What is a job board

A job board, also known as a job site, is an online platform that lists job vacancies for the benefit of both job seekers and employers.

Companies and recruiters use job boards to post open positions and seek qualified candidates. Candidates use job boards to find new job openings, read job descriptions, apply to open positions, and improve their job search process.

Businesses can have either an internal job board on their company website or use well-known online job board sites like Glassdoor, LinkedIn, Monster, Indeed, etc.

What are examples of job boards?

Indeed, LinkedIn, Glassdoor, Monster, ZipRecruiter, and CareerBuilder are the most popular and widely used job boards. These job boards are generalized and not specific to any domain or role.

Alternatively, there are niche job boards as well that are specific for startups, tech roles, remote roles, freelance roles, etc. For instance, Wellfound is excellent for searching for jobs in a startup, and Contra is great for freelance gigs.

Is LinkedIn considered a job board?

Yes, LinkedIn can be considered a job board, but there is some nuance.

LinkedIn functions as a job board, but it offers additional features in a hybrid platform that blends:

• Job board features (e.g., job listings, applications, employer branding)
• Professional networking (e.g., profiles, connections, messaging)
• Recruitment tools (e.g., LinkedIn Recruiter, Talent Insights)

On LinkedIn:

• Most hiring activity involves passive sourcing, i.e., recruiters reach out to people who aren’t actively applying
• Candidates may interact with job content (liking, saving, sharing) before they ever apply to a company
• Profiles act as dynamic resumes and can be used for screening, networking, and employer engagement

What is the purpose of a job board in recruitment?

The primary purpose of job boards in recruitment is to connect job seekers and employers. Job boards are an excellent medium for employers to advertise job openings, reach a wider audience, and attract talent. For candidates, job boards have become an easy tool for finding relevant job opportunities and improving their job search process.

Job boards also provide advanced functionalities like filtering, resume database, which further helps in matching employers with candidates and reduce efforts on both ends.

What are niche job boards, and why are they important?

Niche job boards focus on specific industries, types of roles, or demographics. For instance, Behance (for creative jobs), Dice (for Tech jobs), and We Work Remotely (for remote jobs). These job boards are important due to:

• Higher quality applications: Niche job boards attract targeted audiences that are more likely to match your requirements. As a result, you get high-quality applications that can cut the mark.

• Lesser recruiter workload: Niche jobs have smaller and more targeted audiences. As a result, recruiters and HR professionals are not overloaded with a sea of applications that makes hiring and candidate management an uphill battle.

• Cost-savings in the long run: General job boards tend to attract more irrelevant applications. On the other hand, niche job boards attract limited and specific applications, reduce team workload, and overall reduce the cost-per-hire in the long run (considering the time saved combing through vast volumes of applicants).

• Improve employer branding: Niche job boards often run on a community model, with loyal community members actively following the pages. Getting featured in niche job boards also increases your company’s visibility and adds to employer branding.

How do job boards differ from social media recruiting?

Both job boards and social media platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook help with job postings and attracting candidates. But the following are the key differences in how these platforms operate:

• Purpose: Job boards are dedicated to job postings and applications, whereas social media platforms have broader purposes, including networking and content sharing.

• Type of audience: Job boards attract more active job seekers. In contrast, social media reaches professionals who are following a company page but who may not be actively job hunting.

• Prior presence: To push an opening on the job board, create a company/recruiter account and start. However, to hire efficiently through social media, you must build a presence and following on your chosen social media platform to reach active candidates.

• Advanced features: Job boards offer advanced features like filtering, analytics, and resume databases, which social media platforms don’t provide.

• Prior investment: Social media recruiting needs ample prior investment in creating content. On the other hand, using job boards will only include the cost of creating accounts/posting ads.

HR specialists can use both methods strategically, depending on the role, target audience, and recruitment strategy.

How can job boards benefit HR specialists and team managers?

Job boards are a valuable tool for HR specialists and hiring managers for the following reasons:

1. Reach candidates directly: Posting on job boards helps you directly reach candidates with the required skills and experiences without involving any recruitment agencies. Recruitment agencies can be expensive and also give you less control over the process. Job boards cut down the mediators for companies.

2. Save time: Job boards have a loyal audience and help you reach candidates quickly without having to spend extra time on advertising. Some job boards also offer advanced features like filtering and resume parsing to save recruiters more time.

3. Reduce advertising costs: As job boards help you reach wider applicants quickly, they directly save money spent on advertising or recruitment agencies.

