by Robin on July 29, 2010
Most recruiters use job postings as a means to an end. They use them as extra hands when they have a full desk, to develop pipelines or for brand representation/perpetuation. Whether you’re posting jobs for any or all of these reasons, it is important to recognize the impact (or lack thereof) that job postings can create.
When I worked in agency recruiting, I frequently used documentation from clients to post jobs. It was easy to copy and paste what they had already put together and get it “out there”. I failed to realize that in doing that, I wasn’t creating much desire for job seekers to reply to my post. I started looking at my job postings more closely and noticed that if I rewrote the posting in my own words, I got much better responses. I would include information about my client that I knew would entice the applicant, without revealing who the client was. After all, I knew from my relationship with my client what they were really looking for – not just skills but candidate personality. I wrote the job postings to attract that type of personality. Sure, re-writing the job posting took more time but it paid off. I got more responses. I got better responses. I got hires. Even if you’re in HR and you’re posting on behalf of a hiring manager, you can still add verbiage to the specs you’re given to attract the right candidate.
Photo courtesy of MotivatedPhotos.com
The emergence of job search engines has directly impacted the importance of good verbiage in job postings. Most recruiters don’t know that cross-posting the exact same job to multiple job boards doesn’t increase the chances of finding a candidate match, nor does it increase the number of postings that show up on the search engines. Indeed and SimplyHired filter out duplicate listings and only list the posting that they indexed first. Accordingly, if you copy and paste the client requisition word for word – and 5 other companies have done the same – there is a big chance that your posting might not even get seen on the job search engines. Write your job specifically for your audience. This means knowing what part of a client requisition is important and what part isn’t. It means including relevant key words that your candidate audience is searching for. It means including information about the environment, the benefits, the hiring process and so on. Many candidates are apprehensive to respond to vague job postings. They fear it’s just another “black hole”, a potential scam job, or in some cases, that it might be their current (or former) employer. Confidential postings really turn job seekers off. If you want to remain confidential about the search, then hire a headhunter – don’t post the job on the internet. Don’t expect a job posting to be a silver platter, either. If you have a hard to fill position, a job posting is just another vehicle to perpetuate the message that you’re looking for that person. It still doesn’t mean that person is looking for your job. In other words, you’re still going to have to work on it. In some cases though, using appropriate key words to attract passive candidates can work. For instance, your job posting could turn up in a Google search when they are searching for other things pertaining to their industry or career. Pick your key words carefully! Don’t just dump them all into a meaningless paragraph at the bottom of your job posting.
The information you include in your job postings speaks volumes about your company, your recruiting practices and your professionalism. The bottom line is – job postings are advertisements for your company; represent yourself well.
The title of this blog might seem ridiculous; of course you want ROI from recruiting budget. ROI might be added functionality, added scalability, added hires, added something which ultimately adds to the bottom line. What about job boards? How are you measuring your ROI on those? For years there has been debate among recruiting professionals about measurable ROI from job boards.
As a former recruiter, my ROI from job boards was nearly nil. Job postings became more time consuming than time saving. Every year the job boards got more expensive and every year I had more unqualified candidates to sift through. What’s wrong with that equation? My objective was to place as many people as possible as quickly as possible; that’s the only way I generated revenue for both my employer and my wallet. The job boards didn’t seem to care. They just continued to get more expensive and impose more limitations. What do you mean I’ve exceeded the number of searches allowed? It was just BOGUS.
Someone needed to change it all and I got tired of waiting for it to happen.
I’m sure there are those that think I only talk so much about JobShouts! because it’s my company. While that’s true to some extent, a larger part of why I talk about it so much is because I get really excited about changing the experience for recruiters. And producing results! I’m excited to be a pioneer in this industry. After years of using job boards and knowing what didn’t work, I’m now in the thick of creating what works. It’s working so well, that the “big” job boards ought to be running scared.
It’s a well known fact that our job postings are indexed by job search engines. We’ve continued to perfect the “formula” by which we operate – including quality of job ads, categorization, link love and so on. Apparently, we’re pretty attractive not only to the job search engines but also to candidates as well. I was so excited about our latest report from Indeed which showed we averaged 4.5 clicks for every 1 click on non-sponsored ads. Essentially, the only way to get better exposure for job ads with the job search engines is to pay for sponsorship on those sites.
Good Stuff:
This is only 1 of our distribution channels and we are highly successful on so many more.
Sharing metrics is important to me. I want our customers to expect a better recruiting experience. I want them to pay less and receive better quality candidates. I want them to have access to the most innovative and effective recruiting tools available. After 15 years of pounding the internet, learning and using Boolean and other x-ray techniques, I’ve learned a thing or 2 about what’s actually effective. My knowledge is your pearl in the oyster. Get that elusive ROI you’ve been after for so long. Use it, love it, share it!
