Attracting Talent Takes Attention to Job Boards, Networks and Social Media

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"Why should you work for Money-Media?" is the headline to a crisp, fast-paced video on the homepage of the Financial Times-owned company. In the impressive 3-minute video, we hear from various employees about the career-growing opportunities, trust and camaraderie bursting forth in their brick-laden office. Then we see laughter and food at staff gatherings, a softball title and comfortable meetings.

"Money-Media is one of those rare places to work," managing director Dan Fink says towards the end of the video. "We publish our values on the website for the world to see. Those aren't just marketing spin—we live by those values every single day."

Finding good people these days is not easy, especially as the jobless rate has gone down. A new survey from project-matching company Clutch, titled How Do People Find Jobs?, reported that 41% of 507 new hires they interviewed found their current role through an online job board. One of the SIPA benefits that doesn't get talked about enough is our job board. (If you'd like to post a job, email Nancy Brand with the details.)

Fink is justifiably proud of that homepage video and his staff overall, who took home four SIPAwards last year. "We launched [the video] after investing a significant amount of time and money to produce it," he said. "The same team that produced the corporate website video also produces video content for our product websites."

Here are more takeaways from that Clutch survey:

Be perceptibly social. Not surprisingly, social media is making inroads as a new job source, with 14% of recent hires crediting it for finding their current role. This includes LinkedIn—have you updated your company page lately?—to creative platforms such as Instagram and Twitter. Use the platform that you believe might attract the person who fits your job. A strong Twitter account may showcase a good writer or marketer. Visual people may excel on Instagram. Facebook, which now offers a feature for businesses that want to hire local candidates, may unveil a strong people person. (Think sales perhaps.) Initial job conversations can even take place on Facebook Messenger.

Publicize your job board. "Going to a general job board may be the first step [job seekers take]," said Jenna Filipkowski, Human Capital Institute's head of research. "If they find what they're looking for there, they don't need to take the deeper dive." Added research analyst MaryFran Heinsch: "If the target audience isn't visiting job boards with the same frequency as the rest of the employee pool, then you are going to have to specialize." That may mean finding more niched or diverse job boards.

Optimize so the right people get job alerts. Nearly 90% of people use automatic job alerts while searching for a new role. And 61% say these alerts are effective, including 21% of people who find them very effective. As a company you can optimize those online job boards—and thus make sure the right people get job alerts—by writing detailed job descriptions that contain keywords related to the role and providing all relevant details.

Network with more people in your field, including college staff. One-quarter of recent hires found their current role through networking or tapping into their existing social connections. The Clutch article tells a story of two owners who decided to relocate their businesses to Nevada from California. They chose a location near the University of Nevada, Reno, in part because they could establish relationships with business journalism professors and lure top students. "Seek out the person who handles internships. That was the most valuable person for us."

Keep diversity in mind and adjust when needed. Women are more likely to find their next job through an online job board (44%) than through networking (25%). One reason they cite, through Pew Research Center, is that women may put their networks on hold while caring for young children. Kenneth L. Johnson, president and founder of East Coast Executives, suggests that the best solution to increasing diversity is often the simplest one: Engaging with your community.

Don't count on your newsletter. Email newsletters are still great for engagement but not for job recruitment. Only 5% of the recent hires found their job through a digital newsletter

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Ronn Levine began his career as a reporter for The Washington Post and has won numerous writing and publications awards since. Most recently, he spent 12 years at the Newspaper Association of America covering a variety of topics before joining SIPA in 2009 and SIIA in 2013 as editorial director…