Six tips for HR to make the most of job search sites

This article is brought to you by Indeed.

In today's candidate-driven job market, here's how job search site Indeed provides a comprehensive platform for employers and HR leaders to find their best-fit candidates.

Rewind the clock to a different era - when the GM of HR had to walk over to the nearest post office to retrieve a stack of job applications that candidates mailed in, head back to their desk and manually sort them out. All this, before finding the time to mail each candidate for a date and time, all of which took constant back-and-forth.

Fast forward to today, and applications are sent virtually; HR no longer has to scour through tons of paper and instead, can track a candidate's application paperlessly with a few simple clicks. This has, no doubt, made the entire process more efficient than ever, and truly enabling HR to connect the right jobs to the right people.

Needless to say, job search sites have played a big part in bringing about this convenience, and in this piece, we focus on how to leverage them for the best results.

How you can optimise your experience with job search sites

#1: Create an account and post a job

First and foremost, start by providing basic information about your company, to give candidates an overview of its nature of work. This includes current open positions, salary, position title, as well a location of work.

Where you'll be spending a little more time and thought are details such as a written job description, and application questions such as educational qualifications, career history, and more.  Once that is done, don’t forget to specify how, or via which email, you’d prefer applications to be submitted.

#2: Ensure you have quality content that attracts quality candidates

As Bill Gates once said, content is king - what you write, and the quality of it, determine whether or not you can capture the curiosity of job candidates.

Thus, one of the ways to first get their attention is to have specific job titles that are targeted and include phrases that best describe the role you are posting about. This is best in communicating the role clearly, as well as making it more likely to pop up in search terms.

For instance, when posting about a kitchen crew role:

Do: Name it 'Restaurant Service Crew'

Don't: Give it too-fancy a name such as 'In-Shop Sandwich Maker'.

Further, be precise with your job titles, ensuring they include phrases which describe the role. Do avoid using acronyms, jargon, or internal titles that could confuse the candidate.

For example:

Do: Write it as "Senior Account Executive"

Don't: List it as "Sales III - Account Executive"

#3: Sponsor a job

A sponsored job is a paid listing that is prominently displayed at the top and bottom of relevant search results. Unlike free listings, sponsored jobs do not fall back in search results as time goes (think back to your shopping experience on Amazon where you had the same top result no matter which page you were on).

Per Indeed data, sponsored jobs receive up to five times more clicks from job seekers. What you, as the HR decision-maker, will have to consider at this stage is your budget and requirements for sponsoring a job.

#4: Manage your employer dashboard

Once you've posted and sponsored your job, it is important to maintain oversight of all your crucial recruitment data in one place. This is where the employer dashboard comes in. Not only should you be able to manage your job listings and schedule interviews; but you should also have one-click access to parameters such as open and closed jobs, total number of applicants, and more.

#5: Communicate easily with candidates

Through the candidate interface, ideally recruiters would be able to view the applicant’s qualifications, expertise and more, before forwarding the résumé to other hiring stakeholders for their feedback.

You can also look forward to being equipped to email promising candidates or schedule an interview, bookmark candidate profiles, and more.

#6 Measure the performance of your investment

Working with a comprehensive job search site would equip you to track how well your sponsored job postings are doing, through dynamic performance reports which provide you with total cost used up, number of post views, candidates, and more.

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How Indeed can help recruiters

More people find jobs on Indeed than anywhere else. Indeed is the #1 job site in the world (comScore, March 2019) and allows job seekers to search millions of jobs in over 60 countries and 28 languages. More than 250 million people each month search for jobs, post resumes, and research companies on Indeed, and Indeed delivers three times more hires than any other job site (SilkRoad Technology Source of Hire Report, 2018).

For more information, visit indeed.com or refer to Indeed's A Guidebook for Growing Businesses.