If you have a job opening for which you are always hiring, make the end date of your job listing as far away as possible.
Many of our clients have job listings that never really go away; they are permanent, perpetual job listings. If you have a job opening for which you are always hiring, then this article is for you! Read on to get insight on the different ways your company can keep a job listing posted, the pros and cons you should consider, and our suggested best practices.
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Option 1 - Never-Ending Listing
Make the end date of your job listing as far away as possible. Currently, the ATS will allow you to end a job at the end of the year five years into the future. You can hire multiple applicants from one job listing, so this is a quick fix for many clients. The most important thing to remember if you plan to post a job for 5 years is that the job description, details, benefits, etc. may change. As a best practice, double-check your permanent job listing each year to see if adjustments are needed.
Another consideration for this option is that your job listing will eventually fall to the bottom of free job board search results since it will become very old for a job listing. (Most job boards put the newest jobs on top.) If you advertise this position on a paid job board, then each listing (30, 60, 90 days usually) you pay for will put your job back at the top of the list.
Option 2 - Re-post over time for optimal job board placement
The ATS allows you to create job templates and then create job listings from those templates. Your Applicant Tracking System also allows you to easily copy old job listings, making this a viable option that does not require a lot of extra time. The benefit of this approach is that each time you create a new listing, it will have a unique system ID and therefore job description URL. This allows it to rise to the top of the job board search results when newly posted as the external board won't recognize a previous system ID trying to be reposted.
However, each job listing will obtain its own set of applicants, so if you have highly qualified candidates that applied last quarter to the job, then you may need to invite them to apply to the new position, or copy them over to the newer job listing yourself.
It is also a good idea to change the name of the position, even if it is only a slight adjustment, each time you re-post a job listing. Many job boards will even flag listings that are exact replicas in an effort to prevent companies from trying to 'trick' their system. Here are some additional tips on job listing specifics for your review in our "Worker Bee" sample job listing image below:
Option 3 - Change the Dates
This is our least favorite option for creating a never-ending job posting. As a best practice, only consider extending the end date of a job listing when you truly need to extend the search for applicants...perhaps just by an additional 15-30 days in most cases.
Most job boards will recognize habitual date changing (especially if you are also changing the start date of an existing position in an attempt to make it look like it was posted later) as an attempt to once again trick the system into putting your job listing in a higher spot. In some cases, this type of unfavorable practice can flag the quality assurance team of a free external job board and cause the job board to block your future posting attempts all together. If your organization is flagged, it can be a cumbersome process to get back in the good graces of the external job boards...particularly the ones that accept your postings for free.