Boost Your Job Board - Job Seekers (Page 3 of 4 ) Improve your listings It might seem obvious to say so, but the most important consideration for job seekers using a job board is that it provides extensive listings of the kinds of jobs in which they’re interested. Although increasing the overall number of listings might seem like the best way to address the issue, it can sometimes be counterproductive. It is often more effective to reduce volume but increase specialization in one way or another in a direct attempt to improve relevance. Such specialization can take a number of forms: catering to a specific industry or profession, for example, or focusing on a particular geographic region. This approach can help to give job seekers confidence that your site is catering directly to their requirements.
The quality of the listings is also very much dependent on the ads supplied by your client employers and agencies, who should be given every encouragement and help to supply comprehensive details for every position they advertise. These should include, as a minimum, a full and detailed job description and details of all required skills, experience and qualifications. If there are desirable additional skills, these should be listed along with any limitations to applicants. Finally, wherever possible, the ad should quote an approximate salary and describe any additional benefits.
Although it’s often difficult to achieve, ad should be screened for this information whenever practical, and suggestions for possible improvements made to agencies or employers. They may not appreciate this, but in the long run it is in their interests to attract the best possible candidates, a goal they will be most likely to achieve by targeting their ads as accurately as possible.
Equally importantly, advertisers should be discouraged from indulging in any creative widening of an advertisement’s net by misleading categorization. Programmers, for example, really aren’t interested in sales positions. You do your job seekers no service at all by allowing unsuitable positions to turn up in match lists.
Make it easy to find Although long lists of jobs might look impressive, job seekers do not want to waste time wading through page up on page of irrelevant ads searching for the one or two that are meaningful to them. The more refined you can make your search process, and the more relevant the results it returns, the happier your candidates will be. This means clarifying precisely what they are looking for before you show them anything.
A typical basic job board might just ask for an industry or occupation and a location before generating a list of matches. A more sophisticated system will look for far greater precision: at the very least, the abilities to choose multiple roles and industries, enter custom keywords, and select between job types such as permanent, contract and part-time are essential. Better still, a truly advanced system will remember the criteria supplied by an individual job seeker and generate matches on demand or deliver them via email.
Streamline the application process Once the job seeker has found a position in which they are interested, it is important to ensure that the ad can be followed up easily with a detailed application. This should preferably include a CV. The ideal setup is a one-click system which allows a logged-in user to apply for a job and submit his or her CV by typing a simple covering note and clicking a button. The best sites offer such a streamlined approach, and your candidates will expect and appreciate it.
Less obviously, it is well worth considering offering the applicant the opportunity to submit questions or look for clarification about the role. Despite the best efforts of job boards, roles are often advertised with insufficient or inaccurate details. Such errors originate from the agency or employer, but minimizing them remains the job board administrator’s responsibility. This usually involves strong and clear communication with your advertising clients. The impact of errors and omissions in ads can be minimized by opening paths of communication between the employer or agency and the candidate. This can be managed by email or conducted via the job site itself, but however it is achieved, it can be a significant step in giving your site a competitive edge.
Avoid aggregated lists It’s very tempting as a job board administrator to boost the number of listings on your site – or at least to create an appearance of doing so – by aggregating lists from other boards. There are a number of problems with this approach, all of which are likely to result in frustration for your job seekers.
For instance, aggregated lists are liable to result in duplicate postings. This can be a problem in itself, if candidates are having to wade through multiple duplicates of the same position when trying to find something relevant to them. Worse still, the supplied information often varies slightly from post to post, leaving the candidate confused about what exactly is being offered. And if your content can be read elsewhere, it has a tendency to make your site look unprofessional. The best approach for any site is to post unique content that is as relevant as possible to your job seekers.
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