Job Posting: Where and How to Post Job Listings

Job Posting: Where and How to Post Job Listings

by | May 28, 2019 | Recruiting Best Practices, Recruiting Software

After you’ve written your job description, it’s time for job posting. Posting jobs manually can be a long, tedious process. But there are lots of tips and shortcuts to save you time, and to help you find the best places to advertise your position.

The Difference Between a Job Posting and a Job Description

Though these terms are often used interchangeably, they are not the same thing. A job description is used by the employer internally. Its purpose is to describe the job role in detail, not only for the hiring team and Human Resources but for overall business strategy and operations. A job description also protects the organization legally.

A job posting is used to market the position to potential applicants. As such, it is written like an advertisement. Though it contains necessary experience and skills, you want it to showcase the job and company to entice people to apply.

What is a job board?

Job boards are websites where employers post open positions for individuals to review and apply. They are essentially search engines for jobs. Some job boards are highly specialized by industry, geography, or role. Others are known for their breadth and volume of job postings. LinkedIn has a job board-like function incorporated into a social platform. You can build a network of business contacts, post your job, and have the platform recommend candidates to reach out to.

What are some examples of job boards?

There are more than 25,000 web sites that list job openings. Indeed, Monster and ZipRecruiter are some well-known ones. Other niche sites may be favorites within your industry or for the position you seek to fill.

How do job boards help employers find applicants?

As mentioned, some job boards have a unique focus like diversity candidates, tech jobs (Dice.com), or remote jobs (Flex Jobs). By targeting boards that best match your ideal candidate, you can increase your reach. You can also actively recruit from many job boards, to identify the individuals you want to apply for your open position or internship.

How do I post a job to a job board?

Each job board has a process to upload job listings. Typically, you use a form to enter the various components of the posting–skills, work experience, etc. Most boards have a free and paid option. If you opt for the paid option, they give your posting more visibility. This includes moving it up in search results and presenting it to applicants searching for the position. Of course, if you don’t have the budget, you’ll have to go with free posting sites.

Like anything manual, this takes a lot of time when you post to several sites, which you will likely want to do. Applicant tracking systems (ATS) make it easy for you to post to many job boards at the same time.

Which job board is best for your organization and open position?

With thousands of job boards available, it may seem overwhelming to identify the one that is best for your company and budget. The good news is that you don’t need to pick one. Instead, figure out which ones focus on your industry, the skills required for each job posting, geography and more.

Where to Post Jobs

Money.com recognized the following sites as top job boards for employers:

  • ZipRecruiter: Best for Large Scale Recruiting
  • Indeed: Best for Free Job Posts
  • LinkedIn: Best for Executive and Upper Management Positions
  • Handshake Job Search Site: Best for College Recruiting
  • Dribble: Best for Scouting Designers and Creatives

The Balance Careers rates the following as the top ten job search websites from a candidate’s perspective:

  • Best Overall: Monster
  • Best for Employer Research: Glassdoor
  • Best for Remote Jobs: FlexJobs
  • Best for Experienced Managers: Ladders
  • Best for Startup Jobs: AngelList
  • Best for Connecting Directly with Recruiters: LinkedIn
  • Best for Up-to-Date Listings: Getwork
  • Best for Hourly Workers: Snagajob

(Source: The Best Job Search Websites, The Balance Careers)

Better yet, use a job marketplace like JobTarget, which aggregates your data across all of your job ads and all of your publishers. JobTarget’s analytics show which job sites attract the most qualified candidates so you can manage your spend. You’ll be able to compare data across all of your activities. And ultimately, you’ll be able to make more informed decisions about how to recruit.

