Different job sites attract candidates with different sets of goals and values. A one-size-fits-all job posting might save time in the short-term, but you could risk losing out on great applicants by not personalizing your job descriptions. It’s in your best interest to tailor posts for each job site, so you can attract your ideal candidate—before your competition does. Here are some of the most important job sites (including social media) and tips to help you create effective job postings for each of them.
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- High-Volume Job Boards
- How to Write Effective Job Postings for High-Volume Job Boards
- Healthcare-Only Job Boards
- Social Media Platforms
- Better Hiring With Apploi
High-Volume Job Boards
High-volume job boards, like Indeed and Google for Jobs, attract millions of job seekers and employers from every industry. Because of this, it can be tricky to stand out in the sea of postings. But search engine optimization and carefully selected keywords can help you appear in your ideal candidate’s search results.
How to Write Effective Job Postings for High-Volume Job Boards
Be Clear
For these extremely popular job sites, clarity is particularly important. A potential candidate may scroll through hundreds of job posts in an hour. Let them know on first glance that this job fits their requirements, with clearly stated location, hours, minimum qualifications, and a run-down of duties and responsibilities.
Advertise Your Compensation
Transparency about salary and benefits can also help you stand out from the crowd. Right now, only 12% of job postings include salary ranges. But job seekers want this information, and employers are catching on. Between 2019 and 2020, the number of job posts for nurses that included salary information rose from 6% to 18%. Rise about the competition by letting candidates know how much they can expect to earn at your organization.
Let’s get more specific. Here are some of the biggest high-volume job boards, and how you can use them to your advantage.
Indeed
The number one job site in the world, Indeed is a heavy hitter. When you publish a job on Indeed, the platform will offer you additional questions to help build your profile. Answer as many as you can to create a holistic profile.
Tips for Effective Job Postings on Indeed
- Make especially sure to avoid clickbait or anything misleading. You want to attract the right candidates, not the most candidates.
- Indeed also has options for sponsored posts, if you want to invest in increased visibility.
- Keep your job description short and easily scannable, in order to best compete with other employers.
Learn about sponsoring your jobs on Indeed.
Google for Jobs
When a candidate first decides to search for jobs, Google is often the first place they go. After all, it’s the most popular search engine in the world. Google for Jobs doesn’t have all the features of LinkedIn or Indeed, but it’s accessible and easy to use.
Tips for Effective Job Postings on Google for Jobs
- SEO is of particular help here, as Google uses the same AI and algorithms for its job features as it does for the rest of its powerful search engine. Follow SEO best practices, like including job title, location, and level in the title.
- Make use of Google integrations, which can quickly check to see how your job postings are performing.
Yes, LinkedIn is technically a social media platform. But since it’s used so widely, and is particularly career-focused, it fits in among high-volume job boards. LinkedIn has about 830 million members total, with 49 million people using it to search for jobs each week.
Think of LinkedIn as a bridge between traditional job boards and social media. You can have a more distinct voice on LinkedIn than on Indeed or Monster, but you don’t have to compete with the non-professional content that’s inevitable on most social media sites.
Tips for Effective Job Postings on LinkedIn
- Be wary of adopting an over-casual tone. Even though LinkedIn is a social media platform, it’s generally much more professional than platforms like Snapchat or Facebook.
- Post about your openings often to ensure that candidates who arrive at your page organically know that you’re hiring.
- Use the InMail function to proactively reach out to top candidates. Take care to tailor your messages so you don’t get dismissed as spam.
Other High-Volume Job Boards
- ZipRecruiter
- Monster
- CareerBuider
- SimplyHired
- Glassdoor Jobs
More Tips for Effective Job Posts on High-Volume Job Boards
- Use SEO to stand out: even if you’re not an SEO expert, you can still optimize your posts for search engines.
- Make sure that the location and job title are clear in your job posting header
- Pick a couple keywords, such as ‘part time,’ ‘certified nurse assistant’ or ‘entry level’ that you repeat throughout the job post.
Note: Multilingual Job Boards
English might not be the sole or primary language that your ideal candidates speak.
Job boards in languages other than English, particularly languages commonly used among your residents and patients, can help you attract candidates who may otherwise be overlooked.
Univision Trabajos, for example, is a popular Spanish language job board with a substantial healthcare job market. Even if you post a job description in English, Univision will translate it to Spanish so more visitors can consider applying.
