Today, candidate acquisition is among the top priorities for staffing agencies. A tight talent pool has been the biggest hiring challenge for recruiters. In fact, 45% of staffing agencies reported talent shortage to be a top hurdle in achieving HR operational excellence. Thus, creating problems for maintaining a high talent density. Do you seek to build better talent density at your company? With every hire, do you wish to raise the talent bar higher? If you do, you need to widen your recruiting net. Well, you can’t always find a big fish in a small pond, you can’t always expect them to be visiting the shore either. What do you do then? You go fishing in the sea. In the recruiting domain, that sea is niche job boards.
50% of all the applications companies receive are from job boards.
In fact, 25% of all the candidates who got hired emanated their application process on job boards. So, if you want to maximize your reach among job seekers, you need to leverage generic and niche job boards.
Read this Skima AI insight to find the best niche job boards to post your jobs for attracting talented individuals.
What Is A Job Board?
Traditionally, candidates only used to apply for a role using the career page of the respective company. However, it was very tough for candidates to keep track of each of their applications when they individually applied using a career site page of an employer. Employers too were facing challenges in expanding their talent pool.
A job board addresses both these problems.
- Job boards are digital platforms for recruiters and job seekers.
- A job board lets recruiters from different firms publish job vacancies on their platform.
- A job board also simplifies it for the candidates to apply for job openings that match their qualifications and career aspirations.
Using job boards recruiters get maximum visibility for their open roles, and candidates get a diverse set of companies to apply to. A win-win for both.
Features To Look For In Your Niche Job Board
Every job board provides a set of features to both the candidates and the recruiters. In this Skima AI blog, we shall only discuss the job board features that could be useful for you– the recruiters.
There is a niche job board out there for every role, for every industry, location, and domain; each having its own set of features and offerings.
As a recruiter, you’re spoilt for choices, and you’re equally confused when it comes to deciding which niche job boards to leverage for posting jobs. Because not all of them are free, or even affordable.
However, it gets easier to shortlist the right job boards to distribute and publish your job posts when you have clarity about what you seek, and what each niche job board has to offer. While we shall not delve into the details, we must list the job board features and the factors that you must consider before choosing one.
Basic Recruitment Features For Managing Job Posts
You embrace a niche job board because it is supposed to solve your recruiting challenges, not be one. If the job board you choose to publish your job posts is making it tough for you to track applicants’ progress with the application, or to communicate with the candidates, it might not be the right one for you.
Here’s a comprehensive recruitment-focused feature checklist for you to evaluate your niche job board-
- Comprehensive Jop Descriptions
- Employer Branding
- Bulk Job Postings
- Job Advertising
- Job Post Active Status Management
- Candidate Targeting Management
- Integration With Popular ATS
- Applicant Qualification Management
- Advanced Search & Filtering Features
- Qualified Candidates Profile & Resume Saving
- Qualified Candidates Profile & Resume Export
- Candidate Communication Automation (In-platform, email, SMS)
- AI Candidate Evaluation Feature (or at least integration with a service provider)
- In-built Screening Assessment Software
- Integrations With Automated Skill-Assessment Software
- Interview Scheduling
- Analytics & Reporting
- Language Support
- Customer Support
- Spam Prevention
- Data Privacy
You may not need all the above features in a niche job board, but the more you have at your disposal the better it can be to streamline your hiring.
Job Boards’ Niche & Popularity Among Your Ideal Candidate Segment
Selecting a job board is no easy task. As mentioned earlier, you must research the traffic these niche job boards attract. Let’s say, a recruiter is hunting for senior executives in Belgium, wouldn’t it be better if they post their job vacancies on a job board that is most popular among Belgium job seekers? Wouldn’t that maximise the number of applicants you attract from Belgian candidates? The same goes for talent sourcing managers hiring in the UK— for them, Reed will be a better choice than Naukri for sharing job posts in the UK.
When hiring for a specialized job role, go for job boards that are built exactly for the same niche.
For example, if you are looking to recruit senior developers, you can go talent hunting on a developer-centric job board like StackOverflow Jobs. Similarly, if you’re keen on hiring a marketer in the US, AMA’s Job Board or MarketingHire would be a great choice.
When looking for candidates in a specific locality, find a job board that caters to the same region.
