In a candidate-short market, scheduling your job posts for when candidates are at their most active is more important than ever. Wave’s Emily Buckley reveals the best day to post based on when candidates are applying and what the average time to apply is.
In recruitment, timing is everything – and even more so in a candidate-short market when competition for talent is fierce. Getting your job ads out, shortlisting candidates for interview, the interview process, sending a job offer, responding to candidate queries – all need to be done at pace to avoid candidate drop-outs or competitors beating you to it. Streamlining the recruitment process is an ongoing challenge for recruiters and is ultimately what most recruitment technology is designed to help with.
But there is another timing issue that isn’t given as much spotlight because it doesn’t always fit with the ‘race to be first’ mentality. Posting your jobs at the right time – when the majority of candidates are actively searching for jobs – is crucial but it may mean waiting for the right day. This may be at odds with that pull to post your jobs as quickly as possible but what’s the point of writing a perfectly crafted, well optimised job ad that the candidates you are trying to target won’t see? Post at times of low candidate activity and, with the rate at which fresh jobs are added to job boards, your job will be old news by the time those candidates are looking.
How do you know the best time to post your jobs? In short, data. A data-powered multi-poster such as WaveTrackR can analyse data taken from thousands of job posts and applications and calculate the day of the week (and even the time of day) that the majority of candidates are applying for jobs. WaveTrackR has found that most applications are received on a Monday or Tuesday (18% each). How does that affect job posting decisions? WaveTrackR data has also revealed that 50% of candidates apply within one day of a job being posted. The best time to post a job – for maximum exposure to quality candidates – is therefore at the very beginning of the week, first thing on a Monday, or even on a Sunday evening.
However, this doesn’t correlate with the days on which the majority of jobs are posted. WaveTrackR job posting data consistently reveals that the greatest percentage of jobs are posted towards the end of the week, on a Thursday (22%), sometimes a good four or five days before the majority of applications are sent. With the knowledge that most applications are received within a day of a job being posted, that means that many jobs might not even be seen by candidates – a total waste of a job credit. If you post a job on a Thursday, you will potentially be reaching amongst the lowest possible number of candidates as only 14% of candidates apply on a Friday and just 9% apply on a Saturday.
Freshness is a major factor in how job boards rank jobs in searches. Plus, post your jobs early on the day that most candidates are active and you will be more likely to make it onto the job board’s front page. Your job may also be included in the daily email updates – if a candidate is more likely to be active on a day that they receive your job in an email, it makes sense that they will be more likely to click on the link and apply for the job. In order to post at the best times, the ability to schedule your jobs is key. Once you’ve written your job ad, use your multi-poster to schedule to post at the optimum time, saving you from one more thing to think about.
Ensuring your job adverts are posted at a time that will catch the largest number of candidates actively searching is even more important now that we’re seeing job board price increases. When each ad costs more, where and when you post your jobs is crucial. You need a targeted strategy that gives you the best ROI, and that’s where reliable data can help. Data-powered recommendations on the best day to post a particular job allows you to generate a higher number of quality applications and reduce costs. In a candidate-short market, you don’t have the time or the budget to waste on posting jobs that won’t deliver the talent you need. The time of spray and pray recruitment marketing is over. Strategic job post timing, in conjunction with targeted job boards and optimised content, will allow you to reduce your job posts but increase your reach. Less expenditure, better results by taking a quality over quantity approach. At a time when costs are rising but candidate availability is still low, such an approach is more important than ever.
Wave aims to create a world where talent is never missed by providing recruitment solutions through cutting-edge technology, via WaveTrackR (data-powered multi-poster and analytics tool), RecWebs (tailored recruitment websites) and WaveMedia (recruitment media buying).