There are a lot of job boards to choose from. Sometime last year it was estimated that over 100,000 boards were competing for a slice of an employers recruiting budget. JobShouts happens to share that vertical with several large and deep pocketed competitors.
Since there are so many players in this space, we felt it was necessary to build value and keep out the trash. When we speak of trash, we are talking about the kind of job ads that are geared towards fleecing the jobseeker or job ads that are either plain out scams or that require an investment from the candidate.
This has built trust with candidates, it has also paid off immensely in click traffic from our aggregate partners Indeed and Simply Hired. There are no complaints of scams, and the most important part? Our ads get clicks.
After all when it really comes down to it, filling that position may depend on how many people ’see’ your ad and either apply or pass it along socially. That is where we are different, we employ many technologies and our network is vast and growing. Tap into the power of social media without having to learn twitter. Use our social media recruiting tool to locate potential candidates where they are most active – their social networking pages on twitter, linkedin, and facebook.
This graph shows our most recent numbers from jobs posted to Indeed. It does not take a rocket scientist to see that JobShouts! is crushing the competition and performing nearly as well as sponsored ads on the Indeed network. This data is a representative comparison of all jobs indexed and is for the month of April 2010. Yes that is a %450 better click rate than “All Job Boards”.
As an Employer, an Applicant Tracking System is probably a necessity. Or at least that’s what corporate and organizational executives lead you to believe. Nonetheless, it’s in place and you have to live with it. But how smooth is your application process? 9 times out of 10, it probably frustrates job seekers and leaves them feeling like they’re applying to a “black hole” rather than a company with actual people. It’s a brick wall, with no way around, no way to attract the attention of 
hiring managers other than a sterile profile. Boring, lame, confusing, complicated – these are all typical terms used by applicants when forced to interface with an Applicant Tracking System. Have you walked through your company’s applicant process to see what it entails? Often it seems like an interrogation. For applicants, doing this once is painful enough – doing it multiple times over and over because each company’s ATS is different? Ridiculous. Frustrating.
What are we doing to change this? Is this all we can expect in the future or will there be a more humanistic approach? An ATS is an automated way to collect data. It’s very impersonal and leaves little room for creativity or expression, which should be evaluated factors in hiring your next employee. Why wait until you’ve brought someone in for an interview to find out they don’t have any?
Obviously, no application process will satisfy the OFCCP police, employers and the job seekers 100%. What can we do within this industry and this process to add some human back into Human Resources? I’m curious about your thoughts on this.
by Robin on April 26, 2010
There’s a flurry of new jobs being posted on sites all around the globe by a fictitious company named Kings Security, Inc. This is not to be confused with Kings Security in the UK, which appears to be a legitimate business. Perhaps that is the reasoning behind this scammer’s company name choice…Hmmm….
We recently encountered this particular scam when a new employer registered to JobShouts under this name. The job ad, by all appearances seemed to be legitimate. However, after it received more than 13 applications in a very short period of time I decided to take a closer look at it. The job ad was VERY well written – it probably would have gotten the attention of a lot of job seekers:
“Front Desk Officer at Kings Security Inc.
We have several openings available for Front Desk Officer/Data Entry Clerk/Receptionist. We offer performance incentives/bonuses, excellent salary and benefits, flexible schedule in a very fast-paced, high-energy atmosphere.
Job starts as soon as possible.”
You can see why this would get a lot of interest, right? It says nothing about what qualifications someone must have, only that it offers performance incentives, bonuses, excellent salary/benefits, flexible schedule and that it starts as soon as possible. Who wouldn’t apply to that? If I were out of work, I sure would.
Once I googled it, I understood why.
Turns out it’s a Money Mule scam.
They might contact you and say that the job has already been filled, but they have another opportunity as a Mystery Shopper. This scam involves receiving a money order which you are supposed to deposit then recycle to the next victim. Alternatively, you might receive an email that appears to be from them, with an invitation to view a text file that could possibly contain malicious content.
WARNING TO JOB SEEKERS: No matter how desperate you might be for a job, listen to your instincts!! If a job you are applying to seems too good to be true, it probably is. Be VERY aware that there are people preying on job seekers. Legitimate jobs usually list some qualifications that you must have. Scam jobs will appear very attractive in an effort to get you to give up your personal information (such as your name/phone/address/email that appears on a typical resume).
Of course, I removed the job posting and “Kings Security” continued to attempt to post. They have failed on our site, but unfortunately these ads continue to be posted on may job sites around the world. Please help to spread the word and protect job seekers everywhere – make them aware of this job scam!!
