. Would you use it?
Hit me in the comments and tell me which job board is your go-to resource…
Kelly is the Recruitment Manager for Westat, a leading social science research organization headquartered in Rockville, Maryland.