The best places to post your job

5 questions to answer before posting a job

Where you share your job description will vary based on the role you’re hiring for. You can use these questions to help you determine the best places to post open roles.

Who am I hiring?

Seniority of role, and the industry you’re hiring in, will impact where you share the job description. You’ll want to think about where your audience spends their time or which job boards they are most likely to visit during their search. For example, if you’re hiring an IT professional, consider promoting your open req on LinkedIn. There are also tons of niche job boards to help you home in on the right talent pool if the role is more specialized. For a seasonal or retail position, consider a job board focused on hourly employment. 

What is my budget?

Sometimes there is no charge to post a job description, but you may need to pay to target more qualified candidates. For example, if you’re low on budget, consider promoting the role on social media sites or LinkedIn.com through your Company Page. But you should also determine how competitive hiring is for the particular role you’re trying to fill. Different kinds of jobs require different budgets in order to hire quickly and find the right talent, especially if the role is in demand. Set a budget that matches your eagerness to fill the role. 

Where are my competitors posting similar roles?

Doing this research will help you understand where candidates for your role are most active. Be sure to investigate which social media platforms your competitors are using to attract hires. Are they using free job boards or paying to promote their jobs? If they are putting budget against job ads, it might signal a high degree of competition. 

When should I post my job?

Share your job post early in the week to reach more active job seekers. Research shows that candidates view and apply to job descriptions most often on Mondays. Also, consider testing into posting on different days of the week or varying the time of day to see if you see a spike in applications. Different platforms also may vary in terms of the optimal timing for posting jobs, so experimenting can be an effective way to find out what works best for you. 

How did my last job post perform?

Measuring how a previous job post performed, if it was for a similar role, can provide invaluable information about what worked—and what didn’t. Don’t hesitate to dig into the metrics, and change your strategy if needed.

Top places to post job descriptions, and why

After you’ve answered the questions above, it’s likely you’ll decide to post your job in several places. Here’s where many recruiters and hiring managers go to post jobs, and the benefits of each. 

Company website

The “Careers” page of your website is a great way to attract potential candidates who are already interested in your company. Highlight open roles on your company blog and social media pages (if you have them) and point people to find out more on the “Careers” page. 

Free job boards

With millions of searches every month, free job boards work best if you want to cast a wide net for your job post. They are also a good choice when hiring for contractor, remote or part-time workers.

Free job boards are also useful if you have a lot of open roles to fill; some offer unlimited job postings. This can also be a good way to cast a wide net and get a variety of applicants with different backgrounds.  

Industry-specific job boards

Whether your desired candidate is a developer or a sales person, reach them where they’re likely to seek news about open roles: a job board devoted to their industry. An online search should point you in the right direction.

Social media

Always try to share job descriptions on your company’s Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages. That will make it easier for your biggest advocates—current employees—to share across their own social media channels. 

LinkedIn

With 660m+ members in all industries, LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network where you can reach high quality candidates. Share your open jobs for free with your network on the LinkedIn newsfeed. Or showcase what makes your company unique with a Career Page, and spotlight open jobs with targeted ads. LinkedIn makes it easy to find relevant candidates for your open reqs and empowers talent to learn more about your company.  

Only on LinkedIn can your job post be seen by both active job seekers as well as people who are waiting for their next opportunity.

How to measure job post performance

The job post metrics that matter

Once you’ve posted your job, it’s essential to monitor its performance. This way you can optimise underperforming posts and continue to build your candidate pipeline. You’ll also be able to identify what’s working, and put that to use moving forward. Here are three job post metrics to monitor:

1. View rate

The total number of job post views will give you a high-level understanding of how your job description is performing.

How to calculate it:
# of candidates who have viewed your job post = view rate

Why it’s important:
View rate allows you to directly compare the performance of your post on each platform. If one social media channel is outperforming, you may want to consider focusing on promoting your jobs on certain channels. Or if it’s underperforming, perhaps it’s worth investing in a promoted job post to increase views.

2. Apply rate

This simple metric lets you know how many people view a job post before someone applies.

How to calculate it:
# of candidates who viewed the job post/# of candidates who applied for the job = apply rate

Why it’s important:
Of the candidates who view your job, how many actually apply? If this is tracked by number of applications per platform, you can identify which platform is most effective. It also provides a way to benchmark your your job post’s performance, which may vary by function or role type.

3. Cost per hire

Once you’ve filled a position, it’s important to calculate how much it cost in time and money.

How to calculate it:
Internal + external recruiting costs/# of hires = cost per hire

Why it’s important:
While this particular metric won’t allow you to optimise the performance of a job post, it does set a benchmark and can help you decide where to focus your job posting budget in the future.

By using one or all of these metrics, you can gain an insight into your job post’s performance. If you discover a post is not performing in line with expectations, it could be as simple as finding new places to post your job.

However, if your job post continues to underperform, it may be the job description itself. Check out our tips for writing more effective job descriptions.