For instance, Naukri.com and Keka HR are very popular among Indian candidates. So, Naukri will be a great job board for recruiters looking to hire in India. Naukri commands really good traffic from India. Indeed, which is a global hiring & jobs platform, is not far behind. But let’s say you are scouting talent for a company based out of France that is seeking native candidates to work from office. Where would you post your job to attract applicants? Well, certainly not the platform that has a negligible presence in France. Hence, you should consider a job board like Pôle Emploi.
The Cost Factor In Selecting The Right Niche Job Board
Job boards can be free or paid.
To start off, we suggest you go with a free job board and assess the response you get. Once you get the hang of things, you can give the premium job boards a try. While free job boards are great, paid boards offer more features— from premium listings to targeted job ads and email alerts.
Another cost angle to consider is the cost per post.
Some premium job boards, as we shall see in the list below, charge per job post. Many also charge a flat monthly or annual fee. So, depending on your requirements and budget, you can decide what works best for you.
Ready for scurrying through the list of job boards?
Niche Job Boards List
We have shortlisted a list of 14 Niche Job boards for you where you can post your jobs to hire talent. From role-focused niche job boards like Dribble and ArcDev, to remote-focused niche job boards like Flexjobs and WWR, we have tried to keep our list of niche job boards as diverse as possible.
Here we go-
1. Dribbble— Niche Job Board For Designers
- Dribbble is a quite popular platform among creative professionals. It is the second most popular community for designers, especially UI/UX talent. From creatives skilled in animation to print designs, website & mobile UI/UX, typography experts, branding gurus, and whatnot. You name it in the design world, and you will find a talent that can get it done on Dribbble.
- Like LinkedIn, Dribbble is also a social networking and engagement platform. Designers have their portfolios on the platform, which you can easily browse to assess a candidate’s skills and design style.
- Although, please note that posting a job on Dribbble is not free. This niche job board costs you $5/day when billed monthly. Dribbble’s Hiring Suite subscription plan gives you access to a ready pool of candidates to be hired and also lets you send messages to prospective candidates.
2. Behance— Niche Job Board For Creative Professionals
- Behance, part of the Adobe group, is the most popular platform for creative hearts, and boasts a community of 50+ million designers.
- It’s very similar to Dribbble. Creatives including those skilled in UI/UX, Photography, 3D Art, and more use the Behance platform to showcase their craft by using the platform as their digital portfolio or gallery.
- This niche job platform has a unique proposition for hiring managers as it is home to both- freelancers and full-timers.
- Posting a job on the Behance job board is quite easy. However, the platform isn’t natively designed for recruitment and hence lacks advanced recruitment features for recruiters.
- Still, hiring managers and talent scouting professionals should still be hooked to this platform. “Why?” you ask. Well, the quality of the candidate pool available on Behance is way better than what you could get by looking for graphic designers on a generic job board.
- Besides, the platform is not overcrowded by recruiters. So, it is easier to grab the attention of your target candidates and get them to apply to your job roles.
3. HerKey— Niche Job Board For Woman Candidates
- HerKey is one of the largest job boards for women in India.
- Initially, it was named JobsForHer, when it launched in 2015, but later it was branded HerKey.
- The platform claims 4.5 million women on board and over 15,000 companies.
- However, as of June 2024, the total number of app downloads was only 5K+ on Playstore, and their web traffic was around 100K+.
- Women are not only on this platform to find jobs but also to upskill and learn from mentors. So, whether it is your gender diversity challenges or a tight candidate pool, HerKey is the niche job board that can unlock the doors for you to hire from a candidate pool of 4.5 million women talent.
4. Idealist— Niche Job Board For Non-Profit Company Roles
- While seeking candidates in a specific niche can be very daunting, it gets even more challenging to find those who are willing to do volunteer work or help the non-profits in their mission.
- To solve this problem, back in 1995, Idealist was born— the platform where you can find job seekers who are looking for opportunities to work in NGOs and not-for-profit companies.
- To date, this platform has hosted over 1+ million social-impact job posts and hundreds of thousands of internship and volunteer opportunities.
- If you’re a part of an NGO or want to hire for social-impact companies, Idealist is the niche job board where you can easily find the right candidates. As of June 2024, this platform was clocking north of 2+ million in monthly traffic.
5. Upwork— Niche Platform To Post Freelance Opportunities
- Upwork is a global marketplace for employers and remote freelancers.
