If job boards are part of your website monetization strategy, you have to deliver high quality job candidates in order for employers to continue listing on your job boards. Competition is increasing for job candidates with the most in-demand skill and experience mixes, and therefore sites with job boards need targeted sourcing strategies so employers won’t feel like they’re wasting their time. More than half of employers report that they have difficulty filling open positions because finding candidates with specific technical or ”hard” job skills is especially challenging, according to Talemetry.
Simply getting ”enough” candidates isn’t enough, because employers know they can list on big job boards and get thousands of applications, most of which will be totally irrelevant to their needs. When employers are presented with sourcing strategies geared toward bringing in large numbers of applicants, they often balk. To a selective employer, a quantity-based sourcing strategy sounds like, as Microsoft staffing consultant Amy Ala put it, ”Oh, you’re looking for a needle? Let me sell you the BIGGEST HAYSTACK EVER!!”
On the other hand, building a targeted sourcing strategy can help employers reduce time to hire and most importantly, find the right people for the jobs. It will also make them want to continue listing on your job boards.
Targeted Access Points for Job Boards
The first step toward a targeted sourcing strategy is defining the specific skill set needed. Next, you would do research to determine where the best online places are for finding people with these skills. Obviously, advertising on targeted job boards (like yours) is one access point for these candidates, but there are others. For example, you may find a LinkedIn group relevant to the skill set, or perhaps Meetup.com groups that include people with specific professional skills. Hashtag searches on Twitter can also help you find people that would be interested in your job board.
SEE ALSO: Peter Weddle’s Rules of Success for the Best Job Boards
Once you have found a pool of potential job applicants relevant to the needs of employers who list on your job board, you can build an engagement strategy that draws them to your site and encourages them to explore your job board. Sure, you could Tweet job information randomly or post a job listing on Facebook, but reaching targeted job candidates requires more finesse. Another benefit of a targeted sourcing strategy is that it’s easier to measure the success of the sourcing channels you use so you can determine which ones work best.
Other Types of Targeted Sourcing Strategies
Your targeted sourcing strategy should include more than social media. You can also include relevant professional associations, academic institutions, seminars, conferences, and even former employees of employers that list on your job board. Targeted sourcing generally reaches a higher quality applicant pool and results in higher successful hire rates. And employers seeking job candidates with unusual or rare skill sets will be much happier receiving fewer applications from people who are actually suitable than with a deluge of marginally relevant resumes.
An Active Strategy for Passive Candidates
Passive job candidates are sometimes considered the ”holy grail” of hiring. These are the people who have very relevant experience histories and skill sets, but who are generally already employed. The passive job candidate, however, isn’t averse to finding out what opportunities are available, and could be enticed by the right offer. But reaching passive job candidates requires an active strategy. Taking the time to reach out to the professional associations, conferences, and academic institutions referred to above makes it far more likely that you’ll reach those elusive passive candidates, and find the people your listing employers really want.
Your Brand Advocates
It takes time to build a stable of brand advocates for job boards, but it’s a long game that can pay off wonderfully. Has your job board previously made a terrific match between job seeker and employer? If so, maintaining a connection with that job candidate can prove very valuable in the future. Having a growing group of advocates who were happy with the results from your job board can help you reach out to people they know, enlarging your network over time and developing a resource that’s extremely valuable to employers. Your brand advocates set your job board apart from competing job boards, and raise your profile with employers interested in buying listings.
Not all job boards are alike. RealMatch offers recruitment advertising solutions for digital publisher and media companies that can be developed into reliable revenue streams for your website. Why not contact RealMatch to find out more?
Photo Credits: David Castillo Dominici / freedigitalphotos.net, Ambro / freedigitalphotos.net
