Top 10 Job Search Portals Every Recruiter in the UK Should Use

It’s relatively simple today to find talent anywhere in the world to work for your organization. What isn’t so simple is assembling the right tools and resources to secure top talent faster than your competitors. In the past, a company’s career page, job fairs, or employee referrals might have been the primary sources of hires.

Recruiters relied on - often outdated - databases filled with professionals they had personally built relationships with over significant time. These sources may have been enough at the time to attract the right talent for just about any role. However, times have changed.

Fierce competition for talent, the rise of remote and gig working, and a decline in loyalty have made it tougher to attract and retain talent in the UK as well as the rest of the world. Hiring for tech roles, especially, has become more challenging in the UK since the pandemic as job seekers’ preferences have changed. Analysis of the job market found that IT vacancies increased 105% in 2021 - compared to 2020 - and that tech companies posted more IT vacancies in 2021 than all British businesses combined in 2020, according to ZDNet.

However, with the growth of online job portals - and other advanced technologies - recruiters and hiring managers are gaining access to a wider pool of applicants. What started with a few online job portals has multiplied into several sites that cater to just about every industry and demographic group - and this evolution is expected to continue. The global online recruitment market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.1% between 2019 and 2027 - reaching a value of $43.39 billion in 2027.

New technologies have also been put to use on these sites to increase their value for recruiters. For example, AI is helping to increase the speed and efficiency of searches by automating the identification of talent. It helps to present job vacancies to candidates who might not be aware of your organization through targeted keyword searches and enables HR departments to focus on meeting strategic hiring goals.

Additionally, the ability to integrate numerous job portals with an applicant tracking system (ATS) streamlines hiring activities like never before by consolidating the candidate information in one place and automatically updating CV details and work experience as it is changed.

If you are looking for better ways to identify and hire top talent, job portals are a resource to leverage in accomplishing this goal.

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Why use a job portal?

Today it is essential to look beyond employee referrals and your internal pool of workers to fill roles. Although it is still a valid way of sourcing applicants for a role, it won’t help the organization get the diversity or the skills it needs to innovate and grow at the pace of the global market.

Job portals expose your brand and job vacancies to a larger pool of potential candidates, which can increase the number and diversity of qualified applicants for a job - if you are posting inclusive job descriptions. Many sites also enable you to post dynamic content that helps to boost your employer's brand and increase the number of applicants to your jobs.

In addition to the exposure to a wider pool of applicants, there are some great reasons to incorporate more job portals into your talent acquisition efforts. For starters, organizations are under pressure to achieve more profit and ROI with fewer resources. The longer it takes to fill a vacancy, the higher the cost to employers. Conversely, hiring too fast can lead to a poor hire and increased turnover - and that is also costly.

Avoiding these outcomes requires HR teams to look at solutions that will help them achieve their hiring objectives more efficiently and give them an edge over their competitors. Job portals accomplish this by using algorithms to share your job listing with only the most qualified candidates based on specific keywords.

Many job search portals will also promote your listing for an added cost and provide dedicated services to help you make the right hire. These tasks are often conducted in a more cost-effective manner than traditional recruitment methods. These sites will also provide valuable data for analysis that will help your team modify its hiring activities.

It is also important to meet job seekers where they are. This is in terms of what they are looking for in a new job (e.g., pay transparency during the hiring process, flexible or hybrid working options, and more competitive benefits) and in terms of where they are finding job vacancies. Most professionals are starting their job search online, so it is important to be visible on all of the sites they would look to.

As this Wired article aptly points out, “Thanks to remote interviews and the sheer number of jobs advertised, candidates are finding that being picky just isn’t as time-consuming or awkward as it was pre-pandemic. It’s a feeding frenzy for anyone wanting to make the leap, even if they already have jobs.”

To ensure that you are not one of the many UK recruiters struggling to find the best candidates for an open job, consider using these sites to post jobs and advertise your brand.

Top 10 job portals

1. Adzuna - This UK job site started in 2011 and operated in over 20 countries with more than 15 million monthly users. The site helps employers get better candidates and in-depth insights to improve the effectiveness of their ads.
2. ‍Indeed UK - This US-based site launched in 2004 has a significant presence in the UK. Create an account for free, then post a job listing for a permanent or temp-hire. Employers only pay when people click on your job listing. Jobs from your organization’s career page and ATS can also be posted on Indeed for free.
3. ‍Monster UK - One of the oldest sites out there, Monster is a solid job portal option in the UK and worldwide. There are also single-use packages for employers who only need to hire for a specific role.
4. ‍LinkedIn - This popular social network for professionals includes professionals from all over the world. As of July 2022, there were 34 million users in the UK. You may have one job posted for free at a time, although LinkedIn highlights the benefits of promoting jobs to users beyond your connections. The expectation is that you will receive three times more applicants by promoting a job listing on the site - rather than just posting the job.
5. ‍Glassdoor - This is a popular job portal because it allows current and former employees the ability to anonymously review their employers. This helps employers to manage their reputations. According to the company, 97% of users in the UK are job seekers actively looking for a new job or would consider better opportunities, and three-quarters are more likely to apply to an open job if the employer is active on Glassdoor.  A free subscription provides basic employer branding capabilities such as diversity and inclusion programs and goals, as well as the ability to view activity on your employer profile and candidate demographics.
6. ‍Otta - Started in 2019, this job portal focuses on posting tech positions at what they call “high-growth” startups. Organizations can claim their business profiles and post jobs for free. The company also offers a premium plan for those who are looking for more support in their hiring efforts.
7. ‍Reed.co.uk - This employment agency was the first to establish a job search website in the UK in 1995 and has been a long-term player in the recruitment market. The site also allows employers to screen and rate candidates that are sent to your inbox. The company also has a powerful CV search function that gives employers access to its database of 12.5 million job seekers.
8. ‍CV-Library - Launched in 2000, CV-Library boasts the largest database of resumes in the UK, with over 14 million. Employers have the option to post jobs or search for CVs.
9. ‍TotalJobs - This job site offers listings for every hiring need, whether it is temp, remote, or permanent. This option allows you to access online resources to help with your hiring needs. In addition to online resources, employers also receive dedicated assistance from their staff to help you meet your hiring needs.
10. ‍WorkinStartups - Just as the name suggests, this site features job listings from UK startups. There are jobs listed for multiple specializations across industries. All listings are featured on their parent site Adzuna.

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Consolidate your hiring activities in one platform

These are some of the top sites but are far from the only job portal options in the UK. No matter your hiring need, a cost-effective online job portal is available to aid in your talent search. It is also essential that you have a recruitment solution in place like an ATS to manage your team’s recruitment activities. 

The top solutions facilitate easy integrations with job portals to streamline hiring efforts across the team and make it simple to schedule interviews and manage communications with applicants. With an ATS, recruitment teams can quickly upload job listings to multiple job sites, integrate CVs from job portals into candidate profiles on the platform, and analyze job portal results to understand the source of their hires and refine hiring efforts going forward.

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Manatal platform allows you to receive applications from job portals, including Indeed, LinkedIn, and Monster, to view your applicants in one place. Start its 14-day free trial now to learn more about the platform and its job board integrated.