It’s time for new job board software for your association. But how do you convince your board to give you the thumbs up to move forward?
To gain board approval for a new online career center solution, it’s important to build a business case for the new technology. Your board needs to understand your goals as well as the potential benefits a new solution can have for your organization.
Introduce a new partnership with little to no upfront costs and huge rewards: an association job board. If your board of directors doesn’t realize this already, a career center is a sure-fire way to generate more non-dues revenue, provide career advancement to members, acquire new members, and engage and retain current members. Your association could be the go-to career growth resource in your industry – and you could be the hero that saves the day to your board.
Choosing a job board
It can feel overwhelming to try to sort through all the job board providers available in the marketplace. Your job board should be a source of engagement and help for your members and should allow you to support members at various career stages. You’ll have the best chance at convincing your board of directors to adopt new job board technology if you can say without a doubt that the career center will make your association the go-to destination for all career development opportunities for job seekers and members.
Choose a job board that offers the following capabilities:
- Personalized search: Increase engagement and job views by recommending opportunities to job seekers based on their prior searches.
- Job alerts and matching: Automatically send jobs to interested, relevant job seekers via email when they are posted.
- Anonymous resume bank: Allow job seekers to upload their resume for employers to proactively approach qualified candidates for their open positions while protecting the job seeker’s identity.
- SEO and job distribution: Optimize every job for search engines, and reach candidates through social media, email, mobile channels, and sophisticated programmatic advertising.
- Mobile responsiveness: Allow your members to quickly apply to jobs from their mobile devices.
- Offer career resources: Provide your members with opportunities to earn new certifications and credentials, or learn a new skill.
Convincing your board of directors
Knowing what’s important to your directors, how do you communicate the rewards available when you introduce a job board to your members? Simple – start big. Let your board of directors know that partnering with a job board provider will add a desired member benefit with minimal investment from your association’s time or budget.
The most valuable commodity for a professional organization is its members. Members will reap the benefits of a professional resource to meet their desire for employment opportunities and career advice. The job opportunities listed on the platform will be cultivated and updated through the efforts of the job board provider.
Your job board provider’s staff will become an extension of your team. They will provide support for members and clients interested in using the product for job search and posting needs. Your association staff will have access to reporting and regular updates about new features as they become available for your users. Additionally, you will have access to marketing resources to best communicate the valuable benefits available on the job board to your members.
The YM Careers customer marketing and client success team members are always ready to brainstorm, problem-solve, and get creative with us when it comes to creating a member experience that resonates with our community.” – Daniela Bernal, Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics & American Science (SACNAS)
The typical job board is setup as a duration-based online platform. That means employers and recruiters looking to reach your member audience will pay to have their jobs hosted on that platform for a duration of time – generally 30, 60, or 90 days. During that time, employers are counting on your members to view and apply to their open job opportunities – which is exactly what your members want to do! The results of a flourishing job board will be realized in the non-dues revenue checks your association receives every month.
Board of directors pitch checklist:
☐ Highlight the potential for your online career center.
A robust career center offers a huge member benefit by connecting members with their next great new hire or career opportunity. Your organization can use this appealing member benefit to attract new members and improve member retention. A well-executed career center also drives non-dues revenue through paid job ads, sponsorships, and other fee-based products. Help your board understand the goals for your career center. For example:
- Our revenue goal for our career center is X
- We aim to drive X new members through our career center
- We aim to increase member retention by X% through our career center
☐ Detail the top functionality you need to reach your goals.
Help your board understand the functionality you need for career center success. Discuss functional requirements in terms of how they will help you reach your goals. If you already have a job board in place, be sure to point out any inefficiencies in your current software solution.
Here are some key capabilities to focus on:
- Email job matching: We need to be able to work efficiently and effectively by automatically sending jobs to interested, relevant job seekers via email when they are posted.
- Personalized search and recommendations: Job seekers expect the same kind of personalized experience they have with for-profit leaders like Amazon and Netflix. We need to be able to increase engagement and job views by recommending opportunities to job seekers based on their prior searches.
- High ROI employer products: Employers use leading job sites like Indeed, Glass Door, and LinkedIn. We need to be able to offer hiring managers a competitive experience with sophisticated options that maximize exposure of their job postings to improve their return on investment.
- Advanced data, reporting, and analytics: To continue to improve and grow our career center, we need deep knowledge of job board sales, performance, and user behavior to grow membership and revenue. We need easy-to-use yet information-rich reporting and analytics.
