As a key resource for your industry, it’s important that your association optimizes job opportunity and career advancement benefits for your members to keep pace with our changing economy.
Let’s take a look at the state of the economy and labor market and what your association can do to be the number one career resource for your industry in 2023.
Today’s economy and the labor market
The pandemic era brought immense volatility to our economy and the labor market. Jobs declined sharply in 2020 and then rebounded in 2021 and 2022. Today, as the demand for workers now exceeds the supply, the U.S. Federal Reserve is aiming to slow the economy and tame inflation – ultimately reducing the number of open jobs.
But no matter what the situation might be at any given time, there are always some number of jobs that need to be filled and some number of job seekers who need jobs. That’s where your association comes in.
The importance of an association career center
You can offer an online career center that delivers tremendous value to your industry and your association as the economic picture and jobs outlook change.
As employers seek to fill open positions (especially during a labor shortage) you can connect them with a pool of highly skilled and qualified candidates – your members and other job seekers in your career center. This makes your career center a powerful year-round revenue generator as employers pay you for the opportunity to post and promote their job openings.
Meanwhile, your career center is a magnet for membership recruitment and member retention. According to the 2022 Association Trends Study by Community Brands, job opportunities and career advancement resources remain among the top benefits that members seek from their association year after year. As your members and prospective members seek jobs, you can connect them with employers in your industry who are hiring. And, especially when jobs become less plentiful, you can be a guide in member career planning and help members land the jobs they’re seeking.
Turning your association career center into a true career growth hub for your industry
Hosting job board software is a great step toward offering value for your industry. But becoming the number one career resource for your industry is about more than just jobs and résumés.
Let’s look at five ways you can turn your association career center into THE career destination for your industry:
1. Provide a career planning portal.
Offering a career planning portal makes your career center more than just a place to post and find jobs. It provides a hub of valuable resources for current and prospective member career planning and growth.
For example, Career Planning Portal – which comes with every YM Careers-powered job board – includes the following functionality:
- Career Insights – Job seekers can find detailed information for each occupation that interests them. Insights include salary, job outlook, knowledge and skills needed, and “day-in-the-life” videos.
- Career Advice – Industry-specific articles and content help job seekers land the jobs they’re seeking and take their careers to the next level.
- Career Coaching – Professional career coaches help job seekers develop critical skills, including résumé building, interviewing, and negotiation.
- Career Paths – Job seekers can map out their career goals using a step-by-step, interactive planning tool.
2. Put data to work.
In your association career center, you have a wealth of data at your fingertips. Analyzing and sharing your career center data can help your association, your members, and employers in your industry.
For example, YM Careers integrates with the Nucleus data analytics solution for associations from Community Brands. It can help you see and share data in highly usable ways, such as:
- Deliver more personalized resources by using your data to pinpoint which resources your members want.
- Learn what percentage of your members have a certain level of education in particular roles to help market your career center to employers.
- Increase engagement with your members, prospective members, and employers by planning career events in locations with high candidate concentration.
3. Offer placement services.
Directly connecting job seeking members and employers in your industry takes the value you provide to a new level. Of course, it’s not typically feasible to have an in-house placement service at your association. But keep in mind that you don’t have to do the work yourself.
For example, YM Careers can provide placement services on behalf of your association, with your branding. The YM Careers team works with your members and then approaches employers who might be a good fit for the members’ knowledge, background, and skills – a different, yet effective, approach from the traditional placement service model.
4. Host career fairs.
Hold a career fair at your next in-person event or online as a virtual career fair, giving employers who are posting job openings in your career center another opportunity to connect with qualified candidates. Career fairs also give your members an opportunity to meet in-person with potential employers.
YM Careers can fully manage your career fair events – from marketing and sales to execution – so you don’t need to find extra time or hire more staff to run them yourself.
5. Build a recruitment guide.
Recruitment guides help your association become a career resource to both employers and members. Create a recruitment guide in conjunction with your next annual meeting or any other event as another way to offer career development resources that go beyond job postings and résumés. This guide is a printed publication handed out to attendees (with an electronic version available to those who did not attend) that includes paid profiles of employers. Employers can pay you to include company profiles, a list of employee benefits, highlighted job openings, and more.
YM Careers can help you build a recruitment guide that generates non dues revenue for your association while offering your members an easy way to look through current job opportunities and read articles that help them grow their careers.
