In case you hadn’t noticed there are big changes happening in the job board world. Now that Facebook and Google are in the game, the market is even more crowded and they are putting pressure on boards of all sizes and shapes. Things are changing at a rapid pace.
This new trend will certainly begin to affect the myriad of job board software vendors in our space who (for the most part) have been relying on selling a single product, a traditional job board platform. Since it is getting harder to start a board from scratch I think these vendors will be forced to diversify.
Now is the time to rethink that model and add new product lines.
If I owned a job board software platform today, I would create 3 new SaaS based products that leverage my existing technology;
- Career Sites for Employers: Job board technology is basically an ATS in disguise and can be leveraged to become an employer career site. All you have to do is remove the ability for multiple employers to sign up and post jobs. Then you can add more ATS like features such as workflows, candidate notes and pre-screening questions. The market for DIY employer career sites is out there and I think employers would love such a product.
- Membership Job Boards: People have asked me for years if there are any membership only job board software platforms where job seekers pay to gain access. No one has ever built one. While it is true that job seekers don’t pay for many things it may be time to offer such a product to the market and see what happens. Membership based sites are a proven model (in the WordPress world) and there may be a way to tweak it to fit the job space.
- People Databases: Sourcing is all the rage these days for recruiters. The amount of publicly available resumes and profiles is growing everyday. So lets offer a ‘reverse job board’. An RJB is a site that puts the job seeker first. Job seekers create public profiles instead of uploading resumes that can be found by search engines. The home page would feature a search box for profiles not jobs. Job seekers would see jobs that match their profile in their dashboard. These site could also offer their people data to sourcing sites like Entelo and Hiretual to attract employers. Once you have enough profiles for a certain niche, these types of site could charge for access.
So there you have it, 3 new lines of business for vendors to make money on. Some of the technology for the ideas above already exists inside current job board technology. It’s time for these vendors to leverage that tech for new ideas.
If there is one thing I have learned about the online job space is that no business lasts forever. You have to think ahead and plan for the future. For job board software vendors, the future is here.
PS…I am happy to assist if you want to hire me 🙂
