When online job boards first emerged, the process of finding and aggregating job postings was done manually. The employers would document their recruitment needs and submit the same to the job board. The job board would then go through hundreds of such ads on a daily basis, manually updating each on the job board. Needless to say, this process was time-consuming and highly inefficient. Additionally, mistakes in job postings were a common occurrence due to the manual process. Typos, incomplete information, and other inaccuracies would often plague job postings on the job board. This would drive job-seekers away from job boards. That’s because job searches would often return incomplete job listings or inaccurate job postings for candidates. And, this, in turn, would also keep employers from finding suitable, talented candidates for employment.
Employers then turned to programming. RSS feeds and XML files were used to feed jobs to job boards. However, not every employer could spare the time, money, or human resources to create job feeds. Thus, programming, too, failed at solving the online recruitment challenge faced by job boards and employers alike. Job boards were stuck with RSS and XML for quite some time. It looked like their troubles would never end.
But then came the friendly neighborhood job spider.
So, what exactly is a job spider?
A job spider is a software that crawls the internet to search for jobs listed on employers’ websites and other sources of job postings. The spider performs job spidering periodically (usually every couple of days) to gather information about new job postings on employers’ career pages.
Why should I employ job spidering services?
If you’re running a job board, job spidering services can come in handy. You should consider employing a job spider if your answer to the following questions is yes:
Does your job board have insufficient job listings?
The primary function of job boards is to provide job postings. Be it job seekers or employers, people will be attracted to your job board if they find enough relevant job advertisements on your job board. If your job board doesn’t have enough job listings, it is only natural that you won’t attract a large number of job-seekers. And soon enough, your job board will cease to exist due to diminishing traffic. New employers might hesitate to partner with you and it may result in loss of revenue opportunities.
Do the job listings on your job board have incomplete job data?
Even if your job board has a plethora of job listings, they are of no use if they can’t prove useful to candidates seeking employment opportunities. Candidates usually get frustrated and leave the job application process if they can’t find complete job details or find a lot of misleading job postings. The candidates should be able to find complete information for every job search they run. If that happens, candidates are satisfied with their job-hunting process. This will eventually result in candidates preferring your job board for their employment needs.
Are you losing clients?
If you aren’t attracting a huge pool of candidates, there is a high probability of you losing out on your clients too. If their recruitment processes don’t benefit from your job board, they won’t employ your services. You will eventually suffer financially due to a diminishing client base if you manage to keep one.
Are your competitors using job spidering services?
The answer most probably is, yes. Almost all job boards today employ some form of job automation tools. These tools have somewhat become a necessity for job boards to provide premium services to their clients as well as job seekers.
Benefits of a job spider:
Job spiders can help solve the challenges currently faced by your job board. Some of the major benefits of using a job spider include
- Automated job aggregation
The job scraping process is automated and streamlined with the help of a job spider. Employers no longer need to manually inform and update the job board about their new job ads. The spider can automatically search for new job listings on the career page of the employer and extract job postings. And with a job spider, your job board is not restricted to only clients’. The crawler can search the entire internet database to extract new jobs periodically.
- Automated job posting
A job spider is programmed to automatically scrape jobs from across the internet. This solves one of the major challenges faced by job boards, insufficient job listings. Your job board will be populated with job postings, thanks to job spiders. This will ensure that new jobs will be visible to candidates every time they visit your job board. This will result in an increase in candidate traffic to your job board. Employers would thus want to partner with your job board for their recruitment process as it exposes them to a vast pool of candidates.
Why should I use premium job spidering tools?
Now that you’re aware of the benefits of job spider, here’s why you should integrate a premium job spidering solution like that provided by Propellum for added benefits. Propellum’s job spidering services not only fulfills the basic functions of a job spider but also provide a few extra features such as;
● Customization
One of the significant advantages of Propellum’s job spidering tools is customization. Job boards can customize the spider to specifically crawl certain sites. They can also determine the frequency at which they require the crawler to search the internet for new jobs. Additionally, the crawler can extract job listings from various kinds of job feeds.
● Intelligent job scraping
Our job scraping tool can intelligently scrape job listings from the internet. If the job listings have incomplete data, the scraper can automatically fill in the missing details. This will mean that the candidate job searches will always return with complete job ads, increasing their engagement on your website.
● Multilingual support
Our tools can be used by job boards all over the globe. With multilingual support, the scraper can be utilized to extract job listings posted in multiple languages. If your job board is looking to increase its scalability and have a more global reach, the scraper can efficiently handle all your needs.
● Dedicated technical support
If, in any case, something’s not working correctly for your job board, you are assured of dedicated technical support. The support staff is available 24*7 assuring that your issues get resolved immediately.
● Notifications
Propellum provides timely notifications and reports to job boards about their performance. These reports can be analyzed to make informed decisions to expand your services.
Job boards often face a high degree of complexity in job scraping from the internet or from specific employers. A premium job spidering tool can match that complexity and simplify the job spidering process. As a job board, you can expect high-quality job listings on your job board with the help of our tools. And with increased scalability, you can even consider employing a premium job wrapping solution for completely automating your job board.
