3 Ways Job Boards Can Help Employers Stand Out

There Are Nearly 2 Part-Time Job Openings per Part-Time Job Seeker in the US. 

Every month, more than 450,000 people in the US search for part-time jobs with the phrase “part-time jobs near me.” But there are 885,000 part-time positions currently open – nearly two for every person searching.

This means employers have to do everything in their power to attract qualified part-time workers. The first step is to capture their attention and convince them to apply for open roles. Here are three ways job boards can help them do that.

1. Include Schedules and Working Hours

Many workers seek out part-time roles for their flexibility. Among those who most value flexibility:

• Caretakers who need to generate income and have to fit their shifts between school schedules, doctor’s appointments, and meals.
• Gig workers who balance several jobs.
• Older adults who want to supplement their savings – and may not, for example, feel comfortable driving at night.

Making it easy for your customers to list projected hours on their postings gives applicants information they need before deciding whether to apply.

For entry-level part-time roles and those that provide on-the-job training, schedule information may be even more important to applicants than the type of work. A parent seeking work while her kids are at school, for example, might consider a variety of work that offers the right hours, from freelance data entry to driving for Uber.

On the flip side, she won’t be interested in any job that requires her to be at work when she needs to be caring for her kids.

That’s a significantly different calculus than many full-time job seekers make. It means that employers looking for part-time workers are competing across industries to attract a limited pool of part-time workers.

Job boards can make it easy for their clients’ listings to stand out by highlighting projected hours with job tags. This equips candidates with information they need to know, helping drive interest in your customer’s job postings.

2. Feature Compensation Ranges

Sixty-four percent of employees view a significant increase in income or benefits as a critical factor in taking a new job. But less than eight percent of US job postings include wage data. There’s a gap between what job seekers look for and what employers and / or job boards provide.

Tagging jobs with a compensation range – made easy with our Jobs Enhancement tool – attracts applicants for a couple of reasons.

First, it signals transparency. Employees want to know they’re entering a workplace that doesn’t exploit their efforts. Including a wage rate helps promote equity and ensures that staff feels adequately compensated.

Second, adding a compensation range highlights the most important consideration for more than 60 percent of job seekers – pay. In today’s competitive labor market, the boilerplate “competitive wages” language isn’t enough to pique part-time job seekers’ interest. Empower your customers to display wages prominently.

3. Highlight Covid Safety Protocols

The pandemic highlighted the contributions of essential workers (grocery store clerks, mass transit employees, etc.). But frontline staff still face greater transmission risks of COVID-19, and a large number of these roles are part-time.

What’s more, many part-time workers are caretakers or at increased risk themselves. Retirees, for instance, are reentering the workforce at two-year high rates. Unmasked exposure to COVID-19 could be a dealbreaker for them.

Employees need to know a job’s health risks. This is why it’s so valuable for you to let employers showcase their COVID-19 safety practices (vaccination requirements, mandated masking, etc.) with something like custom fields. Emphasizing this safety information helps workers make a decision that prioritizes their comfort before applying for a part-time job.

In a Tight Labor Market, Providing More Detailed Jobs Data Is a Competitive Advantage

This is a historically tight labor market. The unemployment rate has dropped below 3.6 percent as of March. There’s a near two-to-one ratio of part-time job openings to part-time job seekers. More than 47 million people quit their jobs this past year.

One way that job boards can help their clients overcome the Great Resignation is by making it easy to highlight the features applicants value most, including wages and projected schedules.

Doing so empowers part-time applicants to make the best decisions for their professional and personal lives, which helps translate to more qualified applicant pools and faster hiring processes.

If you’d like to learn more about our JobsIndex tool or how to receive tailored feeds of jobs data, get in touch.