How to Post a Job on Indeed

  1. Go to indeed.com/hire and follow the steps to create an account or sign in with your Google, Apple, or
    Facebook account
  2. Click the Post a Job button
  3. Once you’ve posted your first job, you can also find the Post a Job button in your Employer Dashboard
  4. Enter the job details as prompted
  5. Add your job description
  6. At the Applicant Qualifications page, enter screener questions that will immediately qualify or disqualify an applicant
    1. Types of screener questions include Yes or No, Short Answer, Multiple Choice, Date or Number, or Request for File Upload
  7. Designate any Applicant Qualifications a deal breaker and give Indeed permission to file under Rejected in your Employer Dashboard
  8. When you start receiving applications, you can sort them based on their answers to the Applicant Qualifications questions in your Employer Dashboard at the Candidates tab

(Source: Indeed.com)

How to Post a Job on LinkedIn

  1. Click the Jobs icon at the top of your LinkedIn home page
  2. Click the Post a Job button
  3. On the Job Details page, enter the job description and skills
  4. Click Continue
  5. On the Applicant Options page, set preference for how you would like to receive applications
  6.  Add screening questions (LinkedIn recommends at least three)
  7. Click Post Job for Free

(Source: LinkedIn.com)

How to Make Your Job Posting Stand Out

Company Careers Page

Of course, you’ll want to post every job to your careers page. Make your page enticing with photos and videos that showcase your culture. Bonus points if your employees make their own video. Consider a contest with prizes for the best videos.

Social Media

Post to every platform, even if you don’t use them for business. Instagram, for example, may not be the best site for ad-like posts, but perfect for a job opening. (Especially if you include some eye-catching photos!) You can also coordinate each job posting with a social post and link them to the application.

Internal Job Posting

Let your team know when you have openings. Use your HRIS, Internal comms tools like Slack or email. Referral rewards work great for some companies. Since referral hires are often more successful than non-referrals, it’s definitely worth spending a few hundred dollars on some enticing rewards.

Add Photos and Videos

As mentioned previously, photos and videos can help you stand out. Most job postings on LinkedIn and Indeed don’t have photos and videos, so get ahead of your competition.

Remote?

If the job is 100% remote, put that in the job title. Many job seekers are looking exclusively for remote positions. An added bonus is that you can recruit from anywhere.

How to Promote Your Job Posting

Educational Partnerships

Partner with universities, colleges and technical schools in your community. Of course, if the job is remote, you aren’t limited to your geographical area.

Also consider the long game. Many institutions have formal business partnership programs. If your open positions are technical and there are skills programs in your area, volunteer to be on the curriculum advisory committee. This will solidify your relationship with the school and help you shape programs that could supply skilled talent for years to come.

Job Fairs

While we’re on the subject of educational institutions, participate in school-sponsored job fairs. In addition to promoting specific jobs, you’ll start building your employer brand among recent graduates and other job seekers attending the job fair.

Local Sponsorships

Get creative with local events. Depending on the demographic of your talent pool, sponsor a local event. For example, a volunteer day, race, theatrical production, or summer festival. You could even hand out branded swag or print your job postings on beverage cups.

Poach from Your Competitors

This technique if not for the faint of heart but some brave recruiters have had success with it. Transform an RV to a recruiting office and park it on a public street near a competing employer during lunch hour. If you have the budget, give free lunches to anyone who applies.

Local Radio Ads

Local radio stations might have affordable ad slots. Choose the station based on your new hire persona and produce a simple but informative ad about your open position(s).

Is there an easier way to post to multiple job boards?

Yes. Use an applicant tracking system (ATS) to connect to many job boards at once, including aggregators like JobTarget. You can discover niche and specialty websites that give you the best reach for each job opening.

 

 

The Screening Process: Prescreening and Screening Candidates

The Screening Process: Prescreening and Screening Candidates

by | May 28, 2019 | Applicant Tracking, Recruiting Best Practices, Recruiting Software

A manual candidate screening process make hiring harder than it needs to be. Fortunately, it’s not difficult to create a formalized process. Does your candidate screening process affect quality of hire? Absolutely!

What Are the Challenges of Manual Candidate Screening?

Before we dive into the details of formalized screening, let’s explain why manual screening will stymie talent acquisition.

The Problems With Manual Candidate Screening

No way to compare one applicant from another

If you don’t have a screening process and resources, it’s difficult to compare candidates. This is one of the easiest ways to let bias creep into your process.

Inability to identify a pool of qualified candidates quickly

You don’t have time to engage with everyone (especially those without minimum qualification), so you need to isolate the cream of the crop. Application questionnaires are a great automated pre employment screening tool. When candidates apply, they self-filter by taking a carefully-designed questionnaire based on the job description and each necessary skill.

