If you’re looking to hire new people for your company, you don’t necessarily need to spend a cent to do so. While there are many exclusively paid job boards and sites out there, it’s also possible to sign up for free trials or use solely free job boards to advertise your company. Even better, it can lead to superior results if you pick out the right method for your industry.
With any job search endeavor, it makes sense to spread your net as wide as possible so you get the best candidate for your business. That’s why we’ve taken a look at the best free job boards out there right now, and looked at how they can help attract the right person for the role.
With so many options out there, we’ve chosen different job board sites for different purposes. Some, like ZipRecruiter, are reliable all-rounders for any kind of job. These are great if you’re short on time and want the job board to do all the hard work for you, such as by screening out applicants. Others focus on specific fields or requirements, such as if you’re looking to hire someone fresh out of college. There are even some great methods for using regular forums to find the right candidate, providing you are able to put the work in.
Whatever your intentions, it’s a good idea to read through this list and find what works best for your industry. There’s a free job board for you, whatever your time commitment or plans may be.
1. ZipRecruiter
ZipRecruiter is the best way to hire employees for pretty much all companies. It offers plenty of features that make it easy to find the right fit for your firm, with a free trial that sets you up well. All you need to do is enter a few details about your company before adding the job description. This includes listing what benefits are included, as well as a one-line sales pitch that sums up why working at your company is a great idea.
When it comes to salary range, ZipRecruiter also helps out by letting you know the average compensation for your region so you know if you’re being sufficiently competitive or not. It’s particularly ideal if you’re not sure what your competitors are offering, especially when the job market is so competitive. From there, ZipRecruiter does all the hard work. A one week free trial starts you off nicely giving you the full breadth of ZipRecruiter with no limitations. The standard plan allows you to distribute to over 100 job boards including veteran job boards and pretty much every other site you can think of. Alternatively, the premium plan also gives you access to ZipRecruiter’s database of 36 million resumes, as well as gives your ads premium placement in job alert emails. In either case, it’s entirely free for the first week so you have plenty of time to hire people, as well as see if you want to keep the service for longer.
Once set up, ZipRecruiter helps match your role to the best job-seekers. It’ll even enable you to invite matched candidates to apply so you only get the absolute best people. It’s all thanks to some smart algorithms devised by ZipRecruiter for this very role. You can also add screening questions so that you can narrow things down to someone that can suit your needs without having to go through an unnecessary interview process. In terms of set up, it’s a great way of saving you plenty of time as it means you don’t have to solely rely on someone’s resume. By dealing with screening questions early on, you can focus on using the interview to find out more about whether someone is a good fit for your company’s ethos. ZipRecruiter is a great way of saving time while still getting the right people for the job.
2. Indeed
Indeed is one of the simplest places to head to when posting a new job listing. Once you’ve clicked the Post a job button, you just need to create an account. From there, you can enter a few details about our company before posting the new job listing. It’s possible to enter whether the role can be conducted remotely, whether it requires regular travel, or if your candidate will need to work at numerous locations throughout the week. If a location is required, you can also choose to enter where the place is or opt to keep that private until later on in the recruitment process. Instantly, such questions means you won’t have to worry about the previously ideal candidate realizing at interview stage that you need someone to travel frequently when they can’t do that.
Other typical options include the schedule involved such as if it’s an 8 hour shift or night work, what kind of job it is, how many people you’re looking to hire, and how quickly you need someone. Like ZipRecruiter, Indeed also suggests what pay is likely for a certain role so you don’t aim too low or high with your post. Unusually, Indeed also provides a dedicated section for explaining any additional COVID-19 precautions at the job, plus you can add photos of the work environment to showcase what your office is like to prospective candidates. The latter is a neat personal touch to ensure the potential employee knows exactly what to expect, and can make all the difference.
There’s a lot of flexibility to Indeed with many of its core features entirely for free. It’s only really when it comes to expanding your reach or if you want to schedule virtual speed interviews via the service, that you need to pay up. For many users, the free service will suffice. It’s all expertly designed for your budget so you still get a great service no matter how much you want to spend.
3. LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a popular social network for anyone keen to expand their business horizons. That also means it’s a great place for posting a job listing as seemingly everyone is already on there in a professional capacity. Once you’re signed up to LinkedIn, you just need to enter a job title, the company it’s for, and other basic details. To save you time, LinkedIn then provides you with a template that should suit the job you’re recruiting for and it genuinely covers most of the essentials you would expect. It’s possible to make any necessary tweaks to suit your company, as well as add some specific skills that are required so that the job listing is fairly accurate to your expectations. Thanks to LinkedIn being such a huge social network, you’re very likely to attract significant attention and fast. However, that can mean you need to spend some time digging through the many applicants rather than having a specialist selection of great choices.
Fortunately, like ZipRecruiter, LinkedIn also offers up an array of screening questions if you want them which helps somewhat in narrowing down your options. The screening questions it suggests tie into the role you’re hiring for, saving you the need to think too hard about what might be dealbreakers for you, although you can always add some specific considerations too. By sticking with the free job ad, you get the same amount of customization as a paid plan. The only difference is that the job isn’t advertised quite as widely but it still shows up on search results which shouldn’t narrow down your options too much. As mentioned, thanks to the size of LinkedIn, you should still see results fast, but these can be more general in nature than specialist services. Still, it’s a reliable starting point on an already highly popular service with most people already owning a LinkedIn account.
4. AngelList
Promising to be the world’s number 1 startup community, AngelList specializes in helping recruit remote as well as local technical talent. Focusing on tech companies, it might not suit every business but such a specialist nature means if you are in that line of work, you’re likely to get the best candidates by using it.
AngelList believes it only takes about 10 minutes to set up job posts, company branding, and HR tools, so you’re good to go with your recruitment drive. With a more personal touch, it encourages you as a founder to discuss the key principles behind your firm meaning you’re not just a faceless company amongst so many others. It’s a good approach depending on the company you run, as it gives potential candidates more insight into what to expect from you and your firm’s work culture. From there, you can enter your job role along with details like if there’s a visa sponsorship scheme tied to it, and whether you have flexibility with working from home. Besides salary details, you can also add an equity range which can be particularly useful when appealing to someone as a start up.
Once you’ve entered the job, it’s possible to reach out to candidates yourself or wait to see who gets in touch first. AngelList keeps things nice and flexible like this with the likelihood of high-end candidates increased because of its focus on tech. It may not have the biggest database but with it finely honed to attract specific talent, you’re likely to get a better standard of applicant.
5. Handshake
Handshake is a specialist job board for college students who are just starting out. If you’re looking to hire someone who’s new to your industry, this is a great place to look. It’s focused on potential employees with no prior work experience but plenty of knowledge recently gained from their education. It also helps you find interns or people still studying and looking to combine it with some work experience.
Once you sign up, Handshake encourages you to connect with schools so that you can specifically email and connect with those institutions. From there, entering a job posting is fairly similar to other sites. The key differences relate to whether you’re hiring for an internship, a work study job, or something else that’s aimed at ongoing college students. Otherwise, the process requires the usual job description and details to sell the role to a candidate.
With such a focus on tying into one’s education, Handshake promises to connect you with over nine million students and alumni across the US. The thinking being that you’re recruiting talent early on and before someone else gets there first. It’s also possible to use the service to host your own events, participate in career fairs, and develop a relationship with institutions and students alike. By doing so, you’re much more likely to have satisfied and loyal employees in future. If you’re keen to recruit young and keen staff members that are just starting out, Handshake is a great way of doing that. You can find substantial untapped talent here which proves useful if you’re looking to train them up in your company’s specific manner. Just bear in mind that you won’t find established workers here so if you need someone with significant work experience in your field, this isn’t the solution.
6. Scouted
As the name suggests, Scouted is all about matching the perfect candidate with the right company. It’s not just a regular job board as it uses AI technology to help connect the right people. If you’re in a rush to find a candidate that meets a certain set of requirements, Scouted can help a ton rather than require you to do too much leg work.
Because the focus is on your company and picking out specific employees, it’s a smart move to spend some time summarizing your firm. Besides typing up a description, you can also add tags that describe the company culture such as if you want to point out your firm is laid back or whether it’s fast-paced. Scouted only has options for full-time or internships but you can add remote opportunities here, at least. One neat touch about Scouted is you can also add some personality through the ‘why is this job awesome’ section as well as highlight the most important attributes you require from a potential candidate. There’s definitely a tech leaning here but it’s not exclusively for tech roles. It’s a good idea to spend some time completing everything possible within Scouted too as it means the AI can do a more efficient job at finding the right person for your firm.
