Getting Out of the Job Board Rat Race
Job boards are an amazing thing for recruitment marketing, they deliver an astonishing number of candidates into your database. We’ve all seen it, it isn’t uncommon for a single job to drive hundreds of applicants into your recruiting software which already has hundreds of thousands of candidates, all of which at least meet some minimum quality threshold.
If you compare this to any other industry, this is unheard of. Consistently generating thousands upon thousands of new leads every month is left only to the finest marketing practitioners in the world!
Job boards have done a great job of making this type of lead flow possible and opening up access to their massive recruitment marketing reach (for what many would call a massive fee). They give you some great, good and not so good candidates, but that’s not the trouble for recruitment marketers. The issue is that every other company has the same access to the same ones, just as easily.
By making it so easy for everyone to get in front of the same candidates, Job boards are also making it very easy for candidates to get in front of many employers. This results in heated competition for these candidates and puts you in the “Job Board Rat Race.”
The cure is hidden in the cause!
Candidates know about this competition, they get their names in front of everyone at the same time and is why recruiters have to deal with emails not being read and calls not being returned. Then once someone is interested we have the issue of capturing their interest in the company, opportunity and (ugh) competing offers.
There is a solution to this recruitment marketing problem.
The cure is hidden in the cause!
The job boards aren’t the only ones with massive databases, your company has one too. You’ve built up a great database over your years renting candidate’s attention through job boards. Now is the time to start taking advantage of your asset. Get those candidates off the SHELF!
Everyone uses the candidates on the job boards the same way, they are interested in them for 30 or 60 days, then completely forget about them. Maybe rightfully so, they probably either found a job or decided to stop looking.
Can you use this as your opportunity to be different?
Rather than competing for the same candidates at the same time as every other company, why not continue building a relationship with these candidates now, before they are looking for their next job?
What do you get for being different and building a relationship with candidates when everyone else neglects them and throws them in the recruitment software black hole?
- When candidates are looking, you’ll know first.
- If a candidate sees one of your jobs and has a friend looking, they’ll be more likely to refer them.
- When you do search your database and come across the perfect candidate for your role, you can be confident they’ll know something about you and probably be happy to talk to you.
- Since they aren’t actively looking or back on the boards, when you do have a conversation, you won’t be competing against every other company still stuck in the job board rat race!
So what does it take?
Nothing you probably haven’t already considered, a few quick tips are below:
- Regular communication about something other than job openings. You’ll have some jobs too, but your focus on adding value to your candidates. Start telling your company’s story and share other information that will be of interest to your candidate.
- Make good categorization in your recruitment software a must. Make it easy to find these people when they aren’t looking for you.
- Follow up, even if only via email, with the candidates who you didn’t hire. Just attempting to reduce possibly negative opinions goes a long way in any kind of marketing, especially recruitment marketing.
- Think of ways you can use the boards to build a proactive pipeline, rather than just filling immediate needs. Can you start to get more out of your job board investment? Or lower it?
Rat races are no fun, being different is!
