Why job boards are most likely not going anywhere anytime soon
I was blog surfing today and found an awesome conversation about online job boards between Shiftwise’s Jason Lander and TempWorks’ Gregg Dourgarian.
Gregg says advertising jobs on Monster is a huge waste of money and ineffective because your competitors are out on Monster as well, and Jason says if Monster is the marketplace where candidates are, why would you stop advertising there just because your competitors are also there?
I think both gentlemen have valid points. Gregg is right, employers can eliminate “monster fees” by using search engine optimization techniques. The idea, however, isn’t exactly ground-breaking and does not take into the account the real reason why companies continue to post on job boards.
So I see Jason’s point of view. Monster is the market and if that’s where the customers are, that’s where you should sell, regardless of whether they also carry your competitors’ products as well.
I’m going to take Jason’s point of view and take it one step further. The Internet is The Market, and job boards such as Monster, Dice, etc, are retailers. If you’re a farmer (using Jason’s analogy), you can sell directly to your consumers by having them come directly to your farm, or you can take your products to your consumers via the various distribution channels.
But yeah, wouldn’t it be nice if we just eliminated the X dollars spent on job boards?
True, you can use SEO techniques, but that would be an overly simplified solution.
The thing is, most employers do not have the kind of candidate traffic that job boards get, and even with SEO techniques, it would still be quite difficult to beat job boards when it comes to search results. The explanation itself also comes down to SEO. These boards simply rank higher, they have more content, they have more inlinks, they advertise aggressively to attract the kind of traffic that they do. I do believe that vertical job search engines will change the way this all plays out, but I don’t think job boards are going away anytime soon, either.
Again, it comes down to candidate traffic. This is where they are, and while employers are definitely employing SEO tactics to attract candidates to their own job listings on their own websites rather than Monster’s, from an employment branding perspective, it’s still not a bad idea to have a presence in those job boards.
Your post was almost exactly what I was going to post as a rebuttal to Greg’s response. Suggesting that any company can “out-SEO” these bigger companies is a bit misguided. Further, practices such as “link buying” (as Greg suggests to be an effective strategy) can actually get you down ranked in Google.
Also, I should have clarified. I don’t think Monster is the market - I totally agree that the market is the internet and that Monster, as well as a personal company site, are parts of the whole market. My point was that fencing yourself off and thinking people should only come to you is so very 1992. Post your job on your web site - but post it in as many other places as you can as well. If your company is putting forth the best offer the candidate is looking for you have nothing to worry about. Yes, the fees can be large so trying to get your jobs filled on your site is always a better way to go. But limiting your efforts to your site only limit your potential. If you get your job filled because more people saw it on Monster then the fee is just cost of sales.
All great points. Plain and simple…you need advertise in the areas where your customers are. If the major job boards are still attracting quality candidates, you don’t have much choice. However, I do think that we will see a continued shift towards smaller, more focused boards that cater to specific employment areas (medical, technology, education, etc.)
I have to chime in and say I agree with the both of you, but lean more towards posting on wide variety of focused boards. They have already done most of the work to bring you qualified candidates. The problem with the big boards is that the candidate is still very early in the job search at that point.
Great conversation though. Thanks.
@Greg J, @Jeff Long: Agreed…and thanks for stopping by!
I would like to say that online job boards are here to stay. With the decline of newspapers people seeking jobs need a good and up to date resource to locate jobs. Depending on the industry, i find that online job boards serve many purposes especially great job boards like jobing.com. This company is a locally focused company that has offices in most of the markets/states it is in. This allows job seekers to find a job in there home town. They even have videos to show the candidate what it is like to work there. From an employers/HR point of view there is many features that do more than just locate great local talent. They have resume review online software to narrow down resumes, as well as questionaires and again an option for the HR professional to create a free recruitment video! Furthermore, they have areas on the main home page to allow these actual employers to help with branding. I personally am a fan of these online job boards!
Hi Lisa
Great discussion and glad to see my series of posts and clips provoked thought.
The discussion on job boards reminds me of fishing here in Minnesota now that we’re enjoying a few weeks of warmer weather.
Most folks stay on the pier (the job board) and try to catch three inch panfish. Nothing is wrong with that. For a three-year-old, there is nothing more fun or easy.
But if you really want to bring home some big fish you have to rethink the entire equation (recruitment process) and figure out where those big fish are (not applying to job boards) and how you are going to entire them onto your hook (get them to join your candidate community).
Re-imagining the recruitment process from the ground up with methods alluded to above - forming your own niche job board, SEO, link building, testimonials, attractive web site, lead generation - are the tools.