Do you remember your first time riding a bicycle? Most of us stumbled through the learning process. And all of a sudden, we knew how to ride a bicycle. We learned to maintain balance, accelerate, and stop without falling. And we reached this phase due to a human ability called muscle memory.
Similarly, once a job board gets on its feet, the next goal is to try and keep the momentum going through automatic processes. By automating core operational activities using job parser or job posting technology, it can try and evolve to the next level. So how do you begin to automate?
You start by simply identifying tasks that can be handled automatically. Some tasks require too much attention-to-detail and at first, they may seem difficult to automate. But, as a growing job board, you need to break these tasks into parts and try to automate what you can at first.
Job parsing, for example, can be automated using crawlers and bots. With most web crawling service providers, you can simply point to the jobs you want on your job board. The job data is scraped and added to your database automatically.
However, you need to go beyond your competitors and implement a personal touch to even standard technology like job parser technology.
Think beyond a job parser for automated job aggregation
One of the most necessary operations involved in running a job board is job data aggregation. To collect job data, multiple job boards use a job parser. This technology can collate data from many company websites. But is your job parser customizable?
Can it intelligently scrape jobs from companies that, say, fit your niche or automatically target companies you may have missed out on?
You might say that you filter unnecessary data out in the next stage – but this process involves duplication of efforts. Once to collect the unnecessary data and then to sort it out. Not to mention, all the storage space involved!
So you want to make sure that you’re using the most efficient job parser technology available.
Some helpful job board terms –
While job parsing can get you all the job data, it may fail to deliver good job data quality. This is especially true while aggregating job data in bulk. Hence, you need to take additional measures to ensure that your job board has good job data normalization processes in place. For this purpose, you can consider the following methods:
- Job Data Normalization: You may have noticed that employers store their job data in different formats. This presents a huge task for automatic job collection; most job boards give up on automating this stage. Job data normalization is when the scraped job-data is studied, cleaned and aligned to fit your job formats. This way you have consistent formats for jobs and all the job data appears in the right job fields.
- Job Data Optimization: The job data optimization process allows you to arrange data based on job ID, job title, job description, skills, and location. This helps when you need to boost the intelligence quotient of your job board. You’re teaching your technology to identify the difference between skills, experience, locations and other factors in a job description. This, in turn, helps optimize job board search algorithms – it automatically inserts the right data into the right fields. What’s more? It can even fill in the right data where there is none! Read more about job data enrichment here.
By automating these two tasks, you can accumulate the increasing number of job vacancies in the US job market. You also develop a job platform that is self-sustaining and offers clean, non-erroneous jobs to job seekers.
Of course, job board automation only works if you’re delivering quality job data. Yes, you may have tweaked processes to run at a quick pace. And your operating costs are now lower than ever. But you need to consider the cost of losing a user due to poor job quality on your job board.
Improve the job-seeker experience for automated traffic generation
Speaking of job seekers, your automation needs to help your job board deliver a user-friendly experience. From color schemes that are attractive and increase website engagement to navigation elements, every bit should provide a fruitful experience for job seekers. But, to design a website that is as effective as it is visually appealing, you need job data that sticks to the format.
You also need jobs on your portal, that are still LIVE and not beyond their expiry point. In other words, you need to develop a system that automatically purges out dead jobs. Or you can incorporate a high-rate of refreshment to ensure that jobs are updated on a daily basis. This way, users don’t keep clicking on jobs that are no longer available for positions that have been filled.
Also remember, that your job crawlers will add many jobs at a single go. And job seekers will end up scouring through many jobs that aren’t relevant to them. To simplify this process, you need to implement job feed categorization. By categorizing your job feed, you help candidates filter job search results based on locations, job titles, expected CTC, and work experience.
Additionally, you can install a search engine that understands a job seeker’s preferences and suggests relevant jobs. Resume parsing works in a similar fashion, where a tool scans through several candidate resumes to offer relevant resumes to employers. Similar to resume parsing, an intelligent job search engine can analyze each job seeker’s preferences to suggest suitable jobs.
Set the cycle in motion and watch your job board grow
Utilizing the right marketing techniques can help you gain large volumes of traffic. You have to understand that having good, high-quality job data is an advertisement in itself. Recruiters are bound to notice the increasing traffic on your platform. Based on your reach, they will boost revenue by showcasing jobs on your platform. Congratulations, you are now getting exclusive job vacancies that may not be available on other platforms.
Can you build on this advantage by offering recruiters something your competitors aren’t? How about if you automated the job posting process for recruiters? Here, your job board would have to partner directly ATS systems and grab jobs right when recruiters have posted them. Now you have a B2B USP – a completely hassle-free job advertisement experience for your clients. Of course, you will need to automate the job feed APIs to ensure that they sync well with your job board’s scheduling cycles.
By offering exclusive jobs on your portal, your job board can become a one-stop job search solution for job seekers. Therefore, you can create an endless cycle of drawing an increasing number of candidates and recruiters.
Use multifunctional tools for job board automation
Sometimes, a single tool will not be able to automate all your job board tasks. Do your research to find various tools that are available online and even, tools that are used by your competitors. You want to look for scalable systems that can adapt to your future business plans.
Or, you could look for a standalone, comprehensive solution for automating core tasks. Job wrapping tools like Propellum perform tasks, such as job crawling and job data aggregation, exceptionally well. Propellum can automatically aggregate jobs from various employer websites. It uses a variety of intelligent, customizable systems to categorize job data and update it regularly. Propellum’s job wrapping services ensure that your platform is automated and up to the highest quality standards.
Mapping the future for your job board
By now you’ve learned how most job board operations can be automated. Manually undertaking tasks such as job parsing, job data aggregation, job feed updates, resume parsing and job posting consume time and resource efforts. By using automation for your job board, you can create an efficient and high-functioning platform at a fraction of the costs. But your tasks don’t end there.
You can only achieve true competitive advantage by focusing your efforts on the aspects of a job board that cannot be automated. Your job board vision, the brand diversification, penetrating new markets, and advertising are some of the things you need to dive into. And you can only do this by freeing up time and manual efforts. Plus, the low operating costs help! So, in conclusion, if you are looking for varying degrees of automation for your job board, feel free to set up a free consultation call with our team to understand how we can help you achieve your job board goals.
