Don't Rely on Job Boards for Hourly Workers

We’ve all seen the headlines or heard it on the radio: “We’ll post your job to 100’s of job boards in one-click”. These websites then show pictures of all the places they automatically post jobs at once, most of which you’ve probably never heard of.

Here’s the thing: The problem isn’t that you need more applicants – you need more high-quality applicants. The best candidates aren’t necessarily looking for jobs, and besides, getting someone hired involves a lot more than just having the biggest stack of resumes.

Why Job Boards for Finding Hourly Workers aren’t the Solution

Inherently, job boards are good at finding people eagerly looking for jobs. The problem is that:

• You only get active job seekers, and you can’t take advantage of passive job seekers. The best candidates often aren’t looking for jobs since they already have them (even if your job is a way better fit for them).
• Furthermore, hourly workers often aren’t on job boards (nor do they necessarily have resumes or computers).
• The pile of resumes you get isn’t matched to the job, and isn’t necessarily targeted to the people you want at all since it comes from any of a huge number of job boards. Ultimately, this means a huge amount of time investment in sorting through resumes.
• Getting someone hired goes way beyond the resume – you’ve got to get in touch with them quickly, be communicative (ideally via text since most hourly worker candidates aren’t checking email or can’t answer the phone because they’re at other jobs), and then get them an offer and make sure they start.

At the end of the day, this means that you often can’t find the people you need and you’re left with open jobs.

5 Ways to go Beyond Job Boards for Hourly Workers

A few options to go beyond job boards for hourly workers:

• Employee Referrals: Be proactive in asking your employees for referrals to family and friends. We often see that an employee bonus works well, particularly if you email and text employees to remind them to refer people.
• Social Media Advertising: You can use social media advertisements to get your job posting in front of the exact right audience. Do you need a mechanic who lives within a 20 mile radius of your business? They’re likely on Facebook, and ads make it possible for you to get in front of them. You can leverage a platform like Team Engine to do this for you or set it up yourself by creating the right audience and advertisement.
• Other advertising platforms: There are plenty of other ad platforms you can try – Twitter, Reddit, local newspapers, etc. Depending on the job, these might all be good fits, but we recommend you
• Partner with local training programs: For jobs like HVAC repairmen and other skilled trades, we’ve seen companies have great success with building partnerships with local schools. They like being able to get their recent graduates jobs, and it gives you a predictable pipeline of candidates.
• Build a great culture: If your employees love working at your company, they’ll talk about you. Great word of mouth isn’t something you can build over night, but it can have a huge impact over time. From investing in great benefits to treating your employees like family, building a great culture helps get new applicants and increases employee retention at the same time.

Job Boards have a Place

That all said, job boards do have a place when you’re hiring hourly workers. There aren’t holy grail job boards for hourly workers that will solve all of your hiring needs, but they are a good way to generate additional candidates for a job.

If you’re struggling to hire, try Team Engine risk-free and we’ll help you figure out the right mix of candidate sourcing and automate your follow-up to get candidates actually hired.