If someone on your hiring team is multilingual, you can also utilize the non-English portions of other job sites. LinkedIn, for example, is available in 25 different languages.
Before you choose to advertise in another language, make sure you have the resources to support these candidates throughout the hiring process and beyond. For example, you’ll need an interviewer who can properly assess candidates in their spoken language, and managers who can communicate with new hires effectively.
Healthcare-Only Job Boards
The number of candidates on healthcare-specific job board might be lower than on larger job boards or social media sites. However, the candidates that use the board are specifically interested in healthcare positions, meaning more of them may be attracted to your positions.
Hired Nurses
Hired Nurses is a healthcare-specific job board that allows you to find candidates across nursing, from registered nurses to certified nurse assistants, as well as nurses specialized in particular fields. With the perils of the nursing shortage, a site like Hired Nurses can help you directly target your staffing needs, without having to sift through candidates who aren’t qualified or interested in healthcare.
Other Healthcare-Specific Job Sites
- Health eCareers
- Mycnajobs.com
- JAMA career center
- MedicalJobs.org
- MedJobsCafe.com
- CareerVitals
Writing Effective Job Posts for Healthcare-Specific Job Boards
- When it comes to SEO, you can afford to be more specific on sites that already cater to healthcare.
- A keyword like “nursing” could help you stand out in Indeed, but “geriatric nursing” or “ICU nursing” could be more helpful on Hired Nurses.
On social media platforms, you’re not just competing with other job postings. You’re competing with a whole range of content. A lone job post, with no context or brand recognition, will likely be passed over by active and passive candidates.
- Build up your social media brand to attract more candidates. What kind of voice and style do you want to represent your company?
- Don’t be afraid of experimenting. If you’re unsure about your brand voice, try testing a few concepts to see what gains traction. As an added bonus, building a brand can also bring clients and partnerships your way.
- Be catchy. Social media is all about the attention economy—make sure your job posts stand out.
- Use video. The human brain processes images at far greater speed than text. Plus, social media offers opportunities for video (and other visuals) that job boards do not.
We get into some specific social media platforms below.
Snapchat
Snapchat might not be your go-to for hiring, but you’d be surprised by how fruitful it can be. Stories on Snapchat are brief, to the point, and easy to digest (though there are also opportunities for longer content).
Snapchat can also help you target Millennials and Gen Z, with a majority of its user base under the age of 35. Still skeptical? It might help to know that Snapchat has been proven to be effective: AOL used it to increase application intent by 18%, and gained a 40% increase in job views on Glassdoor.
Tips for Effective Job Postings on Snapchat
- Be catchy and concise. You have a very short amount of time to get information across.
- Post often. Snapchat stories disappear within 24 hours, so you may not reach your entire follower base every time you post.
Reddit is a social media platform that consists of different online forums, where users can post, comment, and vote. Subreddits (forums) like r/jobs, r/recruiting, r/forhire, and r/jobbit, can be a helpful place to start.
That being said, more specific subreddits, such as r/Chicagojobs and r/nursingjobs (8.4K and 1.1K subscribers, respectively), are often more helpful. These smaller communities may not lead you to the larger audiences of r/jobs (857K), but can help you find candidates more uniquely suited to your open positions.
Tips for Effective Job Postings on Reddit
- Read the rules. Most subreddits have a set of rules and not following them can get you banned (and hurt your reputation).
- Check out the most popular posts in the subreddit to get an idea of the community’s tones, as well as what posts do well.
TikTok
TikTok is a social media juggernaut. With TikTok’s video-based platform (including video lengths up to 10 minutes), you have unlimited creative potential—which can be as exciting as it is overwhelming.
Tips for Effective Job Postings on TikTok
A clear brand voice is helpful in all social media, but it can be especially helpful with TikTok’s powerful (and occasionally fickle) algorithm. If your branding alone isn’t getting you enough candidates, consider TikTok’s spark ads, which allow you to easily connect with influencers who may give your posting a boost.
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Better Hiring With Apploi
Apploi can help you seamlessly distribute effective job postings to both healthcare-specific and generalized job boards, allowing you more time to make meaningful first connections with candidates.
Interested in learning more about how you can recruit, hire, and onboard healthcare staff quickly? Contact us today for a free demo of our end-to-end talent management solution.
