10 Best South Africa Job Boards for Sourcing Top Experts in any Industry

South Africa’s diverse, young, and well-educated workforce, developing economy, and affordable labor costs make it an attractive destination for international employers seeking skilled and experienced workers. In addition, the country has a multilingual population, with English being widely spoken, making it easier for South African workers to fit into multinational, geographically dispersed teams.

Online job boards are a crucial resource for recruiting staff in South Africa, as they are the primary employment resource for the country’s top jobseekers. This article will explore the top 11 South African job boards to help you find the perfect platform to connect with the best candidates. We will provide important details, such as pricing, candidate quality, user-friendliness, and other relevant factors, to help you make informed hiring decisions for your organization.

1) Pnet

With more than 2 million registered jobseekers and over 9,000 recruiters, Pnet is one of the largest recruitment hubs in South Africa. Like most of the other inclusions on this list, Pnet’s website and most of the hosted job offers are entirely in English, signaling an orientation towards international as well as local employers. 

To simplify the hiring process, PNet has developed its own Applicant Tracking System (ATS) that allows companies to generate job descriptions, application forms, screening questions, and response emails. These can then be uploaded onto PNet, corporate career sites, and intranets.

Pnet’s service offer includes:

• Posting job ads
• Direct search—gain access to a CV database with more than 3 million candidates
• Response handling—shortlisted candidates are stored for you to review (candidate matching)
• Careers interface—manage applications and streamline your recruitment process (ATS)

As for the individual job posting service, the pricing is as follows:

1. One listing—2,668 ZAR
2. Two listings—5,198 ZAR
3. Three listings—7,659 ZAR

All ad tiers stay live for 30 days, but users can extend their listings for an additional 30 days for 2,116 ZAR per listing. If you pay 2,668 ZAR more, you can have your company presentation attached to your company profile to help you stand out and attract more prospective candidates. Every tier comes with instant email alerts sent to suitable candidates for increased reach and performance of your ad.

Source: pnet.co.za

Though the platform offers many features to help you find eligible candidates for your position, and there have been no complaints about the quality of applicants, the prices of posting an ad are high compared to other job boards in South Africa. This is especially true given that all the standard job board features are not included in the price of an ad and have to be purchased separately. On the other hand, the pricing of all other services apart from job posting, such as resume search, ATS, and candidate matching, are not publicly disclosed, and you will have to contact Pnet’s team to get a quote. 

2) Careers24

Careers24 is another popular South African job board with more than 1.7 million active monthly users and a range of useful features to facilitate contact between employers and jobseekers. The platform’s user interface is in English, and with over 14,000 English job ads, Careers24 presents an attractive tool for international recruiters to get in front of South Africa’s finest professionals. 

Careers24 offers all the essential features for employers, from simple job posting on the platform and purchasing branded job listings to accessing a resume database. The website also provides a candidate screening service to help companies weed out unsuitable applicants before they reach the latter stages of the hiring process. 

While the platform is generally considered easy to use with a clean and user-friendly interface, it’s worth noting that it doesn’t offer a free trial or free posting options.

Additionally, standard job listings may have limited visibility compared to premium (branded) listings since they are positioned lower in the search results, have a shorter duration, and may not target specific groups of jobseekers.

As for the pricing, Careers24 offers the following ad tiers:

• 1 job ad—1,200 ZAR + VAT
• 2 job ads—2,000 ZAR + VAT
• 5 job ads—4,000 ZAR + VAT
• 10 job ads—7,500 ZAR + VAT

For a separate fee, you can obtain access to Careers24’s vast resume database of over 3 million candidate profiles:

• 10 CV’s—1,200 ZAR 
•  20 CV’s—2,000 ZAR
• 50 CV’s—4,000 ZAR 
• 100 CV’s—7,500 ZAR

Overall, Careers24 is a top choice for employers and jobseekers alike, with a broad range of represented industries including finance, healthcare, IT, marketing, and engineering, among others. On the downside, the basic job ads offer very little in terms of features and visibility, as different basic tiers are virtually discounts for bulk purchases. You’ll have to upgrade to a Premium ad or pay separately for resume access for additional functionalities. Moreover, you’ll have to contact the platform’s representatives to find out the pricing for Premium ads as it is not publicly available on the website.

3) JobMail

JobMail is another staple of the South African job market, with over 900,000 active monthly users. It is best known for its extensive customization options, recruiting features, and straightforward interface. Jobseekers can create custom job alerts based on their preferences and use the site’s advanced search function to filter relevant job postings. Recruiters, on the other hand, can search through more than 1 million CVs, manage job postings through the JobMail platform, and manage their job applications through the platform’s native ATS, which allows them to filter and communicate with the candidates. 

The pricing for job postings varies depending on the duration and additional features selected, but the site offers discounted job ad packages and a free account. The free trial lets you post unlimited job posts for free, but you have to pay to view applicants’ CVs.

There are also 3 premium plans you can choose from, each active for 30 days:

You can also use Audience-Targeted Campaigns which allow you to find the ideal candidates through SMSs, social media campaigns, e-mails, WhatsApp, and more. There are also options to redistribute your ads through JobMail’s partner network and a candidate-matching service. However, it is unclear whether these services are included in some of the premium plans, or you’ll have to contact the platform’s team for pricing details. In addition, there seems to be no searchable resume database.

The platform offers most jobs in computer and IT, finance and accounting, and engineering. There are more than 80,000 monthly job applications but the quality of candidates can vary depending on industry and location.

4) CareerJunction

CareerJunction is an online job board in South Africa that offers a broad reach and a range of recruitment solutions for companies of all sizes and industries. It has over 2.5 million registered users and 550,000 monthly active users.

The platform offers recruiting features such as applicant tracking and pre-employment assessments. Employers can post job ads and purchase additional features such as featured job listings and access to a resume database with more than 2 million CVs.

CareerJunction offers the following job posting packages:

• 1 Job—1,794 ZAR
•  2 Jobs—3,404 ZAR
•  3 Jobs—4,692 ZAR

Source: careerjunction.co.za

CareerJunction covers a wide range of industries, but most job offers belong to the IT and management industry. On the downside, candidates’ skill levels may vary, and there is no way to automatically filter out those with less experience and expertise. In addition, most of the standard job board features such as resume database access and candidate matching are paid for separately at undisclosed prices.

5) ExecutivePlacements

ExecutivePlacements covers a wide range of industries and job types, including accounting, finance, engineering, healthcare, IT, and many others. This platform is considered to be the best when looking for specialized, high-level candidates for upper management or executive positions. The site has more than 5 million registered candidates and attracts over 3 million monthly visitors.

Compared to other job boards in South Africa, ExecutivePlacements offers reasonable prices for job listings:

• 1 listing—1,636 ZAR
• 2 listings—3,465 ZAR
• 3 listings—4,331 ZAR

Source: executiveplacements.com

ExecutivePlacements has a significant number of English-language job ads. However, the exact number may vary depending on the job type and industry. The platform also guarantees a high number of applicants as jobs are distributed to an extensive network of job aggregators, social media, and Google job searches. There is also an option to search through the board’s 2.6 million-strong CV database. However, the feature is not included in any of the ad packages, and its pricing is not disclosed.

Additional 5 Popular Job Boards in South Africa

If you want to cast your sourcing net as wide as possible, here are additional 6 South African job boards that can get you in front of suitable talent for your organization:

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