Recruiting: how to get the word out about your job opening

There are so many options for advertising your new job, that it’s nearly impossible to know where the best place to advertise will be! After all, just like regular advertising, if you don’t advertise in the right place, your ideal audience will not be reached. So what are your options when it comes to advertising and which is the best medium for you? Well, there are a lot of different places and ways to advertise your new job opening, here are a couple of options that can help you get the best candidates for your open position. 

Company job board

With a job board hosted by your company, you know that you are going to get candidates that are really interested in working for you specifically. Your company job board should be able to be found on your website. This will make it easy for your ideal candidates to find you and will also help your current employees apply for different roles within your company. Another great thing about your company job board is that it is completely branded for your business and you don’t have to compete with other companies for that great candidate. Hosting your own job board - which can easily be created and hosted through Ideagen Op Central -  is an excellent way to find the ideal (and most warm) candidates for your company.

The only drawback you may find with this approach is that you don't get a huge volume of applicants and may have to advertise longer or take a multifaceted approach to this post, such as posting on your social media with a link to your ad. 

Job advertising websites

Job sites (not hosted by you) can also be a fruitful way of finding the ideal candidate for your role. There are so many options available when it comes to finding an online job board. Websites such as SEEK, Indeed or MyCareer are all great options with lots of job seekers viewing and applying for jobs each day. The drawback to using sites like this is that there is a lot of competition, so it's hard to break through amongst the noise. Additionally, you may find a lot of people passively applying for jobs - meaning they will apply for any job they see without noticing the company or the specifics of the role. 

One way that you can minimise the downsides of posting on a job board like SEEK or Indeed, is by making your job post the most attractive. Often these job boards will give you a range of different customisation options, so make sure you utilise them! By adding in your branding and a clear, engaging tone of voice, you may find you are standing out from the crowd and that the applications are pouring in.

Alternatively, you may decide to go with a more industry specific job board. There are lots of different industry specific job boards, such as Mumbrella for arts and communications, or Interlogic for the tech industry. There are many different options out there and are likely some options for your industry. These types of job boards can help you laser focus on candidates who work or are interested in working in your industry. While this approach can be fruitful, it's also worth noting that to post on many of these job sites, you may be looking down the barrel of reasonably large fees (which can certainly add up over time!)

Social media

Social media is another great way to post and advertise your new job opening. With 79% of Australians checking social media at least once a day, you’ll be sure you can reach your audience in a timely manner. There are a couple of different social media strategies you may choose to use when posting jobs on social media. They are:

• Sponsored posts. Social media mediums such as Facebook and LinkedIn are increasingly becoming popular ways to advertise jobs. These paid ads can prove to be quite effective as they give you the opportunity to target your audience just like a regular paid advertisement on social media. Because of the large number of users on these platforms per day, you can be confident that you will be able to reach your ideal candidate. The problem with doing sponsored posts on social media is that you need to know how to conduct a targeted ad campaign to be able to make the most of the ad functions as well as spend your money effectively. The other drawback is that often people go to platforms like Facebook to take breaks from work and get in touch with friends and family, so sponsored job ads can be quite intrusive. Of course this is less true with LinkedIn, as this platform was primarily created for professional networking purposes. 
• Utilising your own social media. If you’re considering advertising through social media, you will almost certainly already have a social media account for your business. So why not utilise your following to promote jobs? Your followers are likely to be highly engaged with your brand and may have even been waiting to hear about jobs from you! With social media, you can mention a job posting in a simple image, text or video post and it can reach a highly engaged audience. Alternatively (as mentioned earlier) you can simply share your posts from job sites, giving your followers a strong call to action. Similar to the above point, you may find that your audience simply isn’t interested in hearing about your job opening and that they’re only interested in interacting with you on more of a product/service updates and offers basis. 

There are a lot of different options when it comes to advertising jobs and there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach to it, however most businesses are likely to find success if they take a multifaceted approach to the candidate search. By doing so, it gives you the opportunity to hit your ideal candidate in many different places and also gather more candidate submissions altogether.