Where to post a job to attract top candidates

Written by Elizabeth Walker | November 8, 2023 at 4:27 PM

Today’s modern workforce uses job boards and social media platforms to search for opportunities with a good work-life balance, positive company culture, and robust benefits package.

Posting your open roles on job sites and social media can help you reach thousands of potential employees. A Jobvite survey¹ found that 56% of job seekers use a search engine to find employment and 60% use free resume websites to attract employers.

There’s no doubt the internet can help widen your talent pool when hiring. But with so many job sites available, which ones are the right choice for your company?

In this blog, we’ll walk you through the best places to post jobs and how you can leverage employee benefits to make your job listing more attractive to talented candidates.

How much does it cost to post a job online?

External recruiting fees can cost 15-25% of the recruited employee’s first-year salary². To reduce these costs, employers turn to job boards as a more affordable and convenient option to attract quality candidates.

There are hundreds of job listing websites, and you can post your open position on many of them for free. But if you want to customize your listing, increase visibility for your open positions, attract more qualified candidates, or list your open positions for longer periods, select a job board with a pricing plan.

Below are three standard pricing plans that online job boards offer:

The free plan: Most job boards have a free plan option for employers with a limited recruitment budget. However, free listings may attract unqualified candidates, and you may not have the time or resources to shift through hundreds of application materials just to end up without a good fit for your job position.
The sponsored job plan: This plan allows you to post your listings for free and pay to promote the job for greater visibility. The payment method is typically one of three ways: pay-per-click (i.e., every time someone clicks on your sponsored post), pay-per-application (i.e., every time a qualified candidate applies to your post), or with an overall budget for a specific timeframe (i.e., pay $500 to promote a post for 30 days).
The subscription plan: A popular option for growing businesses or employers who hire regularly, this plan allows you to pay a monthly or annual fee to post job openings as long as your subscription is active.

Choose a pricing plan according to your budget range, location, how frequently you’ll post, and what candidates you’re looking to attract. For specific job positions, you’ll also need to consider the job type and how quickly you need to fill the role, especially if you’re in a competitive industry.

Best places to post a job to attract talented candidates

Posting your listing online is a surefire way to get your openings in front of suitable candidates nationwide or worldwide. But depending on your target audience, industry, location, and other factors, some options may work better for you than others. Or, to reach more potential employees, you can post on several sites and platforms.

Let’s look at four popular places employers can post their job listings to catch the eye of talented workers.

1. Social media platforms

Social media isn’t just for socializing anymore—it’s a powerful tool in your recruiting strategy. As of 2023, roughly 4.9 billion people worldwide³ use social media, and 42% of Jobvite survey respondents said they find out about job opportunities on social media. Posting your opening is a great way to tap into potential job candidates who may be a good fit for your company.

When recruiting on social media, it’s important to create short, engaging job listings, use various advertising methods, showcase your company’s brand, and interact with potential candidates. Additionally, you can ask your current employees to act as advocates and share your posts across their social pages as part of an employee referral program to gain more traction.

Below are some popular social media platforms for employers to post jobs:

LinkedIn: As of 2022, LinkedIn is the most popular job site⁴ in the U.S., especially if you want to recruit experienced professionals and executives. With more than 800 million users across 200 countries, it’s an excellent tool for job seekers to network and learn more about specific organizations, which allows you to highlight your company's brand. LinkedIn gives you one free monthly post, but its sponsored post option allows for priority displays, more qualified applicants, and screening and filtering tools.
Facebook: As the largest social media platform with almost three billion active users worldwide, posting your job opening on Facebook will help you reach a broader audience. While less formal than LinkedIn, 67% of job seekers⁵ found their most recent position on Facebook. To narrow your audience, set up a paid advertising campaign or post your listing on specific Facebook groups to reach more targeted candidates.
X: X, formerly known as Twitter, is another option to post your job list. Depending on your subscriber level, your Tweets will have a set character limit. So keep your job description brief and engaging to catch qualified candidates’ attention before linking to your company’s career page. Also, creating job- and company-specific hashtags will help qualified job seekers find your post in a sea of Tweets.
Instagram: Instagram is a great place to create engaging job posts that show off your company culture and attract a younger workforce, like Gen Z. According to the 2020 Jobvite Recruiter Nation Report⁶, using Instagram for recruiting has grown from 18% to 37% since 2017. Depending on your industry, using Instagram to tap into a more technology-based workforce with younger employees may be good for your business.
YouTube: By 2028, experts expect YouTube to have 1.1 billion users⁷. This gives you a great opportunity to create visually appealing video job postings that grow your brand and attract talented candidates. In addition to posting short videos about your open jobs, you can create long-form videos that feature first-hard employee experiences about what it’s like to work at your organization to drive interest in your company’s culture.