- It’s akin to Freelancer.com, PeoplePerHour, and Fiverr.
- If you’re looking to hire a freelance contractor with expertise in a particular skill, you may consider Upwork. It is renowned for its high-quality freelancers.
- As an employer, you need to do a job post on Upwork describing the project work, the skills you seek, and the pay (optional). Additionally, without any extra charges, you can even invite 30 upwork freelancers of your choice to apply to your project.
- Unlike regular job boards, freelancers do not apply with a resume or CV, instead, they send a proposal to you describing why they are a good fit for the project.
- If you’re hiring on Upwork, you have to pay two types of charges to the platform. One, a flat 5% on the total amount paid to the freelancer. Two, Upwork charges a contract initiation fee per project.
6. FlexJobs— Niche Job Board For Remote Jobs
- Over 10 million job seekers use Flexjobs to find remote jobs.
- Founded in 2007, this platform also hosts hybrid and flexible opportunities.
- They have over 50+ remote work categories with candidates varying from entry-level to executive.
- So, if you are looking for candidates who prefer flexible hours, Flexjobs is the perfect place.
7. Remotive— Niche Job Board For Remote Tech Opportunities
- Founded in 2014, Remotive is a job board for remote tech jobs. The platform gets 3 million unique yearly visits and has over 2.5 million subscribers on their daily email job digest.
- Remotive also nurtures a private Slack community with over 2500 engaged job seekers.
- Remotive has 3 pricing verticals- basic, plus, and premium.
- The Basic version costs $299/month and lets you publish the job. It distributes your job posts in its Slack channel, email newsletters, and social media handles.
- With Plus, which is priced at $398/month, you also get employer branding features.
- Lastly, the Premium version is priced at $448/month and gives an additional perk of pinning your job post to Remotive’s home page for 7 days.
8. Arc.dev— Niche Job Board For Remote Developers, Marketers, and Designers
- Arc is a remote job board for developers, marketers, and designers.
- It has a pool of 350K+ candidates, which it calls Arc Pool.
- A unique aspect of this platform is that you will only be matched with candidates who are vetted and responsive. Owing to its rigorous screening processes, you can be sure that your potential employee is highly qualified and the right person for the job.
- ArcDev has two separate pricing models for full-time hires and freelancers.
- For full-time hires, you again have two pricing buckets.
- HireAI lite charges you $999 per month (with a minimum subscription of 3 months). With it, you get to tap into the ArcDev pool of 350K+ candidates. You can use AI applicant screening and AI auto-sourcing features to speed up your hiring.
- With HireAI Premium, you get charged based on per hire, and you also get a dedicated recruiter.
9. We Work Remotely— Niche Job Board For Remote-Only Jobs
- We Work Remotely (WWR) is a decade-old remote job board.
- The platform attracts talent from technology, design, marketing, sales and other remote-friendly sectors.
- WWR has a 90% fill rate, which is great when it comes to recruitment KPIs. WWR also claims to be attracting 4.5Mn+ visitors every month. For these reasons, this niche remote job board could be great for recruiters looking to hire remote talent.
- The pricing model of We Work Remotely is a bit different when compared to others. It charges you a flat $299 for publishing one job post.
10. Naukri— Niche Job Board For Recruiting In India
- Naukri is quite popular among Indian job seekers. Many wouldn't call it a niche job board. But niche gets decided when you look at this platform from a global lens. Naukri is mostly active in India, and from that perspective, we are calling it a region-focused niche job platform for recruiting in India.
- It has one of the largest candidate pools in India. From college students to seasoned professionals, there are barely any professionals in the Indian organized sector, who don’t have an account on Naukri India.
- Hence, recruiters too flock to this platform in thousands— from small companies to mid-cap and large enterprises, almost every talent acquisition specialist uses Naukri as a recruiting platform.
- As of June 2024, Naukri commanded a monthly traffic of 70+ million visitors on its website. Besides, it is one of the most downloaded job apps on the Play Store (50+ Million downloads).
- Naukri has two different offerings for recruiters.
- One, it lets you post jobs, which is not free. You get charged based on the length of your job descriptions and the number of monthly job posts you can do. These can be either a hot-vacancy that remains live on the platform for 30 days and is accessible in all the cities of India, or they could be classified ads that have two variants i.e., metro and non-metro-Indian cities.
