Choosing the right place to post your recruitment ads is critical to success for any recruiter. There is a tonne of options out there, which sometimes makes it difficult to find the right one for your needs. To help you parse through that wealth of options, we’ve put together a list of the four best job boards in 2024 that you should be focussing your attention on.
In order to make this guide as useful as possible, we’ve included the following information for each top job site:
- Cost
- Pros
- Considerations
- Tips for success
Let’s get started!
The four best job boards for recruiters in 2024
Before we begin, you should note that these four job boards have been chosen for their general value to recruiters across the globe. They were picked for their widespread appeal, reach, and value to many different industries and company sizes.
The inherent value of one job site over another for your recruitment needs will obviously depend on who your target candidate is, and what level of expertise and experience you’re looking for. Niche industries, high-demand skills, and executive or management-level positions will all require more specialized job boards to yield the best results.
For all other searches, these four job boards are your best bets in 2024.
Indeed
Indeed is the reigning king of “best job boards” lists across the internet, and with good reason. It’s one of the most commonly used, most visited, and globally accessible job boards on the web. Acting as an aggregator from hundreds of job sites Indeed offers one of the largest search engines for job seekers.
Cost:
- $0 USD to post a job
- 0.10 cents to $5 USD per click to boost an ad (depending on the job and demand)
Pros:
- Job seekers often report that Indeed is the fastest way to find jobs, and has one of the easiest job application processes among online search engines.
- It allows job seekers to set up alerts for specific keywords, companies, and positions.
- Indeed has introduced company and salary insights, helping candidates get a thorough and fair assessment of a given organization.
- As a result, the talent pool that’s accessible to recruiters on Indeed is unparalleled by other platforms.
Considerations:
- Indeed is a very basic job search site. Searches and suggestions aren’t tailored specifically to a user like other job sites.
- There’s less ability to showcase your employer brand. Your recruitment ad is included in line with thousands of other ads, making it more difficult to differentiate yourself.
- Failing to boost ads, or post new ones regularly can often result in your position being lost in the crowd.
Tips for success:
- Plan your job requirements and recruitment ads carefully. If you’re not clear about what and who you’re looking for, then Indeed’s reach will bring you a lot of unqualified candidates.
- Write compelling job ads and headlines. This will help you stand out from the crowd.
- Ensure your ATS is working at full capacity. You’ll need to lean on automation to parse through and shortlist a higher volume of applicants.
- Use the boost feature strategically to hyper-target the keywords and locations that will yield the best results.
- Use Indeed as your platform of choice to expand reach as much as possible.
Career Builder
Career Builder is another high-volume job board for recruiters who want to expand their reach while accessing top talent. This job board lets recruiters post directly to the website (rather than acting as an aggregator) and includes an option to search resumes.
Cost:
- Monthly fee, dependant on the numbers of job posts.
- $200 - $600 USD with tiers of one, three, or five posts per month.
Pros:
- Offers highly customizable search features for job seekers, helping them find the positions most applicable to them.
- Partners with local news organizations to post local job ads in a “Classifieds” section on the job site.
- Established relationships with many Fortune 500 companies, adding an overall level of authority and quality.
- Most advertised positions and categories focus on college or university-education applicants.
- Global presence, with millions of monthly visitors.
- AI-driven job recommendations to help direct qualified candidates to appropriate job postings.
- Wide range of products and features to help recruiters find the best talent for their needs.
Considerations:
- Typically a larger and longer-term commitment to use than other job sites.
- Best used when integrated into your wider recruitment and hiring strategy.
- No free trial available - a significant cost investment upfront is required.
- Because of a focus on high-caliber, business-oriented talent, it may not apply to all industries.
Tips for success:
- Use Career Builder to find highly skilled, in-demand talent.
- Be very specific about your needs and thorough in your tagging and descriptions. This will help Career Builder automatically match qualified applicants with your position.
