Inside JobTarget: A Conversation with Christian Morrone, Director, Publishers

Dear reader,

Welcome to Inside JobTarget — a new blog series where we sit down with the people behind our products and offerings to share the stories, ideas, and insights that shape them.

In this fifth conversation, we’re diving into what Publisher relationships mean at JobTarget. We'll dive into what these are, why they're critical to customer success, and how these relationships are helping recruiters and hiring teams solve today’s biggest hiring challenges.

Interview with Christian Morrone, Director, Publishers.

Tell me what Publisher relationships mean at JobTarget.

Christian: At the basic level, Publishers are job sites. To maintain a product like JobTarget, that offers our customers an ecosystem of 25,000+ job sites to post their jobs, we have to build and manage those relationships to ensure we're bringing our customer base the best possible experience with the most relevant and high-performing job sites.

That requires an ongoing conversation with our Publishers to review performance, integrations, and areas for innovation that best serve our customers.

Why do publishers want to work with JobTarget?

Christian: Publishers recognize that we are already integrated with most ATS systems, which can be a long, hard process for them to try to do themselves. 

To zoom out a little bit, here's the bigger picture: There's a fragmented universe of job sites and there's a fragmented universe of ATS and Payroll systems. JobTarget connects all those pipes through our platform, creating a seamless experience for job sites, ATS systems, and candidates. This eliminates the need for Publishers to have to do extra work to connect these systems.

Because of the partnerships that we have, we've already simplified a lot of the effort. This is an all-around value add for Publishers.

What is the purpose of Publisher relationships at JobTarget?

Christian: The opportunity to drive more value back to our customers.

More relevant job seeker traffic leads to filling a role and making a good hire.

To break it down a bit more, if a customer is looking to make a hire, JobTarget will advertise that job out to various job boards (or the boards they've selected), and will deliver applications right back into the ATS of that customer.

We can't stress enough the value of JobTarget being a one-stop-shop. In this instance, all job applicant data lives within a customer's ATS. So, instead of them having to wonder which job boards to advertise on with how much budget, we do that work on their behalf and can get their jobs out to hundreds of relevant job sites quickly. All while their data stays in one central location. 

JobTarget continuing to build relationships with more job sites, that are relevant for our customers, just continues to build value for their recruitment strategies.

Tell me about the evaluation process when determining who JobTarget partners with and how does that impact the candidate experience?

Christian: Our goal is to create the most seamless and valuable experience for candidates as we can. Which requires me to put myself in the candidate's shoes as I evaluate each job site.

For example, I'll go on their job seeker page, as if I'm applying for a job, and I'll explore how the site operates.

What does the apply process look like? What does it feel like? Is it seamless or am I getting bombarded with ads and clunky systems?

I also want to understand how these job sites are acquiring their job seekers. Is there a unique channel or niche that they're able to bring in that other job sites can't? Do they already have a community of job seekers that they nurture on a consistent basis?

That helps me understand both the quality of the Publisher and the quality of the types of candidates they would bring in for our customers.

Of course, there are some logistic requirements I look for including a minimum number of unique monthly visitors, etc.

Bottom line: I want each new Publisher we partner with to be a value-add for our customers. It needs to make sense for them and their unique hiring needs for us to move forward with the partnership.

How are we continuing to innovate with our Publisher strategy?

Christian: Job advertising is our bread and butter and our Publisher network powers our products. So, I don't make decisions in a silo. At JobTarget, It's a group effort to understand, join forces, and deliver results for our customers.

I meet very consistently with JobTarget's product owners to understand customer pain points and gaps that help determine hiring demand and where we need to focus our efforts from a job board perspective.

I'm also constantly working to improve integrations with Publishers. We want the candidate experience to be as seamless and enjoyable as possible, which means we want to find new ways to innovate and get creative with our integrations.

At JobTarget, we are actively looking for new ways to drive more qualified traffic to recruiters. We want to be where job seekers engage. And with AI coming onto the scene so heavily, there are so many more channels that job seekers are using to search for jobs. We are constantly honing our strategy to be where they are. 

Do you have anything you'd like to say to potential Publisher partners?

Christian: We are always open and interested in working with new partners who are innovating in different ways.

Our goal is to work with Publishers that understand how they can reach job seekers and make the experience meaningful, as well as have a high quality talent pool that they can provide for employers.

Our Publisher strategy hinges on meeting our customers' needs.

We work hard to operate efficiently and effectively with Publishers in the JobTarget platform, but most importantly, we're dedicated to delivering quality that helps us build and expand on our network to ultimately serve our customer's goals of making great hires.

Interview concluded.

Want to learn more about our Publisher opportunities? 

Find more Publisher content here. 

Learn more about Christian Morrone here.