The top 6 ways to get your in-house job board working

This article originally appeared in our weekly newsletter the Construction Labor Weekly. Join thousands of construction profressionals and subscribe for free with just an email address by clicking here. 

83% of construction companies are not satisfied with the performance of their in-house job board.

Meanwhile, job boards are a critical part of the best recruiting systems.

Your job board needs to work well as part of your recruiting process.

Yet most companies with job boards aren’t getting the results they need.

What’s worse is that many in-house job boards are actually turning people away from your jobs.

That’s why we’re going to talk about why in-house job boards aren’t working – and what you need to do about it.

 

What your job board isn’t working reason #1: Where even is it?

It never ceases to amaze us how some companies make it hard to find their open jobs.

Sure, the homepage needs to be a sales tool.

It also needs to be an employee recruiting tool. Especially in construction.

We recommend making it very easy to navigate to the job board.

Use an easy to see button. Or make it a clear menu item.

Just don’t make people hunt for your open jobs.

 

Why your job board isn’t working reason #2: Too many clicks

Count the clicks from a google search through applying on your job board.

What’s the number?

It’s probably somewhere north of three clicks. We’ve six and seven clicks.

That’s too many.

The more clicks required to get through the application the less likely anybody will be to find and apply to your jobs.

Make you jobs one click away from the homepage. Two at the max.

 

Why your job board isn’t working reason #3: Not enough eyeballs

The equation that gets jobs filled is a good job + marketed right + seen by the right eyeball = filled jobs.

So, a great job that nobody knows about won’t get filled.

The data on this is clear; more eyeballs mean more applications.

To fill jobs, you’re going to want to increase the number of people who are seeing your job posts. You need traffic.

This means getting serious about marketing your jobs so that they get seen.

Build your social media presence.

Create an email contact list.

Create a text messaging list.

Work with marketing consultants.

There are lots of ways to get your jobs seen, make it happen!

 

 

Why your job board isn’t working reason #4: Not the right eyeballs

Let’s say you’re getting traffic.

But wait, the traffic is full of unqualified candidates.

Is that a librarian in your applicant pool? Uh oh.

The traffic you get needs to be targeted.

It needs to be people that are qualified.

That means the marketing needs to target the right people.

Leverage existing networks like social media groups (LinkedIn, Facebook) and other online job boards as a way to drive traffic back to your in-house board.

 

Why your job isn’t working reason #5: Too much Information

The forty-six bullet points on essential duties is impressive.

But nobody’s reading your list.

The key here is to tighten up your post. 

We’re not saying you can’t have that information somewhere – maybe lower on the page – but get to the point in the job post.

Lay out a few key duties, the most important skills and let that speak for itself.

Even just a few bullet points probably won’t get read.

 

Why your job board isn’t working reason #6: Not enough Information

The goal of your job posts is to help job seekers quickly understand the job and decide to apply.

Making job seekers hunt for the information that want is hurting you and it’s wasting their time. We previously wrote about the eleven (11) pieces of information that job seekers are looking for.

Put compensation first. That means the most relevant information (ahem, compensation) needs to be at or near the top of the post.

 

Follow these tips and you’ll see improvements in your application numbers.