When your association is looking for new job board software to power an online career center, it can be a tough decision. There are many association job board providers in the marketplace today. How do you know which one is right for your organization?
Here are three essential questions to ask any job board software vendor you are considering:
1. Why should our association invest in an online career center?
An online career center has big potential for driving value for your association, your members, and your industry. It allows you to help members find and land their next great job. And, by providing members with the job and career development opportunities they seek, your association can deliver a high-value member benefit that attracts new members and keeps members around long-term.
An online career center also allows you to connect industry employers with your highly qualified job-seeking members. And, by offering employers the ability to pay to post their job openings on your online job board and get their job openings in front of candidates in other ways, your online career center can be a great source of revenue for your association.
Be sure that the job board software vendor you choose understands the full potential of an online career center for your association and provides solutions to help you make that vision a reality.
2. What should an online career center do?
A career center should be a professional development resource for your members, allowing you to support members at various career stages. It should also help employers in your industry to find qualified candidates for their job openings. And it should help your association to engage members and drive non-dues revenue.
Ask the job board software vendors you’re considering how they can help your members, employers in your industry, and your association. Make sure they offer a full range of functionality for each audience, including:
For members
- The ability to easily search and apply for relevant job opportunities and receive job recommendations based on their prior searches and profiles
- Access to career-building resources, including:
- Career content, such as articles and other content about résumé writing, networking, job interview techniques, and more
- Career coaching, in which you connect members with certified coaches to guide your members through career planning, job interview preparation, and negotiation
- Mentor board to help your members connect with mentors who can provide ongoing career guidance and support
- Career insights that help members understand more about various paths within your industry or profession
- A career pathing tool that gives your members a way to create a clear roadmap to reach their professional goals
- The ability to see who they know at employers’ companies to give them a leg up when they apply for a posted job
For employers
- Ability to easily post job openings to a targeted group of qualified candidates in their industry
- Ability to attract, find, screen, and manage job applicants
- Additional options, such as job alert emails, that maximize exposure of their job postings and improve the return on their investment
For your organization
- A custom-designed job board and excellent member experience that promotes your association’s unique value
- Advanced data, reporting, and analytics to give your staff deep knowledge of job board sales, trends, performance, and other data to help grow membership and revenue
- Tools and services to help drive non-dues revenue
3. How can we generate revenue from an online career center?
At a minimum, an online career center should drive new memberships and generate revenue from industry employers who pay to expose their jobs to your highly qualified members. But there are more opportunities to bring in revenue from your career center. In fact, you can establish a true revenue engine behind your career center.
Look for a job board provider with marketing and sales teams that can help you:
- Drive traffic, brand awareness, engagement, and revenue through marketing and lead generation efforts that drive job seekers and employers to your job board
- Reach employers proactively by identifying and contacting employers that need your members to fill roles
- Build relationships with large recruitment agencies
- Create custom packages based on employers’ needs
