Professional organizations and double dipping

Part of my job is advising recruiters on candidate generation strategy. Every so often, I'll grab some current job descriptions and head out onto the Internet to see what's doing. It's hard to advise on the most effective places to post jobs if I don't at least do it every so often. Plus it reminds me of the old days.

Another part of my job is working directly with professional organizations. So when I go out to evaluate job posting resources, I definitely think of the professional organization sites first.One change I have noticed, that is really ticking me off, with most of the professional organizations that I have been working with: they are starting to charge for job postings. These are marketing organizations and I get that they are trying to monetize their offering but it's another situation where I think they have overlooked the value prop and gone straight to the money. It doesn't work that way. They are acting like a big job board but not providing the volume of quality candidates that can be found through other means.

Most of us staffing folks have a set budget for posting jobs. So, we have to make choices. Do I buy a chapter level job posting or a posting on one of the big boards or use a networking tool? What is the reach of these different options? Where has the quality already been proven? Unfortunately, you kind of have to prove it to me before I pay (and since I've already paid for membership, good luck).

I hate to keep harping on the same things over and over again, but for a professional org chapter, you have to think about who the customer is and what they want. If the ultimate customer is the member, they may want access to open job listings (hello...networking is a major reason people join these groups). If you don't charge the company for the job postings, you will get many of them. This will make your members happy and you'll have lovely stories about job seekers who have found their next role via the organization (hello....that you can use as marketing tools to get more members). All this from me and I have no formal training in marketing (other than one undergrad class which I hardly remember at all).  If you charge the companies for the job postings, you are competing for dollars with other chapter level organizations so you aren't going to get as many listings and your membership will go elsewhere to seek out listings. Seems pretty simple to me. What am I missing? I think that these groups will end up making more money in the long run if they decide to charge EITHER the employer or the seeker, but you can't have it both ways. You have to pick....what is your business, who is your supplier and who is your customer. Could it be any simpler?

(Sorry, I am getting fired up again...it comes on suddenly)

Anyway, I've got a blog so I am going to do a hot jobs posting this week because I insist on working around those that want me to pay for something that I'm pretty sure I can do for free. So let's see!

PS: and those groups that aren't charging me...thanks! I'll be back!