Gone with the wind, Casablanca, Bridget Jones’s diary, and Victoria Cristina Barcelona. Yes, they were all excellently entertaining movies. But, there’s one more factor common in all these stories – protagonists mired in a love triangle! And, as it goes with every mainstream story, one person in the three-way relationship has to compromise to keep the relationship sustainable. But, in 2018, we don’t believe in making compromises. We believe in coming up with ways to work out the dynamics, whether it’s in our relationships or in our business.
Job boards, recruiters, and candidates are tied in a three-way relationship too. Job boards, recruiters and candidates are the three pillars that keep the fabric of online recruitment intact. None of these can work without the cooperation of the other two. Job boards, candidates, and recruiters all tend to rely on each other in one way or the other.
What does the relationship between job boards, recruiters, and candidates look like?
Job boards, recruiters, and candidates share a relationship of co-dependency. Each part of the relationship is inseparable and cannot operate without the other two. The interaction between the different participants looks something like this:
I. The job board-recruiter equation
Recruiters are constantly looking to hire intelligent candidates for their organization. Before the dawn of the Internet, recruiters used classifieds for advertising job openings. But, classifieds proved insufficient in reaching out to capable candidates globally. Additionally, recruiters had to go through the task of contacting every other newspaper and several different classified sources to advertise their jobs. They had to then personally share updates with the advertising agencies if the positions got filled, or if new jobs were available. Therefore, the response rate for job postings was far from satisfactory.
Hence, recruiters have moved local job postings from classifieds to job boards. Job boards created a platform for recruiters to efficiently advertise jobs and share updated job data feed. Job boards have eliminated the burden of manually reaching out and updating jobs for recruiters. Job boards collect job data from various recruiter websites and post them in one convenient location. Additionally, job boards update the job data and discard the old jobs for the latest job data feed automatically.
II. The job board-candidate equation
Candidates, after spending years of hard work throughout school and college, desire to find great employment opportunities. Candidates start trying their luck with different organizations in the field of their choice or expertise. Candidates are typically looking for jobs in reputed companies that pay well and provide multiple opportunities for personal growth. Hence, the process of finding the right job that fit a candidate’s preferences and also matches the organization’s requirements is exhausting.
With the rise of job boards, candidates have found a user-friendly and convenient landscape that fulfills all their job-hunting needs. Candidates get access to jobs from various global organizations via job boards. Furthermore, candidates can search and sort jobs based on location, job description, company name, and just so much more. Job boards have presented the candidates with multiple options to explore different jobs, their requirements, and future opportunities. Additionally, job boards have given candidates the opportunity to apply for jobs globally from within the comfort of their house. Hence, job boards have successfully created a platform to streamline the recruitment process and connect various candidates to employers.
III. The recruiter-candidate equation
In a growing economy, recruiters are continuously looking for intelligent candidates. Meanwhile, the candidates are always looking for better employment opportunities. Basically, candidates and recruiters are running in a maze, searching for each other. Hence, candidates and recruiters have a mutual necessity to connect with each other, at all times!
But, can the love triangle be sustained with job data solutions?
Job boards, recruiters, and candidates depend on each other to function to the best of their ability. While candidates and recruiters have a mutual requirement to connect with each other, as discussed above, job boards play a key role in sustaining this relationship by facilitating the connection. Job boards need to provide an overall efficient recruitment experience for both recruiters, as well as, candidates. Job boards can implement job data solutions to effectively sustain the three-way relationship. The job data solutions work in the following manner:
Job Crawling and Aggregation
Job boards have the tedious task of searching and collecting job data from various sources, such as employer websites and other job boards. If the task of searching and collecting job data is done manually, the chances of introducing errors and delays will increase substantially. Hence, job boards can carry out job crawling and job aggregation to streamline the entire process.
The process of job crawling uses a spider or a crawler to search for jobs on job boards and recruiter websites. Job aggregation, on the other hand, collects all the job data in one place. The whole process is automated and the job data is updated at regular intervals. With job crawling and aggregation, your job board can stay updated with all the latest jobs available at various organizations.
Job Feed Categorization
The collected job data contains large amounts of information about the company name, job description, and job location, to name a few. Hence, all the crucial job data should be organized to be used efficiently when posting a job or updating the job data feed. Job wrapping is the process of formatting job data according to location, job description, job location, and other such parameters. With job feed categorization, candidates find it very convenient to sort through the job data feed.
Job Posting Automation
Job posting automation will ensure that a job board only reflects job data feed that’s latest and revised. Additionally, job posting automation will regularly update your job data and post the updated jobs without any human intervention.
Analytics
Just like any business, job boards need to study the performance of their business. Analytics provide deep insight into critical statistics such as the average days for which a job. Furthermore, analytics helps to understand the job board traffic and the job market and recruitment industry trends to inform stakeholder strategies.
But how can your job board leverage job data solutions?
There are three methods to implement a job data solution for your job board. The first option involves hiring an in-house team for your job board. But the team manually searches and collects job data from various sources, which can be a long and tedious procedure. Besides, the in-house team needs to conduct an additional task of checking for updates in the job data and having the changes reflected on the job board. Hence, the long and exhausting process may introduce errors and delays in posting jobs and refreshing the job data feed.
Another alternative is getting an off-the-shelf tool for your job board. But an off-the-shelf tool is incapable of offering any support for technical glitches, if any, and changes in global recruitment technology.
Hence, the best option is to go for a premium job wrapping solution like Propellum. Propellum has a reputation of delivering a seamless experience to job boards, recruiters, and candidates when they all connect in the pursuit of filling vacancies. Propellum is a highly customizable and automated job wrapping tool. Additionally, Propellum provides 24×7 customer support and free tech upgrades.
For any relationship to sustain, each participant has to play his or her role sincerely. And the love triangle between recruiters, candidates, and job boards, is no different. If the recruiters and candidates are playing their parts aggressively, job boards need to ensure that they are not falling short in any way too. Job boards must, therefore, understand recruiter needs and maintain a user-friendly experience for the candidates.