3.5. Managing Job Board Inventory
Regular Inventory
"Regular" Inventory limits users to the specified number of postings for a transaction-based job board account. The current number of available transactions is displayed within the Admin Boards section. Users can also see the number of available transactions for that account on the Job Board Details section (see Viewing Inventory from the User Perspective below). Once users hit '0', the job board option will no longer be available for selection.
If a value is entered into the "Low Inventory Warning" field, the assigned Admin can receive low posting email notifications while within the Low Inventory range.
More about Notification Emails.
Slots Inventory
"Slot" Inventory limits users to the number of slots that you've contracted with the job board (also known as parking spaces). As jobs are posted, the "Available Inventory" decreases; while it increases as jobs are closed. Users will see the number of available transactions for that account on the Job Board button (see User Experience below). Once users hit '0', the job board button will no longer be available for selection until jobs are expired or closed.
Rolling Slots
This option guarantees that slots are available at all times by automatically deleting the oldest posting (or postings older than 10 days with the lowest click average if you opt to use the Performance-Based option) that's occupying a slot to make way for the most recent. This is a very popular option for customers using LinkedIn.
This feature is an attribute of the Slots Inventory Type and is only available for certain Slot-based job boards.
How Do We Determine Slot Usage?
Once you have entered the Slot Inventory as an admin, eQuest determines that a slot is in use once a user selects that board option in eQuest. If the posting cannot be successfully exported, or published by the board, it will still count against your Slot Inventory limit. This means that inventory discrepancies can occur. For example, the board may report that you have slot inventory, while the eQuest Slot Inventory counter reflects no inventory.
Find Out Which Requisitions are Occupying Slots
You can determine which job postings are occupying slots by clicking on the link in the board instance.This will help you determine which of the postings have not been published so you can work with the board to determine why, or simply delete the postings to free up slots. Once the job posting has expired based on our job board default posting period, or has been deleted by the user, a slot will be freed up.
Admin Inventory Configuration
Your eQuest Job Board instance will either have the Regular, Slots, or both Inventory Types depending on what is supported by the board. If you're able to toggle from Regular to Slots, the board supports both. If you cannot, the board only supports one or the other.
From the admin's perspective, the key difference between the two Inventory fields is that the Regular Inventory value will only decrease as jobs are posted to that account. Slots increase as jobs expire or are deleted by users.
The Slots Inventory value will not change, as that represents your limit. Once you've clicked the 'Save' button in the eQuest board setup, you can re-open that edit screen to see how many slots are in use. If you've just set the board up for the first time, the number of "slots in use" should be '0'.
Viewing Remaining Inventory from Boards List
When the Regular or Slots Inventory fields are used, the number of currently available transactions is always displayed to Admins on the Boards page.
Users can also see this same value on the job board button so they'll know when they're approaching this admin-set limit.
Slots Inventory Field Availability
The Slots Inventory option must be added for each job board by the eQuest Operations team. If you have a slot-based account and do not see this option, please file a support request to add the Slots Inventory option.
Moving from a Regular Inventory to a Slots Inventory
If you move from a Regular Inventory setting to a Slot Inventory setting for the same job board account, we will calculate how many open slots should be available at that moment.
For example: if you enter a Slots Inventory value of '10' and our database reflects 8 open transactions for that account, your users would have 2 unoccupied slots - even though those 8 jobs were posted prior to the use of the Slot Inventory field.
Unpost Your Old Jobs to Free Up Slots
It's very important that users get into the habit of closing postings once a position is filled, to free up slots for other users.
Viewing Inventory from the User Perspective