The future of Job Boards 2020

Job Boards need to change and improve their services if they don’t want to go down the route of print-media. Clients have started to look for alternative ways to promote jobs faster, cheaper and more effective than Job Boards. Social Media platforms such as Twitter and LinkedIn lead the way in a new job market where supply and demand will find each other. These new social media tools are doing a much better job in connecting and communicating people with each other.

So what does this mean to Job Boards? Most likely a slow dead when they stop innovating in combination with (too) high prices and low service.  Their business models are unsustainable, as clients don’t accept this anymore today, or tomorrow. But the job search industry is changing and attempts are made to ensure that clients keep paying the premium prices for advertising jobs to active job seekers.

Here’s a top 10 list of some of excellent innovations that each Job Board should embrace:

1) Lower, free or pay-per-result pricing

This one is on top of my list. I haven’t paid for a Job Posting since 2008, via my own recruitment agency recruit2, but I would reconsider this approach when cheap and effective alternatives are being offered! When you think about free postings, consider online market places like Craigslist, eBay/Marktplaats and Werk.nl (the largest Dutch career site and its free!).

2) Smart job matching algorithms

Making it easier for Job Seekers to match their profile with jobs without the need to be a Boolean Expert. Check out Jobfox or Realmatch.

3) Become candidate-centric

Job Boards really need to become more candidate-centric and offer information, or even better a community, about resume writing, job hunting, interviewing, salary surveys, and company reviews (preferable by Glassdoor). Include career advice and coaching services to add value to the Job Seeker and build a loyal audience that returns more often to the website (Monstercoach, ikki.nl). And please, don’t let them jump through all these hoops before applying!

4) Consolidation of Job Boards

Job Seekers and Recruiters would welcome this very much, as the landscape is so diverse and unclear for the average person. This likely to be inevitable with so many lower-cost and multipurpose online alternatives. Look out for strong niche Job Boards who are in the perfect situation to tailor their tools and proposition towards the needs of their target audience (mediabistro.com).

5) Offer candidate surveys and benchmarking services to employers

When talking about adding value by Job Boards, other than simply offering a platform to advertise (and apply) for jobs, this is worth considering. Now, we don’t need all Job Boards to offer this service but if you as an employer are looking to improve your ‘operational excellence’ these candidate surveys and benchmarks are important. Best example: check Careerbuilder in selected countries.

6) Extensive jobs syndication

Syndication makes it easy for job seekers to view or receive jobs whenever and where they like; via mobile applications (iPhone, Android, Blackberry), widgets (DoNanza), customised RSS-feeds, email job agents or Twitter Direct Messages (Jobsite.co.uk). Also cross-posting employer’s jobs to additional locations may benefit clients which is already offered by leading sites such as Careerbuilder and Monster (Netherlands). Also a mobile-friendly website is a must have these days as mobile internet usage is going up very fast.

7) Facilitate online career events

I’ve had great success with dedicated online career events for targeted audiences in the past. They are a great way to attract a large audience and provide them with relevant real-time information during chat sessions. A dedicated event can be supported by a rich user experience such as employer videos, audio recordings and presentations with voice-over.

Unfortunately there seems to be a gap in the market for dedicated (!) online career events, supported by Job Boards, or does anyone have any examples? Please note that I’m not referring to Virtual Job Fairs with many other competitors (they already exist, see Monster Virtual Job Fair).

8 ) Encouraging referral hiring

This needs no further introduction. Except that this does mean more than a social sharing button on a webpage to me!

Now I know that online referral recruitment initiatives, like Jobster.com and Zubka, failed in the past. But have a look at JIBE or start-up company TalentGraphz who takes a slightly different approach and believes heartily in the process of “finding the company first and then the job”.

9) Real-time communications like chat, VOIP and video conferencing. Please share best practices!

10) Strong integration with Social Media

To be able to offer a richer user experience and collaboration more and more job boards are embracing social media (Superscout). Think about importing your LinkedIn profile, social sharing or check who yo already know within the company (SimplyHired). Check current best practices at College Recruiter or Dice Talent Network.

 

So what do you think will happen next? Is the future of Job Boards dead, social or …

© 2010 Jacco Valkenburg

About Jacco Valkenburg

Jacco Valkenburg is an international recruitment expert, trainer and author (5 books). He has more than 20 years experience in global recruitment strategies and execution spanning numerous countries for leading companies. As founder of Recruiter University and Recruit2 he provides companies with recruitment training and consultancy. His mission is helping companies ‘from good to great staffing’.

9 Comments

  1. Hung Lee

    Hi Guys,

    I would add to this list the obvious need to upgrade the UI. Job Boards haven’t really evolved their customer interface (for job seekers or employers) since the mid ’90’s – it just smacks of a lack of care for their customers and their market. Check out this job board from California which offers a way forward – I think the biggies need follow this template.

    http://greenjobscalifornia.org/profiles/

    Thanks for a great post.

    Be interested to hear from a Job Board.

  2. @Hung that’s a great looking site!

    Interestingly, Randstad UK announced today that SMEs, local government and the third sector can post all vacancies on http://www.randstadstaffing.co.uk for FREE. It includes Applicant Tracking too. Employers can register on https://www.randstadstaffing.co.uk/dashboard/default.aspx , under the ‘my Randstad’ tab.

  3. Mario Gedicke

    Video Conferencing and VOIP will certainly increase within the HR industry. Our site http://www.mayomann.com already allows job seekers to connect to employers through a Video platform. Technology and social media enables job seekers more confidence in applying for jobs.
    I am more than happy to share with you our experience.

    Regards

    Mario Gedicke

  4. Tom Summit

    Jacco,

    We very much appreciate the mention. talentgraphz.com would like to think we have 7 out of your 10 covered. We believe the long term winners for future job sites will focus on excellent user/candidate experience. Especially in technology right now, it is all about providing quality candidates.

    I see some great possibility with combining #7 and #9 to do corporate recruiting/career webinars.

    thanks again, Tom Summit

  5. I co-founded http://www.executiveplacements.com in South Africa about 14 months ago. There are a number of ways to recruit talent but within 14 months we have had over 50,000 resumes / CV downloaded from the website. It is impossible to know the ratio of CV downloads to placements however many placements have definitely been facilitated by the the platform. The platform is expensive to market and develop. If the technology is being used to connect people and make placements there is a need for it. It will be interesting to see what the long term profit of such venture is with the new emerging technologies.

  6. Hi Hung,

    I do agree with your comment however the website you have given as an example is not really offering something new apart from the content. The job board market in the uk is super competitive and super expensive along with terrible customer service. I think whoever focus on customer service and decent price policy they will be the one survive in the market

    I do work for a generalist job board (strike-jobs) and we have a similar article (future of job boards) anyone interests, can read from here – http://www.strike-jobs.co.uk/articles/future-of-job-boards-98.htm

    Thanks
    Tony

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