A robust online career center can help your association deliver the job opportunities and career development resources your members want. With so many job board providers in the marketplace, associations can face many challenges when finding the ideal provider for them. Your job board provider should continuously work with you to find ways to maximize engagement, increase enrollment, and generate revenue.
So, how do you know if you have the best job board software?
The best job board software should help you build an online career center for your industry that includes a job board and career development resources. It should maximize engagement with your job seeking members and non-members, plus generate revenue for your organization.
What to look for in job board software for associations
Here are some specific things to look for when you’re searching for the best job board software for your association:
Stellar reviews
Looking at reviews can help renew your confidence in your current job board software provider or let you know that it’s time for a change. Reviews give you a snapshot of the software you’re considering and allow you to evaluate pros and cons from verified reviewers – many of whom are association professionals like you.
Capterra, the world’s leading software reviews and selection platform, is a great resource. Their reviews are from real buyers who’ve been validated through a rigorous process.
Benefits for your members, industry employers, and your association
The best job board software allows you to create an online career center that provides big value for your members, companies in your industry, and your association:
For your members
The 2022 Association Trends Study by Community Brands shows that job opportunities and career development resources are consistently among the most important member benefits. The right job board software lets you build a robust online career center that gives your members the help they’re seeking through each stage of their careers – all in one convenient location – including:
- The ability to easily search and apply for relevant internships and job opportunities
- Access to professional development resources, including:
- Career advice through content, including articles about résumé writing, networking, interview techniques, and more, to help them land the jobs they want
Career Advice – Career Planning Portal by YM Careers
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- Career coaches who can guide members in career planning, interviewing, working through career challenges, and more
Career Coaching – Career Planning Portal by YM Careers
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- Career center data that gives insights into salaries, responsibilities, and job growth opportunities that can guide members in their next career steps
Career Insights – Career Planning Portal by YM Careers
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- A career path tool to help them map out steps to achieve their career goals
Career Paths – Career Planning Portal by YM Careers
- The ability to network and connect with mentors to grow professionally
For employers in your industry
Employers in your industry need to get their jobs in front of candidates who have specific skills and industry knowledge. Using the right job board software, your association can create an online career center that provides employers with access to highly qualified candidates – your members. The ideal job board software gives employers:
- The ability to attract, screen, and manage applicants
- Access to résumés through an anonymous résumé bank that safeguards job seekers’ identities and allows employers to proactively approach qualified candidates for their open positions
- The ability to strengthen their brand awareness by taking out banner advertisements in the home page of your career center and including compelling facts about their organization in their company profile for job seekers to see, such as company benefits, history, mission statement, and company logo
- Additional ways to maximize exposure of their job postings to improve the return on their investment with your association
For your association
Because a robust online career center provides the value your members want and the job board capabilities that companies in your industry seek, your association sees benefits, too. For example, your association can:
- Generate revenue by charging employers a fee to post their job openings to your members.
- Offer hiring managers additional paid options, such as job emails, banner ads, and promotions on your association’s social media feeds, to maximize exposure of their job postings while driving more non-dues revenue for your organization.
- Attract new members by giving non-members limited access to your job board; you can then capture non-member information and use it for member recruitment campaigns.
- Engage and retain members by providing a high-value member benefit and serving as the ultimate career destination for your industry.
- Acquire new learners by presenting your association’s professional learning programs and courses on your job board, and by promoting relevant courses related to a user’s job search.
- Empower your staff with access to job board sales, trends, data, and performance as well as user behavior details that can be used to target messaging, grow revenue, and strengthen membership.
Extensive functionality
Seek out job board software that includes extensive functionality for posting and promoting job opportunities. In addition to the capabilities previously mentioned, look for:
- Job alerts and matching – You should be able to automatically send relevant jobs to job seekers via email when they are posted.
- SEO and job distribution – Your software should make it easy to optimize every job for search engines, and reach candidates through social media, email, mobile channels, and sophisticated programmatic advertising.
- Mobile responsiveness – You should be able to allow your members to quickly apply to jobs from their mobile devices.
- Pane view job search – Job seekers should be able to search and view jobs without leaving the site. Filters should be available to focus search results on finding relevant job openings. Saved résumés should make viewing and applying to multiple jobs quick and easy.
- Ability to connect with your association management software (AMS) – Connecting your job board software with your AMS can help you recruit members and provide a better overall member experience. Look for job board software that makes this integration easy.
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Why YM Careers is the ideal job board software for associations
YM Careers association job board software by Community Brands is a powerful option for your organization. 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 comes with every YM Careers-powered job board. It’s a career advancement hub that provides professionals in your industry with a comprehensive set of career resources, including detailed job data, advice to help job seekers land the jobs they seek, professional career coaching to help job seekers develop critical skills, and an interactive career planning tool.
YM Careers job board software includes the functionality mentioned in this article, and more. In addition to the capabilities of YM Careers software, here are three more reasons to choose YM Careers:
- You pay no up-front costs. YM Careers doesn’t start making money until you do.
- You aren’t stuck with the heavy lifting. YM careers offers job board sales and marketing services to help ensure your online job board has maximum exposure and generates demand for your online career center. When you don’t have the time or expertise on your staff, the YM Careers team helps your association reach both job seekers and employers through email, advertising, and digital campaigns to drive traffic and increase job postings on your site.
- You can start seeing value right away. Once your YM Careers job board and career planning portal are in place, you’ll be able to attract more members, deliver greater member value, and drive more revenue. With no up-front costs and with the YM Careers team doing most of the work, you can’t go wrong.
Take the next step with job board software for your association. With the right job board software, your association can realize the full potential of a robust online career center – from member engagement to revenue generation.
