Recent association industry research shows that job opportunities are one of the most important benefits to members.
Is your association providing enough member value in this key area?
According to the 2022 Association Trends Study by Community Brands, job opportunities continue to be one of the most important benefits to members of professional associations. The study also shows that job opportunities continue to be among the top reasons members join an organization in the first place. It’s a particularly important driver for early and mid-careerists to join.
Yet, association professionals (Pros), don’t rank job opportunities at the same level of importance as members. 
These data points reinforce findings from multiple Community Brands studies, which indicate that job opportunities are important for member acquisition and retention. In short: If you want to be the go-to resource for your industry or profession, you must provide your members with job opportunities. NFE can
So, what can your organization do to deliver this sought-after member benefit?
The power of an online job board
It’s time to place more focus on how your organization helps members find the right job and provides members with career advancement support. A great place to start is with a robust online job board.
An online job board is fundamental for recruiting and retaining members and continuing to support them throughout the career journey. With the right technology and techniques, it’s easy to create not just a basic online job board, but a true online career center that drives member engagement (and added revenue!) for your organization.
An easy way to provide an online job board
For example, YM Careers by Community Brands provides online job board software for associations. It helps you create an online career center so that your members and other job seekers can easily search and apply for relevant job opportunities. It also makes it easy for you to provide helpful career resources, including:
- Career advice through articles and other resources that guide job seekers in their search
- Online coaching, with tips on résumés, interviewing, and more
- Career insights and placement services that help members land the jobs they’re seeking
YM Careers also offers services for job board sales and marketing – helping you drive job posting sales (i.e., more non-dues revenue for your organization) and job seeker traffic (i.e., more prospective members headed your way and more current members getting the value they’re seeking).
To drive even more goodness for your association, integrate your job board with your association management software (AMS). This approach gives you added capabilities that allow you to do things like:
- Launch new member acquisition campaigns when non-member job seekers from your career center are delivered to your AMS.
Use data gathered from your job board and AMS for insights that help in creating targeted marketing campaigns.
Use information collected from your job board, such as who is actively job searching and what types of jobs they’re seeking. This data can be passed to your AMS for you to analyze for marketing non-dues generating products and services.
TIP: YM Careers and NetForum Cloud, both from Community Brands, integrate to give you the added benefits of using an online job board connected with an AMS.
Learn more
Discover more insights into association trends that can help you deliver a greater member experience: Read the 2022 Association Trends Study.