- Be sure to showcase your employer brand as much as possible. You’ll be going toe-to-toe with Fortune 500 companies around the world.
LinkedIn has become a must-have resource for recruiters in the latest years, both for posting job ads and for networking with talent. It’s an indispensable tool that allows you to combine your public company profile and employer brand with job ads and direct social networking, all on one platform.
If you’ve haven’t started using LinkedIn yet, then this is one must-use job site in 2024.
Cost:
- Cost can vary significantly depending on your strategy.
- LinkedIn Recruiter costs range from $2,399 USD per year for Lite to $8,999 per year for the pro version.
- LinkedIn also offers Pipeline Builder, LinkedIn Ads, and free company pages and recruiter profiles.
Pros:
- The best website for direct networking with candidates.
- Facilitates direct communication between employers, recruiters, job seekers, peers, and businesses.
- Offers access to full profiles that act as digital resumes.
- “Easy Apply” option lets job seekers apply for your position in just a few clicks.
- Job ads and targeting are highly customizable and can target and segment applicants based on keyword tags.
- Job ads offer an immediate layer or pre-screening by cross-referencing required skills with those listed on the user’s profile.
- Recruiters can specify the seniority level, desired skills, contract length, and so on alongside the recruitment ad copy.
- Job ads can be used in tandem with LinkedIn Ads to expand reach and hyper-target talent.
Considerations:
- Reach and “Easy Apply” option can often lead to high applicant volumes. Ensure that your ATS is set up to parse these applicants reliably.
- LinkedIn job ads are tied closely to your company profile page. A strong focus on employer branding and career messaging will help job seekers learn about your culture and values.
- LinkedIn is quickly becoming a must-have tool for recruiters, meaning tighter competition for talent on the platform.
Tips for success:
- LinkedIn yields the best results when used alongside employer branding strategies and networking. Your job ads should be the entry point for job seekers, while the social media features of the platform can be used to nurture qualified job seekers.
- Combine job ads with active outreach. Your recruitment team should be actively seeking out talent, and letting them know that a position is available.
- Combine ads with different forms of content to create a full LinkedIn recruitment marketing engine.
- Leverage “Easy Apply” to streamline applications and improve candidate experience.
Glassdoor
Last, but certainly not least, we have Glassdoor. This job site is the go-to resource for honest reviews about company culture, interview and application processes, salaries, and open positions. Glassdoor’s monthly traffic rivals that of Indeed, and its reach touches virtually every sizable company and industry on the market today.
Recruiters can benefit from this massive community with open dialogue, honest employer branding, and frequent job ads.
Cost:
- Glassdoor offers a Standard or Premium plan for recruiters, dependent on your required number of monthly job postings.
- Costs range from $200 to $700 USD per month for one to ten job postings.
Pros:
- Glassdoor provides the best and most thorough overview of a company’s culture and value proposition than any other job board.
- Employees and former candidates can post reviews and commentary about what it’s like to work at (or interview with) a given company. This creates an invaluable, social-proofed resource that recruiters can lean on to promote their employer brand.
- Because of this openness and transparency, Glassdoor is a great place to interact with employees and candidates to show your commitment to their well-being.
- Glassdoor is a job post aggregator like Indeed, meaning job seekers will have access to a vast range of options alongside this complete company profile.
Considerations:
- Glassdoor lets people comment openly about your company, for better or worse.
- Negative feedback should be met with a clear communications strategy that shows you’re listening, that you care, and that you’re striving to improve.
- The more information you offer on Glassdoor, and the more transparent you are with commenters, the better your reputation will be on this platform.
Tips for success:
- Build out a robust employer profile, claim your company page, and actively contribute to the community.
- Respond to positive and negative comments.
- Curate your reputation and use these insights to improve upon your internal processes and image.
Whichever platform you use to find new recruits, what’s clear is that there’s no shortage of great job boards The best way to find out what works with you is to give it a shot and measure the results. Happy hunting!
