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HR Business Tips: Choosing a Performance Driven & Cost Effective Job Board

Posted on October 18, 2015

Are you a business owner that is planning to hire an entry to mid-level position soon?  I suggest you read my article to save you time and money.

Our HR consulting firm was recently hired on an hourly basis to recruit for a newly created entry-level position. The job posting was for an entry level, management trainee for customer services for a well know Tech Company in Orange County, CA.

Because it has been over a year since I had last posted a position to a job board, I elected to test some of the top job boards. First I reviewe several job board articles that I found on Google.

Monster and CareerBuilder have their own platforms and it was routinely suggested to use one or the other.  I chose CareerBuilder, SimplyHired and indeed.com for my evaluation.

In the past, I have used Monster and ZipRecruiter.  Monster’s results were adequate and many articles suggested using either CareerBuilder or Monster, but not both.

When I last used ZipRecruiter, they had just lost their major job board partnerships and thereafter their results were almost non-existent.

The pricing models for CareerBuilder and SimplyHired are similar, a flat rate for each job post for a certain length of time. While CareerBuilder cost is in the $400.00 range, Simply Hired is half the amount. 

Indeed.com is different and what really intrigued me was their new pay per click model.  Perhaps, because I have done considerable Google pay per click, their methodology made sense.

What were the results?  CareerBuilder produced three (3) candidates during the 30 days and none of those applicants met my criteria.  After one week, I called my sales rep and he referred me to his manager in NY. The manager called me and said that CareerBuilder is “not really for entry level positions” and had I called my sales representative, he may have suggested that I not use CareerBuilder for my position!  The manager did not offer a credit, just his advice.

With SimplyHired, I experience website logging difficulty and was required to reset my password each time.  Although they are the cheaper alternative, the $149.00 was also a waste my time and my clients’ money. Two candidates applied during the 45-day period, but one was qualified.  The client needed five candidates and based on SimplyHired performance, it could take another four months to locate qualified candidates!

The “Job Board Champion” was indeed.com. Almost immediately, five to six candidates applied daily and approximately 30% of the applicants met my initial qualifications.  In addition, unlike CareerBuilder, indeed.com provides access to their resume data base and only charges a nominal amount if you do reach out to a potential candidate.  CareerBuilder charges $400.00 just to look!

Recruiters charge commissions of 30%, so they can afford to post to every job board. But, as a business owner, your time and money is valuable. If you do recruit and hire your own employees, I recommend you first look into using indeed.com for your recruiting needs.

Robert Reifeiss, Consultant

When your business requires professional HR assistance, please consider eqHR. Call 855-461-8808 for a no cost consultation.