Power Up Your Job Board Postings to Find Great Candidates
There are 800,000 more jobs (December 18-BLS) than workers in the United States. Job applications are down, companies are going full force with retention programs, and the “quit rate” (workers who quit their jobs) fell by 112,000 people. No matter if you are in the insurance industry or retail, you are having a hard time finding talent.
Finding great talent in low unemployment requires a great recruiting strategy. Social media, employee referral programs, live job fairs, recruiters, and so many other sources have to be used together to find great talent. One source that over 90% of you use is the job posting. It is this vehicle that can be one of your best resources and you have to take advantage of that by optimizing it for your target audience.
The job posting has many elements. The basics include a great title with a well-written job description and compensation package. For most companies, once the job gets posted, that is it. Today, you have to power up this posting for this reason only – give passive candidates a compelling reason to hit the apply button.
Getting your job in front of qualified candidates that fit your position is the hardest thing to do since there are so many media sources. There are now thousands of “Sunday papers” who can promote your jobs. How are you supposed to know which one works the best? The answer is you don’t, but if truly optimize your job posting then spread it around, you will have a much larger talent pool apply. Moreover, it all starts with the job posting!
Here is how this is done.
- Job Title. Write your job title so that if a potential candidate is standing in line at Walmart scanning through job postings on GreatInsuranceJobs.com, your posting makes them click on it for more information. The title is the most significant opportunity, and largest mistake companies make. Instead of “claims adjuster” try “Claims Adjuster at the Best Places to Work.” Clicks will come in buckets!
- Branding. Niche sites let you brand. This is huge. Indeed and Zip Recruiter WILL NOT let you brand. On those sites, a CEO position has the same look and feel as a bus driver job, no matter what the company. Branding (see example) includes adding your social feeds, videos, pictures and compensation benefits. A job posting should be your career center for each position!
Westfield is able to effectively display their company culture via job posting branding.
- Share Buttons. I am always surprised that many of you post your jobs, but don’t share them immediately to your LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram. The key is to share the exact job posting from your niche sites where you have all the great brandings. Again, sharing from Indeed is blah. You want to sell qualified talent a reason to click the apply button.
- Ask your job board if they use programmatic ad buys to boost reach. Niche boards like GreatInsuranceJobs.com use real-time ad buying to post your jobs on sites where your targeted candidates are visiting. Programmatic technology is a powerful tool that helps niche job board owners a way to manage thousands of “Sunday papers.”
If you think of every job posting as its own mini website and promote that to all your channels, you will have much better success. Your budget has to include a site that allows branding. A well-done job posting campaign today involves three to four job boards for best results. However, for less unqualified candidates and more quality, niche job boards that allow you to power your posting will be one of your top hiring resources.
