7 Reasons to Ditch Job Boards and Attract Clinicians Direct ​

In the search for clinicians, job boards are a necessary evil for any medical staffing firm’s sourcing strategy. Job boards pull in job seekers and even screen them on your behalf to an extent. And given the competitiveness of today’s market and the necessity of having a “full funnel”, job boards seem like the ideal tool for sourcing candidates. While “ full pipeline” might seem like a no-brainer benefit of job boards, it still seems like placing these candidates seems harder than ever. 

In this piece, I’ll share why job boards might not be optimal for finding clinicians and share an alternative to attract clinicians right when they need a new role the most. 

7 Reasons Why To Wean Your Firm From Job Aggregators

1. There are Too Many Job Boards to Choose From

With options like Indeed and Monster and niche-specific sites to choose from, as a medical staffing firm, you’re always wondering, which platforms deserve your dollars, focus, and time, you’re always left in a position of wondering which job board works best for you. 

2. The Impact of Job Boards on the Industry

Given the fact that most medical staffing firms have a presence on these sites, one has to wonder, what does that mean for the industry at large? The more firms choose to use these sites, the more data they collect and the more they learn how to undercut the industry. In addition, given the board’s focus on technology and candidate experience, not to mention their rise in popularity over the years, they’ve shaped candidates’ expectations. Job boards garner a ton of data about you…and your prospective candidates.

 If that doesn’t scare you, the fact that they have an inherent conflict of interest should. As many have shifted toward a pay-per-click model the question arises, is it really in their best interest to care about a job seeker’s employment? Are they really in the business of creating long-term relationships if a candidate finds the right firm and stays with them, never to “click” on their board listings? Furthermore, is it any wonder why you now have to build a mobile app to have a highly competitive firm? 

Finally, on the topic of candidate expectations, the concept of candidate ghosting has become a widespread practice. One has to wonder about the impact of their business model on candidate behavior. 

3. Competition on Job Boards

So you’re paying to sponsor your job postings. Now what? You pay for every time a candidate clicks and applies, but does the candidate stop there? You weren’t the only one making a posting and with the ease of applying to new jobs, you could imagine a candidate isn’t going to just apply to one role. They’re going to apply to a few other jobs, thus putting your recruiters in a position of wasting their time with candidates who may not be very serious about your offering. 

4. Unqualified Candidates

Touching back on the previous point, now that you have a “full pipeline” your team has to sift through said candidates. However, did those candidates read your description? Do they know anything about your company? With job boards, you’re inundated with resumes, but your team only has a limited amount of time to pick the best candidates before actually making contact with them. This time spent is a direct cost to your firm, and every time you speak to an unqualified candidate is time that could be spent with higher quality candidates, thus costing you money to generate unqualified and costing you to waste recruiter time chasing them down. 

5. The Increasing Costs of Job Boards 

According to Shortlist reports, some job boards have increased their fees by more than 300%, but job ad performance has actually decreased since the start of the pandemic, As costs rise, these increases in pricing exacerbate the problem with not only generating clicks from band candidates but speaking and chasing down candidates that you won’t ever place. 

6. Taking Your Traffic

Are job boards a competitor or a complimentary service? That’s the question. Chances are it’s a little bit of both. However, If #1-7 weren’t enough to convince you, what if I told you there was a chance they were taking what’s already yours and selling it back to you? Every so often if you search on Google, you’ll find Indeed ranking higher than you on your own brand name. They advertise directly to candidates on Google and effectively take potential candidates from you and divert them to their site. 

7. Job Seekers Don’t Like Job Boards 

Finally, and most importantly, a big portion of your market hates dealing with job boards. They have too many options to choose from. They’re applying to jobs already filled or even cloned job opportunities that they’ll never hear back from. Not to mention, even Indeed admits candidates are being ghosted at staggering rates, thus hurting your brand reputation and leaving everyone dissatisfied. Not to mention, one has to wonder, are job boards creating this problem? 

The Job Board Alternative – Attracting Clinicians Direct

The fastest way to get in front of more clinicians (as evidenced by Indeed)  you have to put your business in front of them when they search online. Appearing in the top #3 spots on Google helps you reach candidates when they are interested in finding a new role. Not to mention, when a candidate ends up on your website, they develop a connection to your firm and reach out to you directly without being inundated with tons of competing offers to choose from. 

Wrapping It Up

Job boards to an extent are necessary for your strategy, but given all of the potential problems associated with them, it might be worth working towards moving away from these platforms and methods that put you directly in front of candidates. 

How to Get More Candidates Through Google 

Most firms are on Google to an extent and some even advertise to compete with the likes of Indeed to find candidates, but the problem is that most attempt to compete in the top 3 spots but don’t have an optimized Google strategy This means, that they advertise or optimize for SEO but they aren’t getting as much traffic as they’d like or they’re getting traffic but it isn’t turning into a ton of candidates asking about new roles. If you want to see how firms like AYA and HealtheCareers outsmart the job boards and find candidates directly, email me the words “find more clinicians” at cbob@staffingattractionsystems.com and I’ll show you how.