At TrueJob, we've never heard of an EDO complaining about having a budget that's too large or having too many resources available - that is for sure. Economic developers are always trying to maximize their output and minimize their expenses. They need to make tough choices on expenditures and these expenditures are always scrutinized. Where should precious funds be spent, and what should be cut?
As a result, it's common for EDOs to look at free resources. In addition, new initiatives are scrutinized since they require time, talent and money that are precious commodities. New initiatives, especially ones that require an investment up front, are always a challenge to launch and justify. A return on investment is required.
One of the best ways to analyze whether a new initiative is worthwhile is to evaluate the cost of a free option or the cost of doing nothing. While there is no capital required to do these two related things, there can be substantial opportunity costs or other factors to examine and consider. An EDO may often need to justify an investment with added value that does not result in immediate new revenue growth.
Let's take an example: an EDO considering an investment in a new job board for their website. First, consider that the main purpose of an EDO is to promote job growth and success in a region to help their community thrive. So, doing nothing to address this can be a dangerous approach, and utilizing free resources on a mission critical function can be equally dangerous.
Having a region-wide, consistent and curated (focused on a particular category of jobs) job board is essential to the EDO in many respects. It offers a single place for job seekers to look for opportunities, and when implemented correctly, it will capture valuable data about job openings, jobs filled, applicant specific information for cross marketing purposes and reporting and analytics that simply can't be acquired elsewhere. The EDO needs to think about what it's not getting when doing nothing or using a free option with limited functionality. Below is a list of potential lost opportunities an EDO might consider when evaluting whether to launch a new job board:
- Lack of knowledge about quality jobs in your region
- Lack of quantifiable data and proof of your organization's value in filling jobs
- Inability to capture contact information for cross marketing purposes
- Inability to curate positions that match your focus - think noisy sites like Indeed
- Lack of engagement and support for your regional employers
- Lack of traffic to your website
- Inability to cross-market different programs from your EDO
- Inability to maximize value and marketing opportunities on social media
When you add up the value of everything on this list, having an EDO specific job board can easily be justified.
To learn more about TrueJob and how our job board can benefit your organization, schedule a demo with us today.
