How to Cut Recruiting Costs for Your Staffing Agency with a Job Board

By running your own job board you can significantly cut recruiting costs, streamline your hiring process, and increase revenue.

This guide will explore four key ways you can leverage your own job board to reduce your recruiting expenses.

1. Reduce dependency on major job boards

Many staffing agencies rely heavily on large job boards like Indeed, ZipRecruiter, and LinkedIn for candidate sourcing. While these platforms are effective, they often come with high costs, with some agencies spending upwards of $400,000 per year on access to these platforms, while battling fierce competition. By diversifying your recruiting channels and establishing your own job board, for example with Niceboard, you can avoid these high costs while still reaching a wide pool of qualified candidates. We provide a job board software platform specifically designed for staffing firms and recruiting agencies.

So instead of paying exorbitant fees on larger platforms, starting your own job board allows you to invest in a user-friendly platform that typically only costs between $200 and $500 per month. This investment can lead to substantial savings from day one.

An added bonus is that you maintain control over your brand's image and messaging. You can showcase your more personalized approach and foster stronger connections with job seekers who align with your clients' needs, resulting in more successful hires in the long term.

One of Niceboard’s staffing clients reported a staggering 99% reduction in expenses after transitioning from third-party sites to their own job board while simultaneously increasing the total number of applications received.

2. Automate and streamline processes

One of the significant advantages of using your own job board is its automation capabilities. Most job board platforms allow you to automate various tasks related to job postings, applications, and candidate communications, which can save time and reduce administrative costs.

Here are some examples of the workflows you could automate with your own job board:

• Job listing automation: Integrate your job board with tools like Google Sheets or Airtable to automatically post new job listings without manual entry. For instance, by setting up a workflow with Zapier, every time a new row is added to a Google Sheets spreadsheet, a job listing can be automatically created on Niceboard. This method not only saves time but also minimizes the risk of errors associated with manual data entry.
• Enhanced candidate communication: Most job board platforms allow you to set up automatic email alerts to inform job seekers about the newest jobs on your platform, according to their preferences. Alternatively, you can integrate your job board with your existing email service to set up workflows that automatically send emails when candidates looked at, applied for, or landed a job. Immediate feedback like this not only improves the candidate experience but also frees up your recruiters' time to focus on more strategic tasks.
• Notifications for new applications: To keep your hiring team informed about new candidates, your own job board allows your staffing agency to set up real-time notifications by integration with Slack or other messaging platforms. This way recruiters are immediately alerted when new applications come in, enabling them to respond quickly to promising candidates.
• Application management: Job board platforms like Niceboard offer an intuitive dashboard where staffing agencies can easily track and manage all incoming applications. The platform might allow users to filter applications based on various criteria such as skills, experience level, or application date, simplifying the selection process.

These and many more automations not only cut down the manual work but also enhance the candidate experience, making it easier for them to apply for jobs; and for you to keep all your data in one place.

3. Own your data for better decision-making

Another advantage of using your own job board is having access to valuable data analytics. As a staffing firm operating your own job board, you gain complete control over the data collected during the application process—something most major job boards do not offer. This ownership provides several competitive advantages:

• Maintaining candidate relationships: Centralizing candidate data such as emails, names, and job preferences prevents issues related to recruiter turnover and helps maintain valuable relationships with candidates over time. You can finally utilize past candidate profiles for future staffing contracts, saving you money on recruiting costs.
• Selling insights from collected data: The applicant data collected through your job board can reveal valuable insights into candidate preferences and hiring trends within specific industries. You could develop reports or products based on this data that could be sold back to employers or used for internal strategy development.
• Optimizing your recruitment strategy: Data-driven insights can also help your agency to refine their recruitment strategy based on applicant preferences. For instance, if certain job titles consistently attract more applicants, your firm can focus their efforts on similar roles or industries.

This data-driven approach allows you to refine your recruitment processes, ensuring that you are investing resources where they yield the best results. Hence, saving money in the long-term.

4. Monetize your job board

In addition to reducing your costs, a job board also opens up new revenue streams for your staffing agency or recruiting firm. Here are some strategies—beyond selling collected data—that will not only help you to cover the costs of running a job board but can also generate additional revenue that supports your growth:

• Monetizing access to job seeker profiles: Once candidates create profiles and submit resumes on your job board, this data becomes an asset that can be sold to employers seeking access to qualified candidates. Your job board can effectively serve as an e-commerce platform within the recruitment industry
• Charging job seekers for access: If the niche you operate in has a large number of applicants and a relatively limited pool of employers, this option might be more sustainable for you. Gating access to your jobs for a fee also helps to filter out less serious candidates, ensuring that only committed and motivated job seekers apply for positions.
• Job seeker services: Depending on your industry this could mean offering resume writing services, career coaching or mini-courses on building additional skills in your field.

Your job board doesn’t just have to serve as a platform for posting jobs; it can also be a source of advertising revenue. By allowing advertisement on your site, you create an additional income stream that helps offset operational costs.

• Banner ads: Offer space on your job board for relevant companies to display banner ads targeting job seekers (or just consumers) in your specific industry. This approach not only generates revenue but also provides value to users by showcasing tools or services that may assist them in their job search.
• Affiliate marketing: Partner with companies that offer services beneficial to job seekers (e.g. resume writing services or interview coaching) and earn commissions through affiliate links placed on your site.

By implementing some of these strategies, your staffing agency can turn their job board into a revenue-generating asset while simultaneously reducing overall recruiting costs.