2. General job boards

General job boards are an efficient way to reach various applicants with different backgrounds. Many general boards allow employers to post any job opening, regardless of industry, experience level, location, full- or part-time status, and more. This makes these job listing sites flexible enough to meet every employer’s needs.

As previously mentioned, they typically come with free plan options, which can be helpful if you have many jobs to post. Just remember that your recruiting team may have to sort through many applicants to find the right fit, so your hiring process might take a little longer.

Below are some popular general job boards:

Indeed: With a monthly visitor count of 250 million, Indeed is one of the most popular non-specialized job websites. While it mainly lists entry- to mid-level positions, it pulls posts from several outside job boards, agencies, and company career pages, making it a comprehensive website for employers and job seekers. Indeed has a free plan or sponsored post plan (on a pay-per-application basis), and it also offers employers a hiring platform where they can post listings, screen candidates, host interviews, and make job offers.
Monster: Founded in 1994, Monster is one of the oldest generic job posting websites. It provides employers with candidate management tools, pre-built detailed job descriptions, and an applicant tracking system. It offers free plans, sponsored posts (on a pay-per-click basis), monthly subscriptions, and single-use plans.
Ziprecruiter: Ziprecruiter is a job website that allows employers to open positions and then automatically sends the listing to more than 100 free job boards. You can manually scan resumes or use their AI recruiting tool to find candidates with resumes that match your listing. But, there are no free plans, and it has fewer candidates' resumes than other sites.
Glassdoor: With more than 41 million monthly visits, Glassdoor, an Indeed partner since 2020, has an excellent track record for recruiting employees globally. In addition to jobs, its site lists company backgrounds, employee reviews, salaries, FAQs, diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives (DEI), and benefits to create transparency for millions of job seekers. Glassdoor offers employers a free plan or an Enhanced Profile paid plan.
CareerBuilder: CareerBuilder is another website that helps employers find and hire employees. Since the 1990s, it has built AI hiring tools that you can use to screen candidates and job applications, and its HCM platform helps you manage your workers’ entire lifecycle once you onboard them. While it’s not as large as Indeed, its features like background screening, a mobile app for job seekers, easy job post upload, and a candidate matching tool make it easy to attract qualified entry- to mid-level candidates.
SimplyHired: Like Ziprecruiter, employers can post a job on SimplyHired, and it will send the listing out to more than 100 job boards. It’s particularly a good job listing website for entry-level hospitality, sales, and customer service positions. You can post as many jobs as you want on SimplyHired for free, and you only have to pay to view the candidate profiles you’re interested in contacting. However, there isn’t a sponsored post plan.

3. Specialized job boards

If you’re looking for specialized candidates, you may want to post on a job board that only focuses on your specific needs. In contrast to general job boards, specialized job boards—or niche job websites—cater to employers with set criteria or in a particular industry.

By posting on these boards, you’ll save time and energy screening candidates because those applying will likely already have some specific qualifications needed to do the job.

Most industries, careers, and employment classifications have specialized job sites. And like other job boards, most have free and paid plan options.

Below are some popular specialized job boards:

Dice: Dice is a specialized job listing website for employers looking to recruit developers and technology professionals. As one of the leading tech recruitment websites with more than ten million candidates receiving an average of 400,000 job applicants, it’s a common first stop for IT companies looking to hire. It offers applicant tracking, resume parsing, and candidate matching, along with 30-day plans and annual subscriptions.
Dribbble: Dribbble is an industry-specific job website for creatives, web designers, graphic designers, and UX designers. Employers can post listings for full-time, part-time, or freelance work or get the Designer Search plan to browse through 190,000 available designers without posting any jobs. Dribble offers monthly, quarterly, and annual subscription plans for a premium price.
Wellfound: With a global audience of more than eight million, Wellfound, formerly AngelList Talent, helps startups with fundraising, product launching, and finding qualified candidates. Employers can post an unlimited number of job listings for free on Wellfound, whether location-specific or international. However, the free plan has a limited number of candidate profile views. If you need more options, the Starter plan, Pro plan, or the Curated add-on feature are also available.
Snagajob: Most job boards accept job postings for any employee classification. But Snagajob specifically caters to employers in the U.S. and Canada looking for hourly candidates in the service industry. It has 100 million job seekers and lets employees fill positions shift by shift. It offers prescreening, applicant tracking, and onboarding services, as well as monthly subscriptions and pay-as-you-go options.
VetJobs: VetJobs exclusively serves U.S. military service members, veterans, and reserve communities. It allows unlimited free job postings, and employers can work with a Recruiter Connect team member to help them find the right candidate. VetJobs is free for employers and job seekers but asks for donations to maintain its services.
Handshake: Handshake connects U.S. employers with college students and recent graduates for internships and full-time roles. Employers can post to specific schools to find candidates better matched for their listings. The standard plan allows employers to post jobs and register for events and career fairs for free, while the premium plan helps businesses recruit on a larger scale.