- Two, Naukri gives you packages to access the resume database of candidates. You can use the platform’s native search filters to find the right candidates, explore their CVs, and if they fit the bill, reach out to them with the job opportunity.
11. Foundit— Niche Job Board For Recruiting In India
- Monster India rebranded itself to Foundit.
- It was established in 2010 and is another popular generalist job board. As a job board, it caters to a wide range of industries and job categories.
- Foundit also hosts a virtual career fair for employers and entry-level candidates to connect and explore possible job opportunities.
- So, whether it’s entry-level, mid-level management roles or executive positions, you can find the right candidate through both free and premium tiers on FoundIt.
That would be all for niche job boards. Here's an extended list of other job boards that are too big to be ignored by hiring managers.
12. LinkedIn— Too Big To Be Ignored
- LinkedIn is the largest professional social networking platform in the world.
- This tool gives you access to tap into possibly the biggest talent pool on the planet— 700Mn+ professionals from 60+ countries.
- Developers, designers, recruiters, marketers, doctors, customer support representatives, teachers, politicians, actors, writers, stand-up comics, and sales professionals— you name it, they are available on LinkedIn.
- Linkedin has a suite of services for recruiters. One, LinkedIn InMail to reach out to candidates with personalized emails. Two, LinkedIn Job Posts- to create and post job opportunities, and talent insight - to build thriving workforces ready for the future. All these are often shipped as a package in a dedicated platform for recruiters i.e., LinkedIn Recruiter.
- LinkedIn Recruiter has three product segments.
- One, the LinkedIn Recruiter is for mid-market and enterprise companies.
- Two, LinkedIn RPS is for staffing agencies.
- Three, LinkedIn Recruiter Lite is for individual and freelance recruiters.
- The pricing for LinkedIn Recruiter varies based on the number of seats you subscribe to. The base variant of LinkedIn Recruiter starts at $170/month for a single seat.
13. Indeed— Generalist Job Board
- Indeed is one of the largest generalist job platforms, with over 350M+ unique visitors every month.
- Whether you are looking for a full-time employee or a freelancer, Indeed lets you target any type of talent.
- Pricing on Indeed is dynamic and is influenced by where you are located. Also, you don’t get charged on Indeed for posting a job. That’s free.
- You only get charged for promoting a job i.e., sponsored jobs. When you post free, the job posts lose their rank as new ones replace them. With sponsored posts, they remain visible to candidates.
- Another interesting part of Indeed job posting is that you don’t pay for a number of post impressions, instead, you pay for the number of qualified applicants you get for your posts. You will have 3 days to review an application and mark them as qualified or not.
14. Glassdoor— Indeed's Extension As A Job Board
- While Glassdoor started as a company reviewing platform, it now also includes a job board.
- Here you can create a job posting, respond to reviews, and get insights to make your hiring process even more efficient.
- Glassdoor clocks 67+ million monthly traffic. Candidates use it as a company research tool, to evaluate whether the company they are about to interview or join is good in terms of work-life balance, pay scale, culture, and growth prospects.
- This means the candidate performing the research is an active job seeker.
- Hence, it’s a good opportunity for you as a recruiter to attract them to the job vacancies at your company. That’s exactly where Glassdoor kicks in as a job board. Every time you post a job on Indeed and sponsor it, your job post gets published on Glassdoor as well.
How Skima AI Helps You Streamline Your Job Postings?
With Skima AI, you don’t need to spend endless hours creating job descriptions or sifting through resumes scouting for talent. Skima AI offers you a suite of services designed to solve recruiting challenges.
Job Description Generator
Skima’s AI-powered platform automates job description creation. All you need to do is share the role position, location, and number of years of experience you seek.
Resume Intelligence Tool & AI Matching Score
Our in-house AI Matching Score tool assesses the applicant’s resume pulled from all your job boards and assigns a score to each candidate based on how good a fit they will be for the job role. The higher the score, the better the match.
Workflow Automation
Our platform is configurable to automate the entire hiring process - from generating job descriptions to publishing/posting the job, accepting and evaluating profiles, communicating to candidates about their selection for the interview, following up with the candidates, to screening them based on set questions/criteria.
With Skima AI, you can spot brown bears and purple squirrels in no time! Book your demo today. Don’t forget to subscribe to this blog for more HR insights.