5 Steps To Take Before Using A Job Portal

In a key scene from the film,  The Intern, Robert De Niro’s character, Ben - a bored, 70-year-old retired senior executive-  chances upon a flier on a physical board. This triggers the start of his hiring journey as a senior intern in an e-commerce company, and the rest of his experience in the fast-moving digital startup.

While it was normal practice for job seekers in the past (such as Ben) to look at physical boards and newspapers for information on open jobs, a majority of candidates today have likely not seen a printed job advertisement in a long time.

Today, recruiters turn to digital job portals, given the reality that present-day candidates are online most of the time. With more candidates coming from a generation of digital natives, access to the internet is 24/7, with mobile access consistently topping the list of devices used to access job portals.

In fact, a large number of candidates - about 40 million users - have been found to choose LinkedIn as their preferred job board. That's a big pool of potential employees just waiting to discover what your company can offer in terms of a career. 

But, before you can start posting any openings from your organization, there are a few steps you need to take to lay the foundation for results-driven use of job portals. 

In this article, we’ll give you five steps to take before you embark on using a job portal. But, before we get to that point, we’ll briefly walk you through a description of job portals. 

Job Portal: A Brief Introduction

Today, a job portal or online job board is among the popular channels used by HR professionals and recruiters across industries. It is used to advertise open positions and reach a wider talent pool. 

Candidates, on the other hand, flock to job portals to browse through available positions for a variety of reasons. 

Some candidates may be experienced professionals looking to switch careers and gain brand new experiences in a different field. Others, however, may simply be looking for their next opportunity for professional growth. In the post-pandemic era, recruiters also know that a majority of job-seekers are looking for improved quality of life, better salary, or a better working environment. 

With so many possible candidate motivations to think about, a recruiter is left with multiple ways to approach hiring on job portals. One of the most fundamental aspects of recruitment success on a job portal lies in crafting strong and compelling job descriptions. However, before we get to that, there’s some groundwork to be done. 

ALSO READ:  Job Boards: A Hiring Channel Recruiters Must Pay Attention To. 

What You Need To Do First

Just like almost anything else in life, you need to research and prepare before taking the first step. The same goes for identifying the right job portals for your recruitment efforts. 

Before you sign up and make your first post, here are 5 steps you must take before using a job portal.

1. Establish The Business Reasons For Hiring

As a talent acquisition professional or recruiter, you shouldn’t be hiring for the sake of filling up seats -  you have to outline the talent needs of the business. 

If you’re working towards expansion, for example, the most obvious need would be to hire more and hire fast. However, while thinking about the present, you also need to be proactive about the future. Does your talent acquisition strategy fit in with the company’s wider business objectives? Does your organization need more employees? 

Having a solid strategy backed by the right business reasons and outlook gives confidence to your hiring strategy and decisions.

2. Match The Job Title With The Right Duties

Once you’ve achieved consensus on the strategy and reasons to hire, it’s time to research suitable job titles that go with the duties. You might feel tempted to craft a fancy title to pique candidates’ interest. But, it’s best to keep it short and concise. 

Another reason to keep it short and use a familiar title is to include keywords in the title. This is because when job seekers search for a job online, they use words that are usually associated with the role. 

For instance,  candidates who are looking for a writing role use phrases such as content writer, copywriter, and editor.

3. Develop A Competitive Compensation Package

Other than creating the right job title to attract and retain employees, you also need to think about offering them a competitive compensation package. 

A survey by Indeed reveals that about half of the 1,005 respondents say they are looking for a new job with higher compensation.

So, to stay ahead of the game, sift through the market to get some ideas of the salary range for a given position. In your planning, try to include employees’ minimum wage and possible salary increase range.

Nevertheless, you also have to take into account many other factors that determine the salary range. It also depends on the level of experience, as well as the company’s overall budget.

4. Write A Compelling Job Description

By now, you should already have enough information to craft an amazing job description - you’ve researched and come up with a list of job titles and the outline of responsibilities for each of these positions.

However, you can’t just put those two elements together and call it a job description - it has to be compelling enough to convince a candidate to click the apply button. 

Crucially, it is about trying to find the balance between giving enough details about the role and being concise when you're writing a job description. 

RESOURCES: More than 400 ready-to-use Job Description Templates‍

5. Choose Features That You Need Now, And In The Future 

Finally, now that you have all the necessary information, you can decide which job portal has the features you need now and in the future. If you’ve already planned the recruitment budget, you can include job board subscription(s) and the cost to promote your posts. 

There are many job portals in the market that offer free services through which you can create and publish a job advertisement at no cost. But, you have to compete with other recruiters who use them as well. 

Your post might be on the first page today but on the second or third page tomorrow. 

Consider all these points to determine if or when you should set aside some budget for job portals.  Do enough research, such as the packages, benefits, customer support, and possible ROI.

Receive Job Boards Applications Directly In Manatal

Using multiple job boards means that you expect to receive hundreds of resumes and applications at a time. This means you’ll spend your whole working day sorting through them, which inadvertently prolongs your time to hire and, you risk losing high potential candidates.

An applicant tracking system like Manatal that comes integrated with hundreds of job boards, allowing you to post job advertisements to job portals of your choice in just one click. 

That’s not all - our software also receives applications directly from job portals, and sorts candidates by the job they’ve applied for from each portal.

To Wrap It Up

Recruiters have turned to job portals knowing that the digital audience have access to the internet 24/7, mainly on their mobile devices. It’s a pool of potential candidates waiting to be discovered by you.

But, before you can move into action, there is some work to be done to lay the foundation for your strategy on job portals. To recap:

1. Establish the reasons for hiring
2. Research and list job titles that matches the responsibilities
3. Create a competitive compensation package
4. Write a compelling job description
5. Choose features that you need now and in the future

So, if you’re looking for an applicant tracking system able to manage multiple job boards in justa few clicks, we invite you to sign up for our 14-day free trial now.

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Recruiters across industries around the world have used the Manatal ATS platform to hire and scale their businesses. Sign up for a  14-day free trial to start sourcing candidates on multiple job portals.