Job Boards Are A Bust (but you already knew that)
At one-time, job boards were extremely powerful and effective. Remember the Monster.com Super Bowl Ads? Those expensive advertisements were a strong reflection of how quickly job boards were growing. However times are changing, recruitment no longer works the way it did in 2004. The once powerful job posting websites have turned into an unfiltered barrage of applicants that need countless hours to filter through, only to find that none of them are qualified – and likely didn’t even read your job post.
Job Board Applicants Aren’t Who You Want
Unemployment is at an all-time low and the talent market is more competitive than ever. The quality employees are employed and happy, they aren’t applying to your job through a job board. Connecting with these employees requires an entirely different approach: finding them and attracting them to apply, or sourcing them through personal networks and similar means. Job boards simply don’t fit into the equation when people aren’t actively seeking new positions.
Volume = Expensive Distractions
When you’re struggling to fill a position it may be a relieving feeling to see a hundred resumes come in on the first day. However, after you spend the entire day going through them, you find out that you just wasted 8 hours looking at resumes for candidates that had no business applying to the position. This is an entire day that could have been spent finding the right candidate. Multiply this by multiple jobs and you have an expensive problem that could have an opportunity cost of not finding the person you want to hire.
Screenings Are Great (Sometimes)
One way to cut down the noise of job boards is to implement automation to screen applicants. While this can reduce the amount of time you spend on bad resumes, these systems have their limitations. Not only that, typically job descriptions and resumes don’t always reflect qualifications in a way that’s easy to interpret with automation, meaning that you can actually be passing on candidates that would be perfect, or flagging bad candidates as good! Technology has come a long way, but these systems are far from being able to know exactly what is desired in an applicant, and even knowing if that applicant is a good fit.
Gambling Loses Money
Job boards are a gamble – maybe the right person will see it and apply, maybe they won’t. Either way, you’re dedicating part of your budget to this and it it doesn’t pay off you have zero return. What other options have you given up for job boards? Maybe you spend enough to afford another internal recruiter, or maybe you couldn’t get the ATS addon you wanted. As long as you are spending money on job boards you’re giving up something else.
In today’s recruitment world speed to impact is something that matters. Businesses are growing fast and talent is harder than ever to find. Staying innovative while including a personal experience is the key to sourcing high-quality employees. Unfortunately, job boards are no longer innovative or personal, making them less effective as the talent war continues to grow.
