The Beginner’s Guide to Job Posting Sites
Below is everything you need to know about choosing a good job site and crafting an effective job posting.
12/11/2022
It can be daunting to begin the process of recruitment as a small- to medium-sized enterprise, especially if you have not previously used services that help recruit employees. There are a range of recruitment options for businesses of all sizes, but online job listing sites remain one of the most cost-effective and accessible options.
Here’s what you need to know about choosing a good job site and crafting an effective job posting to attract the best candidates for your business needs.
Identify Your Ideal Applicant
While there can be temptation to get right to uploading a job posting when you need to find new talent, this should be one of the last steps in the process. Before you ever set a digital foot into job sites, you should know what kind of candidate you are looking for.
Consider the job description you are looking to fill and the duties you will expect a successful applicant to undertake, then ask yourself what kind of person you want to hire. Of course, your ideal candidate will be one that has all of the required skills and qualifications - but think beyond that.
For example, if the role is customer-facing or heavily reliant on teamwork, you may be looking for a calm, empathetic candidate with excellent communication skills and experience with working in a team.
Likewise, if the role requires a lot of solo work, you may need a confident, resourceful candidate with the ability to self-motivate. Identify your ideal candidate persona, so you can tailor your job posting to attract that person.
Find the Right Job Site
Once you know who you are looking for, it is time to identify the right job sites for your post. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of job sites to choose from. While most of the large ones like Indeed are suitable for the majority of job postings, roles in specialist fields may be better suited to niche job sites that cater to a certain industry or profession.
When assessing a job site, you should consider the following:
- Average monthly traffic
- Free or paid posting options
- Job posting marketing options
- Niche or general appeal
Consider these factors when choosing where to post, but remember that posting on multiple suitable job sites will exponentially increase exposure and get you access to a wider candidate pool.
Write a Stellar Job Post
When using job sites to recruit new talent, the posting you create is of the utmost importance. This posting will be the main force that attracts qualified talent to your company, and for this reason, you should think carefully about what you write.
The job title, description, requirements, and benefits that you list will all act as keywords for those who search the site for opportunities. When creating your job post, you should:
- Provide an eye-catching and accurate job title (e.g. Senior Social Media Manager or Data Analysis Assistant)
- Create a description of the duties and responsibilities associated with the role (this should be one to three paragraphs at most)
- Sell the job; while candidates must sell their skills to you, highly qualified candidates will be in high demand. As such, you should sell the role and indicate what benefits successful applicants can expect.
Upload Your Job Post and Consider Marketing Options
In order to upload a job posting to a site, you will need to create an account. In most cases, there will be separate accounts for those seeking work and those looking to hire. Ensure you have the right account and follow all on-screen instructions to ensure that you upload your job post in a way that is compliant with the site's standard outline. You can use job posting templates to help you with this. You will find plenty of these online, often for free!
Once you have uploaded your job posting on one or more sites, it can be helpful to consider how you can ensure that it has a wide reach and gains attention from the right people. Some job sites offer marketing or priority listing options, of course, but these will cost money. You can also share your job posting to social media sites such as LinkedIn to gain extra exposure, however, and this is a budget-friendly option in most cases.
Finally, most job sites that host resumes as well as job postings will allow you to search candidates using keywords to filter the uploaded resumes. Taking a proactive approach by identifying and inviting eligible candidates to apply can be highly effective.