Is your job board apply ratio going down threatening to devalue your site in the eyes of employers using you? Consider this question I got from a reader.
I have long used our website as a blog to highlight jobs. We push content of many different kinds. Have found that increasingly candidates are not crazy about searching and applying for jobs. Due to the low application rate on our website I starting adding more blog items related to the jobs. Job applications remained flat … BUT I had included an email address within the blog items as to where candidates could send their resume. Resumes coming in via that means beat traditional job search/job application on my website about 3:1. I tried blogging about another customer’s jobs. Same result. Obviously I cannot blog about all of the 8,000+ jobs on our website but I need to find a way to make blogging pay off even more since candidates seem reluctant to go to the job search page and to apply for jobs.
Its an interesting dilemma. Given a choice job seekers will always go for the email apply, its the easiest quickest way to do it. Thats why I always like to see an email on a job description. It is guaranteed to increase the amount of applies for that job.
The other thing I suggested would be to hire an intern blogger, pay’em ten bucks and hour to writeup as many posts as possible every day…then I would also look at hiring a UX designer to help you streamline the job board apply process. In the case of the jobboard we are talking about above its a government type site with a long apply process. But by streamlining the process as much as possible you can certainly improve the apply process which will lead to more completed apps. In general the shorter the apply process, the more applies you will get.
