A new report is saying that almost half of people recently hired (41%) used an online job board to find work and 61% flagged automatic job alerts as helpful. What’s more, a full 14% found their present job using social media. The findings from How Do People Find Jobs? published by the B2B research firm, Clutch, highlights how today’s candidates are connecting with small businesses and vice versa.
How do People Find Jobs?
Small Business Trends contacted Michelle Delgado, Content Developer and Marketer at Clutch, to find out more about the digital and traditional ways today’s job seekers are finding the right small business matches.
Visit Job Boards
She started out by underscoring where your business needs to be seen and why:
“Online job boards like Indeed, Glassdoor, and LinkedIn have steadily become a go-to place to look for a new role. People appreciate that these platforms allow them to browse a wide variety of roles and sort the search results by location, salary, experience level, and more,” she wrote in an email. “Overall, online job boards are an efficient way to conduct a thorough job search, all in one convenient platform.”
Focus on the Site Best for Them
The numbers from the survey showed the general online jobs boards like Indeed and Monster ranked high with 33% of respondents looking to take a first step toward a new job. This compares with the 8% who said they used a specialized job board like MediaBistro to land employment.
The numbers were also skewed towards the 44% of women using online job boards successfully in comparison to 33% of their male counterparts.
Use Social Media
“The main advantages of online job boards are the convenience and depth of information the boards collect. On most online job boards, candidates can quickly access information about the role, benefits, salary range, and even their potential colleagues,” Delgado writes pointing out the fact some of these tools like Glassdoor even provide reviews candidates can use to narrow their choices down.
How Do People Find Jobs? also looked at social media platforms and found that almost 15% of respondents used these tools to hunt down work. Small businesses have long known that advertising on the various social media templates was an important part of digital marketing. Delgado explains why they should be an important arrow in your recruiting quiver too.
Consider Other Options
“In recent years, social media platforms have expanded their services to include everything from selling a couch to hopping on video calls. Many people rely on social media to keep in touch with friends and family or know about events going on in their areas. Companies should maintain a presence on social media, too.”
The report also folded in one more traditional method that people were using to find a job.
Use Traditional Networking
“One-quarter of recent hires (25%) found their current job through networking,” Delgado pointed out. She also says that companies shouldn’t rely on the same networks for every new candidate. The reason is simple. If they narrow down their choices to the same networks over and over again, they’ll miss the wider swath of talent they can be mining.
“Instead of sourcing new hires from the same few universities, for example, companies should work to expand their networks by connecting with new community organizations, professional societies, and more.”
Finally, she has some good advice for small businesses that involves mixing and matching old and new recruiting methods.
Use a Combined Approach
“To successfully hire new employees, companies should be present on a combination of digital and traditional channels. I also recommend posting detailed job descriptions and sharing the salary and benefit information publicly to increase transparency and help candidates determine if a job is right for them.”
The report gathered responses from 507 full-time employees who found a new job in the last six months.
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