Chambers of Commerce do a lot of interesting work to advocate for local businesses, support local economic development, and to engage their community. With so much on your plate, it’s not completely shocking to discover that your chamber of commerce’s job board has been a little… neglected.
In this blog post, we’ll take a look at what that neglect looks like, how it can be fixed, and why it matters. First up, here’s a glimpse at some chamber of commerce job boards who share this problem:
Notice a pattern?
What you see in the images above are chamber of commerce job boards which should be awesome recruitment marketplaces for chamber members and local businesses to find their next hire, and for local residents to discover new jobs and opportunities. Instead, each of these boards looks like a barren wasteland of missed opportunity – I found a couple jobs posted here and there, but a lot of the time there are no jobs posted at all.
As I said, chambers of commerce do have a lot on their plates. So while it’s understandable that your board might be showing these signs of neglect, it’s a completely avoidable problem. Below, we’ll outline a few ways to keep your job board populated with postings.
How to Get More Job Listings on Your Chamber of Commerce Job Board
- Use Job Backfill Feeds
Job backfill feeds are job postings from other websites, like job boards and aggregators, which you can republish on your website. You can restrict and curate what jobs you publish through this method based on what jobs are most relevant to the people in your community. Using backfills means you can supplement the jobs posted by members or other local employers, so that any time a job seeker visits the job board, there are new and relevant postings to review. It also incentivizes them to come back regularly to check for newly posted jobs.
- Let Members Post for Free
Member businesses of your chamber of commerce may already be paying dues or membership fees, so offering them free job postings can be an added benefit. Featuring their jobs or their employer profile and access to contacting passive candidates in your database can be extra services that you charge members for, creating a non-dues revenue stream from your job board.
- Let Non-Members Post Jobs
This tactic can work nicely in tandem with letting members post for free. By letting non-member businesses and other employers post jobs (for a fee), you help increase the overall activity, competition, and engagement on your job board. You also get to develop relationships with non-member businesses, which might lead them to join your chamber of commerce in the future.
Why It’s Important to Have More Job Postings on Your Board
- Connecting Your Community to Opportunity
A job board with no jobs isn’t useful to anyone. By keeping your job board active with postings through any of the above methods, you’ll be presenting local job seekers with jobs and opportunities in their hometown. Those jobs may have been harder or even impossible to find on other job boards, or may not have been advertised at all.
- Providing More Value to Members
Whether or not you charge your members to post jobs, your job board is a part of the value you are supposedly providing to them, and an inactive job board with no jobs (and therefore very few candidates) is not going to help them hire great people that help their businesses grow and thrive. By maintaining an active job board populated with jobs, you are adding to the value of their chamber of commerce membership.
- Nurturing Non-Members
When you have an active job board, promoting your chamber of commerce job board as the place to advertise open positions can be a great way to engage with non-member businesses, and potentially put them on the path to joining your chamber. By allowing non-members to post jobs, they can see for themselves part of the value that membership with you provides.
- Helping Small Businesses Hire Better
Some local businesses may not have the tools or expertise in recruiting and hiring to find their ideal employee, but your job board can help them. An active regional job board can reach a wider range of people in your community and give them tools to track applications and screen candidates, which helps them perform the task more efficiently and effectively.
With the right solution, your chamber of commerce job board can be a great way to promote your region as a place to work and do business, and with a few small changes to strategy and implementation, you can make a big difference.