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The 2017 Job Posting Strategy That Will Find Great Candidates

Written by: Roger Lear
Published on: Feb 7, 2017


So much has changed in the job board world in the last three years.  In the last “War for Talent” during 2005-2008, Monster and Career Builder were running thirty second Super Bowl commercials costing millions.  They were actually really funny.  I loved the monkeys! (Click on the monkey!)

 

The 2017 Job Posting Strategy

 


Things have really changed for 2017.  We are now in another “War for Talent” because the national unemployment rate is super low (4.8% National U-3) and the economy finally has seen better GDP growth.   Finding great employees will be a key factor in your company being successful and growing with the economy uptick.  While Career Builder and Monster are still posting jobs for companies, they are not the only game in town.


The problem is your job posting strategy has not changed since the recession and if it doesn’t, you will be left in the dark when it comes to finding the gold nuggets…the infamous “passive job seeker”!


A great job posting strategy involves really understanding the best way to broadcast your job to a passive, talented and qualified audience.  Companies like Facebook or Google receive well over twenty thousand resumes a week so they don’t have to worry about a job posting strategy.  Ironically, many experts who talk about talent acquisition strategies will use well-known companies to demonstrate new recruiting trends they use to attract talent.  Really?  Facebook could advertise their jobs on a cereal box and still get a million resumes. 


For most companies, one powerful way potential candidates find your job openings are job boards.    Successful job boards today provide a significant talent pipeline to companies as well as help brand a company’s employment.  Top job boards have fantastic technology to make sure your jobs and brand can be easily found from any device.  Mobile traffic now accounts for over 40% of GreatInsuranceJobs.com traffic.


What has not changed much in the last ten years is the fact that it is still very hard to measure a job boards performance if your applicant tracking system still relies on a drop down menu to let you know where a job seeker comes from.  Also, job seekers are using job boards to find the job but when they apply, they come in through your career portal by either being redirected from the job board or manually looking up the job.  I do the same thing all the time with the airlines.  I may use Expedia to find a flight but will then book the flight directly with that airline.  For some reason, it feels better that way.  For those employers who don’t think this happens, please look at your source of hire and when your career portal is near the top of the list, you know this is happening (unless you are Facebook).  To further prove this point, eliminate all your job boards for a month.  You will find very quickly a huge job off on application directly from your career website.


What is a good job board strategy for 2017? 
 

  1. Post Jobs to three to four job boards relevant to the types of positions you need to fill.
    Whatever you do, don’t just use one job board.  You may end up positing on a national job board, a couple niche job boards and a site like Glass Door.  Of course, I would tell you to post on GreatInsuranceJobs.com since it is the leader in the insurance industry for the last 15 years.  But the real reason is the passive candidate database we have been developing for years combined with our world class technology that allows us to get your job in front of these candidates that may not be looking.  For insurance jobs in technology or sales, we always suggest using niche sites in these areas away from the insurance industry in tandem with GIJ.  Your budget can be spread over all these sites and with a little negotiating with the job boards, you will have tremendous coverage.
     
  2. Work with your job boards to help you maximize your exposure for your harder to fill positions. 
    Understand what products the job board have to get even more applications.  Things like targeted ecards, featured employers and jobs, keyword search banners, newsletter banners, mobile ads, geo targeting keywords and specialized virtual career fairs to name a few.  Negotiate this from the start to ensure the best pricing. 
     
  3. Employment Branding.
    Each job posting can be a mini website and a fantastic extension of your career portal.  This is an example from Travelers.  Notice the video, graphics, twitter feed and social plugins. Very powerful and really sells the passive job seeker to apply.  Niche sites with great following have the ability to make this happen.
     
  4. Mobile applications.
    Job seekers spend a ton of time on their cell phones.  Make sure any job board you work with has a powerful mobile site or you will lose out on great candidates.  The challenge still is applying to jobs via mobile with your applicant tracking system.  The success rate on this in 2016 was less than 15%.  This number will get better in 2017 but is just one more reason once a job seeker finds your job on a mobile device, they most likely will apply via a desktop and the source will go to your corporate career website.
     
  5. Post with job boards that have great partners.
    GreatInsuranceJobs.com partners with BusinessInsurance.com and the CLM (theCLM.org) as well as many other sites.  For job boards to survive in 2017 and beyond, they need to have strategic partners to expand their reach. 
     
  6. Don’t post on sites that are free unless you want your jobs next to tons of spam.
    The only exception to this is any direct association site you can access.
     

One last thing.  Your job board strategy in 2017 should include great job titles that are very specific. It is all about click bait headlines and catching job seekers attention.  “On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.” – David Ogilvy
 

I not sure how you can make a claims adjuster catchy but let me try:
 

Workers Comp. Claims Adjuster- Work from Home - 4 weeks PTO instead of WC Claims Adjuster