It’s even possible to add some extra information you won’t see elsewhere. For instance, you can fully explain the internal assessment process to Scouted so that they can use that information to better understand who will succeed in the role. It’s those seemingly little things that take time but soon lead to a better standard of job applications meaning you should save time in the long term. When it comes to the candidates, they can provide a virtual interview video that tells you all about them and their abilities, so you’re not solely dependent on a resume. It’s a great way of checking that a personality fits. In all, Scouted’s options mean that you may get fewer candidates but they’re much more likely to be high value and worthy of your consideration.
7. Facebook Groups
It’s easy to dismiss Facebook as a place for frivolous activities and sharing of memes, but Facebook Groups can be one of the best and most inexpensive ways to recruit people. The best method is to find a Facebook group that is relevant to your industry and go from there. Typically, it’s best suited for any firm looking to hire remotely, but you can also search local Facebook groups to find geographically near candidates.
The key to using Facebook groups is to know exactly what to post. Unlike dedicated job boards, there are no templates or tags to guide you towards what you need to write. Instead, you need to take some time to formulate what you want to say and how you want to sell the role at your company. It’s also important to use a professional Facebook profile to do so if you intend on vetting candidates via Facebook, or you can opt to encourage them to apply via an email address instead.
Facebook Groups offer a lot of flexility but it can have some limitations. For instance, you may find more general applicants applying for something more specialist. You may also find plenty of unsuitable applicants applying rather than if you used a service that has screening facilities or focuses on a specific industry. However, Facebook Groups are useful when seeking out someone within a fairly specialist field as you can target those specialisms more accurately, assuming it’s a field that people frequently use Facebook Groups. There’s definitely no harm in trying the service but don’t rely on it being your one-stop-shop for recruitment.
8 & 9. Local or Hiring Subreddits
Similar to Facebook groups, a local or hiring subreddit group can be a great boon when looking to hire your next candidate without spending money. There are numerous options for hiring subreddits. You can seek out one for your local area or focus on one that deals with your specific field. In either case, be prepared with a well written job description and anything else you may wish to include about the job role. Generally, the more detailed the description, the more likely you are to get the right candidate.
As with Facebook groups, it’s likely that you’ll find a wide variety of candidates that may not entirely suit your company’s needs. Unlike job boards that offer AI-based assistance, it’s all down to you to work your way through the applicants and find the right one. It’s not possible to add automated screening questions or similar, so expect to do a lot of the work yourself. This may involve spending a lot of time answering private messages and saying the same answers repeatedly so be prepared to offer a FAQ or similar to explain things.
Local or hiring subreddits can also carry a certain amount of risk. Unlike Facebook, you may often be dealing with a faceless person with a tricky to track username. Be aware that not everyone might be who they say they are, and don’t offer personal details away from your company information. It’s a more hands-on approach than using a dedicated job board but it can be useful. You get to know more about each candidate as well as can ask more questions. Also, you may find yourself recruiting someone who wasn’t seeking out a job but decided to change things up after seeing your post.
10 & 11. Industry Forums & Communities
If your industry is relatively close knit or one that has a strong community, using its forums or community can help you find the right candidate for your needs. The majority of industry forums are entirely free or available through Facebook or Reddit, so it’s an ideal place to get to know like-minded people. Besides simply giving you a place to learn more about your industry and keep up with the latest trends, it’s also a good place to potentially recruit people.
In a relatively close knit industry, you’ll want to be careful about potentially head hunting someone, so don’t burn any bridges. However, it can be a good way of finding someone with the right skill set. Be sure to have a comprehensive job description as well as be ready to answer any questions someone may have about a role. You’ll need to do more work than if you used a dedicated job site as you won’t be able to set up automatic screening questions or similar, but it can be a good way of being more personal with your responses.
Particularly in an industry where the attitude of a candidate is important for the company culture, being able to talk online with potential candidates is a great way of sussing them out and seeing if they’re a good fit. There may also be opportunities to recruit someone that wasn’t ordinarily looking for a job change, meaning you may find someone extra special.