Difficulty keeping track of multiple job boards and sources

If you promote your job well, applications will flow in from many sites–careers page, social media, job boards, employee referrals and internal job seekers, outside agencies. if you don’t set up a process for organization, you may lose track of some great applicants.

No tool for tracking applicant stages

A candidate screening process is essentially a workflow that includes stages. These may include Application Received, Resume Review, Do Not Pursue, Phone Interview Complete, Pending Live Interview, etc. With no workflow, you have no hiring stages, and this will make it hard to know the status of each job seeker. To screen candidates efficiently, build a workflow based on your needs.

Inability to filter out unqualified candidates

In today’s competitive hiring environment, you and your Human Resource team are in a race against time–spending precious hours engaging with unqualified applicants leaves less time for the top job candidate. Screening candidates automatically during the first pass gives you a head start. Using a formalized method for phone screen and interviews keep you on track.

EEOC compliance risks

If you can’t document a fair evaluation process, you are at risk of an EEOC challenge if a rejected job seeker suspects bias. In a way, this is a self-fulfilling disadvantage. Without a formal screening method, you ARE more likely to have a biased process. Consider, for example, if your hiring manager uses a ‘gut feeling’ to judge which applicant is a qualified candidate.

Difficulty collaborating with the hiring team

If each decision maker is using their own evaluation criteria for screening resumes or interviews, there is no way to tell which candidates are the most promising. In addition, as mentioned previously, this puts you at risk of bias, or at least the perception of bias. A disorganized team can’t identify a suitable candidate if they don’t even have a common benchmark.

What is Prescreening?

Now, let’s discuss the components of candidate screening. The first step is prescreening. This refers to evaluation that happens before any communication from the hiring team. As mentioned previously, this step can easily be automated. Using the job description, create a questionnaire that candidates will complete when they apply. Include elimination questions that filter out those who don’t meet the minimum qualifications.

Should you review resumes as part of the prescreening process? It will depend on the open position. If you are hiring for an entry-level opening, the questionnaire may suffice. Furthermore, if you are hiring for a high level position with relatively few applicants, you may want to take a look at the resumes. An applicant tracking system ATS can help you organize resumes and applications. Remember, however, not to base your decision solely on resumes–unless you are hiring a resume writer.

ATS search functions can help with resume review. Suppose you have 100 applicants and want to identify those with particular skills. Use keyword and boolean queries to zero in on your applicant pool.

Social Media Screening

Should you look at applicants’ social media sites? There isn’t a consensus among talent acquisition specialists. However, many employment law experts counsel waiting until after interviews if you insist on doing a social screening. A review of a candidate’s social media will reveal demographic information which shouldn’t be used in the hiring decision. If a rejected candidate accuses you of bias, you will have an easier time defending your decision if you interviewed all the top candidates–including those from underrepresented groups. For more protection, don’t have a decision maker do the social review. Bottom line, seek legal counsel to design a policy.

The First Screening Interview

Most hiring teams do the first interview as a phone call. The purpose of this interview is to isolate the group of candidates to move to the next step. For example, verify the skills and qualifications listed on the candidate’s resume. It’s also an ideal method to evaluate communication skills.

Useful questions for the phone screen include:

  • Tell me about yourself.
  • Why are you applying for this job?
  • Why are you leaving your current position?
  • What are your salary requirements?
  • (For jobs that require travel) Are you willing to travel?
  • What type of work environment are you looking for?

Notice that you can eliminate even high quality candidates if their salary expectations don’t match up or if they don’t want to travel and the position requires it.

Additional Screening

Every company has different hiring needs. Some do verification of the candidate before the first interview. These may include:

  • Calling of references
  • Background checks
  • Credit history checks
  • Education credentials
  • Prior work performance

How do you know which screens to perform before the interview? Review previous hiring experiences. If a relatively high percentage of previous candidates have failed the background screen, move that up in the process. It will save you time in the long run. If something in a job seeker’s application raises a red flag–say educational experience listed–check it out.

In-Person or Video Interview

At this stage, you should have a pool of great candidates: 1. They weren’t eliminated by the filtering questionnaire due to lack of qualifications, and, 2. They weren’t eliminated in the phone screen.

The best practice for all interviews is structured interviewing scripts. They allow you to compare candidates using the same yardstick and protect you legally.

Before we continue, let’s review where we are in the series: