Tips from the Pros

by Dwaine Maltais

Vice President of e-Recruiting Solutions, Bernard Hodes Group (www.hodes.com)

Top Five Factors Employers Consider When Choosing a Job Board

1.   Does the job board offer visibility and candidate traffic in relation to the specific job function? A site that either focuses on a select niche or offers niche content within a larger context often drives more focused traffic.

2.   Is the job board localized? More and more employers are using localized job boards in addition to national or international boards, especially for entry-level or hourly jobs and jobs for which paying for relocation is not an option.

3.   Does the job board direct interested candidates back to the company's corporate career Web site? This feature enables employers to utilize their own applicant-tracking systems instead of the job board's system or e-mailed responses. Applying directly through a company’s Web site is often the fastest way to get noticed.

4.   Is the job board easy to use? Posting and managing jobs should be a straightforward process.

5.   Does the job board offer a searchable resume database? Many employers utilize online resume databases to actively search for potential candidates, and most job boards offer this as an add-on to the ability to post jobs.

Dwaine Maltais is the vice president for e-Recruiting Solutions of Bernard Hodes Group and leads the Hodes iQ program (www.hodesiq.com). He has developed industry-leading job-board evaluation and delivery technologies to help employers choose where to post jobs and capture job board metrics.

© 2002. Used with permission of the author.