4. Remote work job boards

Since 2020, more and more companies are offering fully remote and hybrid work options. Remote organizations have more diverse candidate pools, reduced business costs, and improved employee satisfaction. A recent survey found that 74% of employers⁸ allow hybrid work arrangements, meaning these businesses need a platform to find remote workers.

Like specialized job boards, certain websites focus on remote and hybrid workers. Whether your company is fully remote or you only have a few jobs that are remote or hybrid-eligible, posting on a job site that caters to flexible work schedules is a great way to increase visibility for candidates specifically looking for remote positions.

Below are some popular remote work job boards:

FlexJobs: Since launching in 2007, FlexJobs is one of the world’s largest job boards where employers can specifically look for hybrid, remote, and freelance workers. Flexjobs doesn’t have a free plan option. Instead, employers can sign up for a one-month, three-month, or annual subscription and receive unlimited job posts and resume searches, data reporting, custom employer profiles, account support, and more.
We Work Remotely (WWR): We Work Remotely is one of the most popular job boards for all industries with remote positions. It receives more than three million monthly visitors, fills 90% of its listings, and has an 80% customer monthly return rate. WWR specialists screen and match candidates manually and can boost your posts via social media, Slack, partner networks, or email to improve your post’s visibility. WWR offers monthly subscriptions and bundle plans with pricing on request.
Remote OK: Remote OK focuses on technology jobs and other industries without location restrictions. It posts to 126 online job boards and guarantees each listing at least 200 application button clicks, or it automatically boosts your listing for free. While their pricing is costly—ranging from $50 to more than $1,000 per post—they have more than 5,000 site visitors per month, 205,000 email subscribers, and several add-on options that can help you find qualified candidates.
Jobspresso: While their audience isn’t as large, the Jobspresso candidate database includes more than 5,000 remote workers worldwide. Positions you post on the site run for 90 days—no matter how many jobs you post—which is longer than most job boards that expire after 30 days. If you’re still unsatisfied within 30 days of your listing expiring, Jobspresso will post your listing again for free or give you a refund.
Working Nomads: Working Nomads caters to individuals who want to work from anywhere, particularly while traveling. With 120,000 monthly visitors and 35,000 email subscribers, it’s a great job board if you allow your employees to travel abroad while they work. While it doesn’t have a sponsored plan option, it has price-per-post plans and bundle options and lets you relist a job for a 50% discount.

Why you should highlight employee benefits in your job description to attract top talent

Your job description should summarize the position, your company’s mission and values, and what ideal candidate would excel in the role. Essentially, your listing should be a sales pitch to job applicants explaining why they should work for you. And part of that pitch should include your company’s benefits and perks.

Listing all your employee benefits as part of the job details is a great way to convince people to apply. In addition to salary, 82% of employees say that the benefits package an employer offers is an essential factor in whether or not they accept a job.

A robust job listing should showcase a variety of benefits and perks your company offers so you can stand out from your competitors in your industry. The more attractive you can make your compensation package, the better you can attract top talent. And once they accept the position, the right benefits can increase employee satisfaction and productivity while reducing turnover.

Some popular employee benefits are:

Health benefits, such as health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs), health savings accounts (HSAs), and flexible spending accounts (FSAs)
Employee stipends, such as travel, technology, remote work, and meal stipends
Paid time off (PTO)
Family benefits, such as adoption assistance and dependent care support
Education benefits
Retirement benefits
Commuter benefits
Flexible work schedules, such as 9/80 schedules or hybrid work options
Wellness programs
Reward and recognition programs

It’s good practice for all employers to highlight benefits and perks in their job listings to entice candidates. However, some states have pay transparency laws that require employers to list all benefits and salary ranges in their job descriptions. If you’re an employer in one of these states and have fewer benefits than your competitors, you may not receive as many applicants.

Conclusion

Job boards and social media are some of the best ways to attract talented candidates, especially with the rising popularity of remote work. Not only do these platforms offer several pricing plan options to meet every employer’s budget, but they can also help you find specialized candidates, increase your talent pool, and streamline your overall hiring process.

Choosing where to post your job listings is an important step toward finding great employees. But workers today want more than just a competitive salary. You should also feature a comprehensive benefits package in your detailed job description to stand out in your industry and retain your employees for the long haul.

If you’re interested in offering personalized employee health benefits, PeopleKeep can help! Contact us today, and we’ll set your company up with everything it needs to succeed.

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