4. Improve employer branding: By maintaining a well-crafted company profile on job boards, organizations can showcase their culture, benefits, and values to attract talent.

5. Automate candidate communication: Many job boards integrate with applicant tracking systems that help you automate communication and improve candidate experience.

What is a downside of using job boards?

One of the biggest downsides of job boards is getting a high volume of applications, especially irrelevant ones that become overwhelming to handle. This issue can be easily handled by switching to niche job boards with a limited but more targeted audience. Alternatively, you can use advanced features in job boards for filtering and resume parsing to reach only suitable candidates.

What are the key features to look for in a job board?

Some key features that help HR professionals and recruiters to effectively use a job board are:

1. Search and filtering tools: Having advanced search options where you can filter applications based on skills and experiences helps extensively to narrow down qualified candidates.

2. Resume database access: Some job boards also allow recruiters to check their curated resume database and contact potential candidates directly instead of posting job applications and waiting for a response.

3. Advanced reach: Some job boards also allow you to increase the reach of job listings and tag it as a featured job post. It helps to push the job post further and reach more candidates.

4. Integration capabilities: Having integration features with an applicant tracking system (ATS) makes it easy to store applications and track data.

5. Analytics and performance tracking: Job boards must also show reports with metrics like the number of views, applications, or clickthrough rates to see the effectiveness of job postings and proper reach.

Lastly, the job board must reach a target audience that aligns with the potential candidates you are expecting.

How do job boards impact global hiring and remote work recruitment?

Job boards play an important role in global hiring for the following reasons:

• Global reach: Job boards are the first place candidates find job openings. If a job board has global reach and tags candidates by location (e.g., region), it simplifies the recruiter’s task. They don’t have to scour through 100s of country-specific job boards and post openings there. They can simply post it on one platform and mention the job location. Global job boards mean fewer platforms for HR or recruiters to manage.

• Remote listings: Some job boards like We Work Remotely specifically allow you to list remote jobs where candidates from anywhere in the world can apply. This further helps you to reach eligible candidates irrespective of location.

• ATS integration: Job boards must be able to integrate with recruiting software like application tracking system (ATS) so companies can easily manage the entire global hiring process.

What metrics should HR teams use to evaluate job board performance?

The key recruitment metrics that help HR teams track the effectiveness of job boards are:

1. Application count: How many applications have you received per posting? It indicates that the job board is giving sufficient reach.

2. Clickthrough rates: Number of candidates who viewed the job postings. This metric helps you check whether your job ad is engaging. For instance, if a job posting has high views but fewer applications, then chances are there is something wrong with it.

3. Applicant-to-hire ratio: Total number of hires for a position as a percentage of the total number of applications. This metric helps you assess the quality of applications you are getting.

4. Time-to-fill: Average number of times required to fill a post. This metric helps you redefine your recruitment strategies and include faster candidate sources.

5. Cost-per-hire: Average cost per hire for the job against the total cost of using the job board (subscription fees, pay-per-click charges, etc.). This metric helps you redefine your recruitment methods and include more cost-effective candidate sources.

6. Source of hire: Number of candidates hired from all job boards you are using. These metrics help you double down on the platform that works well for your business.

What are the most effective job boards for attracting candidates?

Some of the most popular job boards across various industries are:

1. LinkedIn: LinkedIn has over 1 billion members in more than 200 countries, making it an excellent platform for all your general and global hiring needs.

2. WeWorkRemotely: WeWorkRemotely is one of the most popular job boards, making it a great choice for finding remote workers worldwide.

3. Dice: Dice is a leading tech job board that helps companies find tech professionals.

4. Behance: Behance has a good database of creative professionals and lets you browse their database as well as post job openings

5. SalesJobs: SalesJobs is one of the largest job boards for hiring sales talent in the world.

6. eFinancialCareers: eFinancialCareers is a global job board specifically for finding talent for the financial services and technology sectors.

7. Cryptocurrency jobs: If you are looking for talent skilled in Blockchain and Cryptocurrency, then the CryptocurrencyJobs board is a perfect platform.

How can TA teams streamline the process of posting jobs across multiple job boards to save time and reduce manual work?

Talent acquisition teams can streamline the job posting process by making use of:

1. Customizable templates: Create customizable templates for job postings that can align well with different job platforms. So, you create a job posting only once and reuse it everywhere by making small changes.

2. Multi-job posting platforms: Use job posting management platforms that allow you to post on multiple platforms simultaneously.

3. ATS integration: Use ATS integration with job boards to manage all job boards directly from a single ATS.

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