What is a Job board

A job board is an online bulletin board where employers post their vacancies. Let’s find out in this article what it is used for and how it can help the work of recruiter.

If you’re a recruiter you’ve had to post a job ad on a Job board, but it’s not obvious to know the difference between a Job board and a Job ad aggregator, or the history and evolution of the Job board. Therefore, let us provide some clarity, starting precisely with the definition of a job board.

SUMMARY

• What is a job board?
• The benefits of using job boards for recruiters
• Difference between job board and job ad aggregator
• Historical evolution of job boards

What is a job board?

A Job Board is a portal for posting job ads, a true digital bulletin board that recruiters can use to make their job openings visible to candidates. Originally, a Job Board could be either a physical or virtual place, but in recent years paper job boards have definitely given way to digital ones so today the term job board refers exclusively to online portals for posting job ads.

The benefits of using job boards for recruiters

If the definition of a job board is clear, how can these online job board help recruiters? Let’s look at some advantages.

Job boards provide databases of CVs

Using a job board allows recruiters to actively search for potential candidates. On the user side, in fact, those who register for such job boards upload their CVs and info. Therefore, with targeted searches, it is possible for a recruiter to tap into a pool of potentially interesting people. Not only active candidates, but also passive candidates.

Job boards help improve employer branding

Using a job board to post one or more job openings means helping to increase employer branding.
This is because on many job boards it is possible to create one’s own company pages, but also because, when a company posts within a job board, it has an extra opportunity to make itself known, especially if it is small, recently born, and so on.
To give a few examples, job boards include sites such as Infojobs, Glassdoor but also a social such as LinkedIn that allows, for example, to post content in which you can highlight your company values, your culture, your successes, and also get a sense of what kind of company climate you have.

In addition to helping with active search, therefore, job boards allow for high visibility.

Job boards help save time

Posting your job advertisement on a job board saves a good part of the time you usually spend on finding the most suitable channels, tapping into potentially interested audiences, making yourself known, etc… Posting on a job board allows you to get lots of views and can help you find the right candidate in the shortest possible time.

Job boards allow you to intercept candidates from specific industries

If you are looking for someone in a specific field or with technical skills of a certain kind, job boards can be the right “place.” In fact, there are job boards dedicated for example to the world of fashion such as Fashion Jobs, to creative jobs such as precisely the Lavoricreativi.com site, dedicated to the world of agents such as CercoAgenti and so on.

Difference between job board and job ad aggregator

To complete the picture on the characteristics of job boards, it is worth mentioning the difference that exists between a job board and an ad aggregator. The former is an online bulletin board that can be more or less sectoral, a classified ad aggregator – as the word “aggregator” suggests – puts together ads that come from different job boards or from the “Work with Us” pages of company sites. They are in fact also referred to as job search engines. An example is Indeed.

Historical evolution of job boards

Historically the Job board emerged in the US in 1992, when Bill Warren launched the “Online Career Centre” service. Two years later (1994) was born what one of the world’s leading job boards, namely Monster. In the same year its direct competitor, Career Builder (as of today not present in the Italian market) was also founded.

Over the following years, Job boards have constantly evolved: since 2000 the general Job boards (with listings for all types of roles and industries) have sat side by side with vertical Job boards specialising in niche areas. As for Italy, we mention e.g. Rysto (catering sector), Republic of Interns (recent graduates) and FashionJobs (Fashion sector).

Over the years, Job boards and job search engines have integrated with the different Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) used by companies.
With software like Inrecruiting, which has numerous national and international integrations, for example, you can post job ads automatically and simultaneously on multiple job boards (Multiposting). CVs posted to and from each channel will be centrally collected in a single proprietary database, simplifying the screening effort.

It will be easier for companies to manage:

• posting and sharing job advertisements
• searching for candidates and CVs
• direct contact with candidates
• management of vacancies
• CV screening

Usually a job ad on a Job board includes the name of the company, a brief description of the job or role, the deadline for application and how to apply (often including a link to the company’s Work with us page, linked to the ATS).

Do you want to know more about Inrecruiting and integrated Job Boards? Our consultants will explain all the benefits of multiposting job ads.