How to Post Jobs Online

Ways to post jobs online to maximize your chances of attracting great talent

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Are you convinced that the Internet is the most useful tool for employers recruiting qualified employees? You should be. You can post jobs online and use the Web for recruiting. Even a job posting in the classified section of your local newspaper is likely to produce mostly electronic resumes and applications these days.

Easily customizable, free, and paperless, why wouldn’t prospective employees apply online? You can post jobs online and reap the benefit of the many potential employees searching online for jobs. Make the online world your recruiting partner; these are the best ways to post jobs and recruit online.

1. Your Organization's Website and Social Media

Place the link prominently on your home page. Your job posting will attract candidates who are interested in your mission and vision as well as your open jobs.
Make the recruiting portion of your website communicate your company culture, the reasons why a prospective employee will want to choose your firm, and specific instructions on how to successfully apply for your posted jobs.

Your company website posted jobs are also featured on online job search sites. Indeed.com, for example, is a search engine for jobs that drives job searchers directly to jobs on corporate career websites, employee recruiting job boards, online newspapers, blogs, and association websites.

Opportunities for employers to post jobs online at social media sites are also growing daily. Don't miss the opportunity to place your stake in the ground where active and passive job searchers mingle.

2. Online Social Media Sites

As the power and reach of sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter expand, so does their facility as an online resource to recruit employees. Each offers employers methods to recruit and hire employees, but the true power of their reach may rest in your ability to tap into the power of your satisfied employees and their online networks.

With an involved population that exceeds the number of people residing in the US, Facebook postings about jobs and products by employees and customers reach millions in employee online networks (friends) on Facebook.

Social media job posting opportunities are becoming one of the best ways to find employees online. You can post jobs online at LinkedIn on your company page. Facebook also offers company pages where you can post jobs and focus on disseminating news about your company and your work environment. Apps available on Facebook automatically post jobs that are drawn from your website. You can auto post to Twitter, too, using sites like Tweet My Jobs.

If you think you can't do it, look around you; you probably can. The innovations for employer job posting on social media sites are growing. Potential employees, who frequent these social sites, can stay up-to-date on your job listings without ever leaving their favorite site. This is a key tool to attract employees who have identified your company as a place where they'd like to work.

And, many additional social networking sites, based on causes, industries, interests, businesses, skill sets, and more, exist. Identify the social media and networking sites that cater to people in your industry, and that attract people with the skills you need and participate. Each has its own protocol, which you can learn, to source great candidates online.

3. Newspaper Classified Section

No, classified advertising in local newspapers is not dead. It has changed. Still, an opportunity to fill many positions, especially local jobs requiring local candidates, your neighborhood newspaper recognizes the power and reach of the online world.
When you purchase a classified ad, you automatically post the job online, at an often reasonable, additional cost - or no additional cost.

The Ann Arbor News, for example, has a cooperative online relationship with MLive – Everything Michigan and will allow you to purchase online postings and combination online and paper postings.

Additionally, many local newspapers and regional papers offer the opportunity to post jobs online for a local or regional audience without purchasing a print classified. One advantage to the online job posting is that space is not an issue - you don't pay by the column inch which allows you to fully describe the posted job opening.

CareerBuilder.com powers the online job postings for more than 1,600 partners, including over 100 media sites, America Online, and MSN.

4. University Alumni Boards

While these jobs are typically listed through the institution's main career services channel, the college may have special services for alumni job searchers and employer recruiters. Especially for jobs requiring degrees, you’ll locate qualified, often local, candidates.

Almost all colleges and universities have some kind of career services office that allows you to post jobs online. They maintain contact with their alumni and are likely to assist alumni to job search over the course of their careers.

Additionally, they may offer employer connection services that make recruiting their alums easier for employers. The institution from which you are recruiting may also maintain an alumni LinkedIn group where you can post jobs for free.

Focus your recruiting attention on colleges and universities that graduate candidates with the degrees and skills that your company needs. It may pay you back in excellent recruits to develop a relationship with the alumni career services staff.

5. University Student Career Centers

Many offer free job postings and feature, local candidates, especially for beginning career positions and internships. Others have partnered with online services.
You can focus on colleges and universities that offer degree programs that qualify their students for your available jobs. Or, focus on local campuses that have students who may want to remain in your area. Colleges are dedicated to helping their students obtain employment; often a deciding factor when students choose their college.

Get to know and develop relationships with professors and others in the departments that graduate your desired candidates. Your insider relationships and information may allow you to attract the most desirable grads.

They also assist you to land high-quality interns - students who may eventually become your most treasured employees. And, you get to try them out before you purchase their long-term services, an opportunity that savvy employers recognize is one of the key advantages of their internship programs.

6. Job Search Engines

Consider onlinejob search engines. For example, Indeed.com offers opportunities for employers to pay to have their job listings stand out. Employers avoid the cost of posting jobs online on multiple sites that then must be monitored.

Getwork indexes a company's website daily to offer applicants an opportunity to apply for your newest, often unadvertised jobs, directly through your company website. This enables employers to receive online job applications that meet your specific requirements.

SimplyHired lists employer jobs for free and offers a pay-per-click option that allows your jobs to stand out from the pack. Their relationships with all of the major social networking sites give your open jobs wide distribution.

Stay in touch with the world of job search engines. New sites proliferate and, depending on your requirements, may help you meet your recruiting needs.

7. Commercial Job Boards

Take a look at commercial job boards such as Monster, CareerBuilder.com for general jobs, and CoolWorks.com for seasonal jobs. While their massive reach will bring you quantities of resumes from unqualified candidates, the occasional applicant gem exists as well. (I once found a well-qualified CFO through Monster.com.)

Because these job boards are known to all job searchers and have a huge reach, they attract applications from most online job searchers.

Their cited pricing is rarely the best price. Look for deals on the website or contact a sales agent. The sales agent will stay in touch with special offers for both posting jobs and search the job site’s resume database. You can save hundreds of dollars over listed prices.

More and more specialized job boards are entering the market. Depending on the qualifications required from the employees you seek, specialized job boards may be a better option for your online job posting than the big sisters in the online space.

Specialized job sites, such as Dice.com, target key employee skill sets or areas of expertise such as technology that your company may need. You may decrease the spam of hundreds of unqualified resumes in your inbox using more specialized job sites.

8. Professional Association Websites

The job postings are often low cost or free, especially for members. Your local chapters are almost all online and local candidates will view your job posting at the local association site before they will see it at the national website. Make spending decisions based on this recommendation.

In the same vein, post jobs in industry-related or industry-serving online or email newsletters. The candidates you attract will generally have experience in your industry but may be national and look for relocation expenses paid. Depending upon the ability of your region to attract job searchers, this may or may not be a good strategy for you.

9. State Department of Labor/Workforce Development Organizations

They appreciate employer job postings. Click on the map to select a state or choose from the list for the Department of Labor/Employment Security Commission/Job Service Office in your state.

In Michigan, employers can post jobs with the Michigan Talent Bank through Michigan Works. You'll find multiple options for both posting jobs online and recruiting candidates.

10. Messages to Associates and Colleagues

Seek candidates for your jobs. Referrals from people you know are usually good candidates because someone you know is vouching for them.

Many employers maintain customized lists of personal and professional contacts, and when they have a job available for which they seek referrals, they contact their mailing list members.

Looking to the Future: Recruiting and Job Posting Online

Options for online job posting and recruiting change daily. Just researching and staying on top of employer options during the past five years has been a daunting task as the online recruiting world changes daily.

I expect that online recruiting options will continue to multiply as opportunities to match employers with superior candidates are a never-ending quest.