Well, job seekers are just as important to the success of your platform. They represent half of your market in the two-sided marketplace model inherent to job boards. Without a steady stream of job seekers, employers won’t find the value they’re looking for, and ultimately your job board won’t be successful.
This is especially critical in industries where there’s a lot of roles to fill, but qualified job seekers are in low supply. In such niches, providing a good user experience (UX) is the absolute minimum you need in order to attract job seekers.
Plus, you need to consider that there’s already a lot of great job boards out there. This makes an intuitive, user-friendly interface a baseline requirement rather than a differentiator. Job seekers will quickly leave your platform if they find themselves confused.
4 best practices for great job seeker user experience
While generic UX elements such as loading speed (40% of visitors will leave a website if it takes longer than three seconds to load), simple navigation, minimal distractions, and accessibility are essential, job board sites have unique requirements.
Here are some specific UX tips for job boards:
1. Job filters and job information
Job filters relevant to your niche
The first few seconds on your job board are pivotal. It should be obvious to job seekers how to navigate your site and find the jobs that match their criteria.
In order to do this, you need to provide relevant job filters, such as keywords, job type, location, salary range, and remote working options.
You also want to make sure that your filters align with your niche. For example, if your job board focuses on tech jobs, filters for specific programming languages or technologies could be valuable.
Providing comprehensive job descriptions
To attract and retain job seekers, it’s essential to provide detailed and relevant information about each job posting. When employers list jobs, ensure they include details such as:
- Job responsibilities and qualifications
- Salary range
- Company culture and benefits
- Remote work options
Remote work information is particularly important in today’s market. Job seekers often prioritize roles that offer remote or flexible working conditions. Hence, implementing a “remote-only” filter can greatly improve the user experience.
With Niceboard, you are able to make specific job fields mandatory so that employers need to provide the information when posting a role. For example, this marketing job board only allows job listings that include a salary (range).
Employer videos
A great way to make the job listings on your job board stand out is providing personal insights into the role. For example, by allowing employers to upload short videos that describe the role, company culture, and work environment.
This can give job seekers a better sense of the position and the company. Job boards like Superpath have successfully used this feature to enhance job postings. Plus, you can charge employers a premium for this feature.
Company profiles
Similar to videos, detailed employer profiles can provide job seekers with valuable insights into potential employers. Include sections for company values, culture, and work environment. Even opinions from current employees could be helpful.
2. Make it simple to apply, stay updated, and return
Profile creation
Allow job seekers to create profiles where they can store their application data, such as resume, photo, and job preferences. This profile serves as a digital resume, showcasing their skills, experience, and qualifications in one place. It not only simplifies the application process, but also increases the likelihood of job seekers returning to your site to apply for roles.
You can make this even easier by offering social login options via Google or LinkedIn. This reduces friction for job seekers, facilitating a smoother onboarding process.
Automatic job alerts
You can offer the option to subscribe to automatic job alerts based on job seekers’ specified criteria. This keeps passive job seekers in the loop without requiring them to constantly visit your job board. Personalized job recommendations based on their preferences can significantly increase their engagement.
Streamlined application process
Job seekers should be able to submit their applications directly on the platform. If that's not possible, you can offer other submission options, such as applying via email, or through a link. Simplify the process further with features like one-click applications, similar to LinkedIn’s, where users can apply with a single click if their profile is already complete.
Saved searches
Enable users to save their job searches and preferences. This feature is valuable for job seekers in the midst of the job search, allowing them to bookmark results and return to them later.
3. SEO and mobile optimization
Mobile friendliness
With 62% of job applications happening on mobile in 2023, you need to have your job board optimized for mobile viewing and applications. As a Niceboard user, you can sit back and relax—we do this for you automatically.
Regardless of your provider, your site should have a responsive design that adapts to different screen sizes, ensuring a seamless experience across smartphones, tablets, and desktops.
Test whether job seekers can go through the entire application process—from filtering roles and creating accounts to submitting resumes—via their mobile devices.
If you’re not convinced yet, mobile responsiveness is also a factor for SEO.
Category landing pages
Utilize category landing pages to improve both UX and SEO. These pages can help job seekers find relevant jobs more easily while also improving your job board’s ranking in search engines. Category landing pages should be well-optimized with relevant keywords and clear navigation paths.
4. Resources and support
Resume services
Partner with resume services to offer free resume reviews for job applicants. If you’re running your job board on Niceboard, we partnered with TopResume to provide this option for your job seekers. This additional service can help applicants improve their resumes, increasing their chances of landing a job and using your job board to do so.
Career advice blog
Maintain a blog that offers career advice, including tips on resume writing, interview preparation, and career development. By providing job seekers with niche-specific resources, you will position your site as an authority in your industry and as the go-to spot for job seekers.
We recommend diving deep into industry trends, providing salary information, and sharing insider interviews. Or highlight successful candidate stories from your job board.
Start with these topics:
- job/industry insights—job roles, titles, salary guides, industry trends, locations
- career advancement resources—CV, LinkedIn profile, cover letter, interview questions & prep, training resources, career transitions, negotiations
- insider interviews—insights from professionals in the industry, highlight uncommon career paths, guest posts
- networking—how/where/what to say, LinkedIn outreach, connecting to recruiters, personal branding, portfolio website
Job seeker community
Building a community in your niche is a long-term game, but can bring many benefits, such as creating a pipeline for job seeker traffic to your board and capturing passive job seekers.
Most important here is understanding your community’s exact value proposition to members. It could be to practice networking or to get advice from peers and career experts in your niche. This will foster a sense of community and provide additional value beyond job listings.
Providing an incredible applicant experience on your job board is crucial for attracting and retaining users; users that ultimately drive the value of your job board for employers. Thy investing in the job seeker UX on your board is a win-win strategy that will pay off in the long run.