Recruiting 101: 4 FAQs about Posting Jobs and Sourcing Candidates -

Recruiting 101
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As the digital landscape changes, the ways in which people are finding jobs are evolving. The following is a list of 4 FAQs we often hear when it comes to posting jobs online, generating the greatest reach, and sourcing the best candidates.

Question 1:  Where’s the best place to advertise a job?

The best place to advertise jobs depends entirely on the types of jobs.

The people best suited for each of those jobs will be looking in different places, so the best place to advertise your job is not necessarily the best place to advertise other jobs.

Start with thinking about where your kind of people will be looking. Act as if you’re looking for the job yourself, and try to find job boards with similar roles. Talk to your people – if you’re hiring engineers, ask your engineers where they look for jobs.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the largest professional network in the world, and as such represents a huge network of active job-seekers and passive potential job-seekers. Posting a job on LinkedIn isn’t free, but its ubiquity makes it an important place to post pretty much any professional or para-professional job. And in keeping with its roots as a social network, LinkedIn also enables your employees to share your jobs out to their networks of connections.

Indeed

Indeed is a popular job site that works as both a job aggregator that crawls Careers pages (see Q2) and a job board on which employers can manually post jobs. While it is not as flashy as LinkedIn, it is free to post and is generally a frequent stop for candidates actively seeking new roles. If you really want to enhance your job’s visibility on Indeed, you can sponsor it (pay to have it appear higher in search results).

Niche Job Boards

Niche job boards are an excellent way to reach specific audiences, but there are some things to consider before posting, especially if you plan to spend some money. If you find a list of the “best” job boards for your industry, consider whether the list was compiled by a reliable source – beware of sponsored content.

You might see that some big industry players (your competitors) have posted on a particular job board. Before you get out your wallet, consider whether those big companies are working with the same recruitment budget as you. If they’re spending 10K every month on job advertisements, the $300 for a posting on that niche site barely shows up on their radar.

It’s also important to remember that just about anybody can create a job board. Small employers can’t afford to spend money on a site that’s run out of some guy’s basement and gets minimal page views.

Ask the board’s sales or admin team if they’re willing to give you a free trial. These things are negotiable. Wherever you choose to post your jobs, be sure to track the results of those postings.

Recruiting strategically means  building intelligence.

In order to determine the value of a particular job board to you, you need to know that, for example, a $650 30-day posting for a UX Specialist brought in 95 applicants, only three of whom were minimally qualified. These metrics will help you identify your most effective and efficient recruiting options moving forward.

Q2: Is it important to post jobs on my website?

Before you go around posting on other sites, it’s important to put the job up on your own website. Even if you are not getting a lot of organic traffic to your site, job search engines, otherwise known as job aggregators or web crawlers, will point job-seekers to your careers page.

These sites are like Google for jobs. If your Careers page is set up properly, an aggregator will find your jobs and list them in its search results. To get your jobs picked up, each job must be represented by its own link (URL), and the link and the posting itself must clearly identify the job’s location.

Once the job is posted on your site, it will take some time for the aggregators to ‘crawl’ your site. If it’s not showing up anywhere within a few weeks, get in touch with Indeed, Eluta, HiredOttawa, Peter’s New Jobs, and any other job aggregators you can find. They’ll ensure that your jobs start appearing in searches.

Q3: What about referral programs?

Hiring managers are forever seeking to uncover trustworthy inside information about candidates. Having a referral program in place will ensure that employees are appropriately incentivized to tap into their networks.

Keep in mind that monetary rewards should not be the prime motivator for your employees to refer candidates. Consider offering employees gift cards or small monetary rewards for successful referrals – these kinds of rewards function as tokens of appreciation rather than payments.

You’ll motivate your employees to tap into their networks by energizing them. Share the organization’s goals, vision, values and standards with your team, and get your leaders and managers to buy in. You’ll find that employees don’t need a lot of prompting to refer quality people because that quality will reflect positively on them.

Q4:  Should we be directly reaching out to candidates?

Advertising the job is merely one component of a sourcing strategy.

If you need to hire people with specialized skills or knowledge, you’ll need to employ other sourcing tactics, such as reaching out directly to targets on LinkedIn or other professional networking platforms. According to LinkedIn, 75% of its members are not actively looking for a job. So generally, these people (often the best people) will not be responding to your job postings.

You’ll need to find them and approach them. Make an effort to “connect” with everyone you interact with on LinkedIn. Every new connection expands your search pool exponentially. Again, track these results. Keep a record of your interactions with search targets.

Often, you’ll hear, “I’m not interested right now, but might be in six months. Let’s keep in touch.” And don’t just rely on LinkedIn. Look into other resume databases and talent communities. Connect with industry associations. Post jobs at local universities and colleges, but also be sure to connect personally with relevant program coordinators – they’re always eager to connect their students with employers. Ask your employees which schools run the best programs. Find out which professors are doing the best research and target their grad students.

At the end of the day, building these networks is a strategic activity. You don’t just turn it on when you need somebody, then turn it off after you find someone. Continuously building and engaging with your talent pipeline will enable you to make opportunistic hires when those opportunities present themselves.

 


 

We love to work with organizations to create and execute a proactive recruitment plan. Learn more about the Business Sherpa Group’s recruiting services.

About the Author

Zack Fleming joined the Business Sherpa Group in 2013 after earning a post-graduate Certificate in Human Resources Management from Algonquin College. With a particular emphasis on the high-tech sector, he provides recruitment and selection services to clients representing a broad range of industries.