Expert cites risks of 'putting all your eggs in one basket' with bigger platforms
Part of an effective recruitment process is finding the best place to advertise your job ads.
Over the years, Indeed, LinkedIn, and Glassdoor have been the biggest job boards out there that help connect recruiting organisations to jobseekers.
But Cori Lunnen, VP Recruitment Marketing Operations at HireClix, noted that there have been emerging platforms in the past five to 10 years called "challenger job boards" that focus on niche areas.
"It was a bit of a term coined based on challenger banks that take on some of the larger banks in this space and kind of applying that to the job board marketplace," Lunnen told HRD.
Lunnen said these challenger job boards are smaller platforms that cater to specific areas, such as tech talent or workers within the hourly space.
"So, it's capturing a potentially different audience," she said. "And with those niche sites that focus on tech talent or hourly retail, those job boards are really focused on cultivating those audiences and it gives employers the opportunity to get in front of those candidates if they're not spending time on the larger job boards in the space."
The job board marketplace is just as dynamic as the recruitment market itself. Neil Costa, founder & CEO of HireClix, predicts that many of these challenger job boards may fail next year, with the same amount also popping up.
Lunnen agreed with this forecast, noting that a lot of challenger job boards have popped up over the years and there’s a growing appetite for such patforms.
"I think there's also a push-pull within the marketplace, where while there are these smaller niche challenger job boards popping up, there's some consolidation happening," she said.
An example of this is JobGet recently acquiring hourly workforce job platform Snagajob, according to Lunnen.
"So, it's kind of supporting that argument that there's going to be more of these job boards popping up, while also I think consolidation for them to again solidify their stance within the marketplace," she said.
Another trend for these challenger job boards is their growing reliance on technology "as part of their differentiation."
"We've seen, I think, even with ZipRecruiter and some of the other smaller job boards out there taking a focus on AI, machine learning to enable ease of application for candidates within their platforms," she said.
"I think that's only going to continue to be a focus as Indeed and LinkedIn are also leaning into some of those areas with making it more user-friendly for candidates to apply through their platforms to specific companies."
With recruitment challenges plaguing organisations, it will be crucial that HR leaders know where to advertise to find the best talent.
Lunnen said there are a "variety of factors" that may be considered based on priorities.
"It could be based on the markets where they're advertising, so if they're looking at international advertising versus just US and Canada or even specific priority markets in the US, there are some job boards that have a better audience within those specific markets, but also for certain job functions," she said.
"So, with retail or healthcare, there may be certain job boards that have a better audience within their network to appeal to those needs for those specific clients."
There are no significant consequences if organisations choose not to advertise their vacancies on job boards, but it is important to be aware that they are out there, according to Lunnen.
"I think there's a missed opportunity when organisations aren't aware of these additional job boards in this space, even large job boards are leveraging traffic from these challenger job boards," she said.
There's also nothing wrong with advertising too much across various job platforms.
"Putting all your eggs in one basket with one job board, I think there's a ton of risk in that," she said.
"Where I think there's opportunity for employers to differentiate themselves is to diversify that advertising mix outside of Indeed to look at the challenger job boards, but also leveraging consumer media. So, looking at advertising on Meta, on Google Ads, or on Spotify to capture the audience that they're looking to get in front of for those candidates."
