If an online job posting is a virtual "help wanted" sign, a job board is the proverbial bulletin.
Job boards can be one of the most efficient and far-reaching tools for recruiters to promote job openings, disperse those opportunities and gather awareness from job-seeking candidates.
But simply utilizing a job board isn’t enough for it to be effective for your recruitment strategy. There are some important components to consider and keep in mind for the best possible results.
During a candidate’s job search, they might rely on job search engines or a job board to find and apply to opportunities that interest them. When a candidate initiates a search using a job search engine, the results will be sourced from multiple sites and job boards across the web. Alternatively, a job board is often more specific to a certain industry, profession or job type, allowing users to search and view more pertinent job search results in one convenient location.
For example, if a candidate searches ’pediatric jobs’ using a job search engine, the results will include all mentions of pediatric job postings from both independent sites and job boards. This means there’s a greater chance of receiving multiple listings for the same opportunity, and potentially an overwhelming number of results to sift through that may or may not be relevant.
Searching for opportunities on a job board means users aren’t backing in and out of multiple isolated sites. Instead, the search for pediatric jobs takes place within the same site, making it easier to navigate between postings, compare them and further investigate the associated organizations, facilities and recruiters.
Job Board Profiles
When you post an opportunity to a job board, you’re not only promoting that specific opening, but also your organization, the facility for which the opening exists and yourself as the recruiter. Take advantage of site features, like profiles, to share the best of your health system and its opportunities with candidates.
Organization Profile
The goal of your organization’s profile is to leave a candidate thinking, "That’s the kind of health system I want to be associated with." It can be the determining factor for candidates when contemplating whether to apply to jobs you’ve posted.
A strong organizational profile should include:
Facility profile
A facility profile is the perfect place to tout the desirable aspects of the specific location for which a job is posted. Is it the region’s only level I trauma center? Call it out. Is the hospital a leader in academic research? Be sure to mention it.
You want to share all unique and compelling characteristics of this facility, including:
Recruiter profile
Candidates want personability. As they engage with multiple recruiters from various health systems, they value the chance to put a name, face and life to the opportunity they’re considering. That’s why you’ll want to use your recruiter profile to highlight your experience, interests and why you value the health system for which you’re recruiting.
Share a summary that tells potential recruits:
The most robust candidate databases won’t necessarily be the ones that tout large quantities of prospects for you to sift through. What gives value to a database is the quality of the candidates within it and their potential "recruitability."
That’s why utilizing a candidate database that’s 100% opted-in - where candidates have chosen to register and are actively seeking jobs - is worthwhile for the greatest return on your recruitment efforts.
Other databases that may offer more providers might seem initially compelling, but it’s likely many of the candidates you come across aren’t aware that they’re in the database, meaning they’ll be less open to being contacted.
When considering the type of database you’ll use to find potential hires, take into account the additional benefits of relying on one that’s 100% candidate opted-in:
When candidates are aware that they’re discoverable by employers in a database, you’re more likely to reach out exclusively to those who want to be contacted about opportunities.
Typically, job seekers who have opted into a candidate database will have created and customized a candidate profile. This provides a more detailed summary of their education, experience, qualifications, contact information and more.
Individuals who voluntarily include themselves in a candidate database usually have the option to set their job search status to active or passive, so you’ll be able to distinguish candidates who are ready for hire vs. candidates you can add to your pipeline.
While the goal of a job posting is for it to be made visible to an entire candidate database, some systems make your opportunities more discoverable than others - even to those who aren’t utilizing a job board.
Search engine optimization (SEO), for instance, helps drive job posting traffic by making your opportunities more accessible to jobseekers across various platforms and locations - whether they’re using a search engine, job search engine or inputting keywords to search a specific job board.
Additionally, an advanced job board should make outreach a simplified step, providing the option to plan, schedule and send personalized emails about your openings to the qualified candidates you’ve selected.
When considering a job board, look for additional time-saving features that can help keep your processes moving quickly and efficiently.
Job posting templates
Crafting a job posting template is one of most effective ways to streamline the job posting creation process and helps bypass the time-consuming task of producing different narratives for multiple job postings. Develop a solid job posting outline that you can update with information specific to each unique opening.
Automated job postings
Add-on features within a job board, like automated job postings, can also be useful and help avoid duplicating your efforts.
These settings give you the option to automatically add postings from a job board to your organization’s website. Additionally, each change you make to an original job posting can be easily applied to the corresponding posting on your site.
Plus, utilizing these features can help strengthen SEO reach, subsequently boosting traffic and expanding awareness of your openings beyond job board users to anyone visiting your organization’s website.
Featured opportunities
Some job boards will provide opportunities for you to feature or highlight job postings for a fee to help them stand out to job board visitors. These postings not only gather more views, but they can also encourage traffic to your organization, facility and recruiter profiles and draw more applicants.
Alexandra Cappetta