- Candidate screening and management: We need to provide employers with modern functionality to attract, screen, and manage applicants – including an anonymous résumé bank that safeguards job seekers’ identities.
- SEO and job distribution: We need to drive traffic through search engines, social media, and other digital channels. We need to be able to optimize every job for search engines, and reach candidates through social media, email, mobile channels, and sophisticated programmatic advertising.
- Mobile support: Our career center needs to provide the modern experience job seekers expect. Members and prospective members need to be able to quickly apply to jobs from their mobile devices.
- Marketing and sales: Expand our reach by working with a software vendor that offers recruitment sales and marketing services. We need a full-service team that actively markets to and searches for employers who are hiring and drives them to our job board. This helps us increase revenue and traffic as our career center becomes the hub of talent and opportunity for our industry.
☐ Explain some of the techniques you can employ.
Help your board understand some of the specific ways you plan to drive revenue and promote your robust career center once it is in place. For example:
- Introduce a job alert email to your members. Employers are often willing to pay extra for this distribution of their job to additional potential candidates.
- Offer employers the opportunity to promote their jobs on your home page, Twitter feed, and Facebook page. Employers have no better way to promote their jobs to such a targeted group of qualified potential employees, and they will pay for that access.
- Place a jobs feed or widget on the home page of your site. This will pull in more job seeker traffic to the career center than a link alone. It will also give employers access to passive job seekers.
Whether you’re looking to implement an online job board for the first time or you’re ready to take your online job board to the next level, it’s time for new career center software. Using these tools, you can convince your board of directors that YM Careers is the job board software provider for your association – and become their superhero.
Here are five things your business case for new job board software should do:
1. Paint a picture.
Set the stage for the conversation with your board by providing a picture of the importance on an online career center for your association. It can help to use industry statistics to back things up.
For example, the 2022 Association Trends Study by Community Brands builds on multiple studies from the past several years. Since 2017, the studies continue to show that job opportunities and help with career development are among the most important benefits to members.
A well-executed career center built on modern association job board technology provides the value members seek and can be a powerful tool for attracting and retaining members while generating revenue for your organization.
At the same time, providing employers with access to talent is a simple way to drive additional non-dues revenue for your association. When employers need to fill jobs that require specific skills and industry knowledge, they need to promote their jobs to members of professional and trade associations. Your new job board software can help by driving non-dues revenue through paid job ads, sponsorships, and other fee-based products.
2. Articulate the goals for your online career center.
Help your board understand the benefits of great job board software by presenting them with specific goals. This might include things like:
- X percent increased revenue
- X percent new member growth
- X percent improved member retention
3. List the functionality you need to reach your goals.
Help your board understand the capabilities you need for career center success. Discuss requirements in terms of how they will help you reach your goals.
Here are some key capabilities to include:
- For job seeking members and non-members:
- Email job matching and personalized job search and recommendations
- Career Planning Portal with industry-specific advice, tips, and coaching, and other resources to help job seekers advance their careers
- For employers:
- Candidate screening and management
- Job postings
- Enhanced job distribution via featured job emails, job widgets, and social media
4. Explain the techniques you can employ with modern association job board technology.
Help your board understand some of the specific ways you plan to provide member value and drive revenue once your new career center is in place. For example:
- Automatically send jobs to relevant job seekers via email when the jobs are posted.
- Increase engagement by recommending opportunities to job seekers based on their prior searches.
- Offer employers the opportunity to pay to post their jobs on your job board and pay an additional fee to promote their jobs on job alert emails, your home page, Twitter feed, and Facebook page.
- Place a jobs feed or widget on the home page of your site to pull in more job seeker traffic and give employers access to passive job seekers.
- Offer career advice through articles that guide job seekers in their search.
- Provide online coaching with tips on résumés, interviewing, and more.
- Deliver career insights and placement services that help members secure the jobs they want.
5. Propose the right career center technology for your association.
After painting a compelling picture for your board, it’s important to find and propose the new job board software that will help you reach your goals. With the right technology, you can realize the full potential of your association’s online career center.
YM Careers association job board software by Community Brands can help. It’s designed for niche career centers, versus general career centers. This makes it much easier for job seekers to connect with companies that are hiring in your industry and for employers to access highly qualified candidates (your members and potential members).
Career Planning Portal by YM Careers comes with every job board. This is a career advancement hub that provides professionals in your industry with a comprehensive set of career resources to advance their careers.
In case you don’t have the time or expertise to manage job board sales and marketing, YM Careers has experienced sales and marketing teams that can help you drive traffic to and revenue from your job board.
