by Georgie Seago
May 04, 2022
No matter the size or industry of an association, society, or community, a career center provides members with a centralized place to search for career opportunities and grow within their industry. Two Smithbucklin clients, the Legal Marketing Association (LMA) and the International Society of Transport Aircraft Trading (ISTAT), launched career centers with their members in mind, and produced industry-specific hubs that support members in finding new opportunities.
Member and Community Needs
LMA, a global association for legal marketing and business development professionals, created a career center to provide its members with a place to search for new positions without having to sift through postings that were irrelevant or unrelated to their industry. Similarly, ISTAT, representing over 5,000 members worldwide who are involved in the commercial aviation sector, developed its career center in order for members to find industry-specific jobs. Because a number of aviation professionals lost their jobs during the pandemic, ISTAT sought to create a platform that connected unemployed aviation professionals with companies who were hiring. ISTAT also supports young, rising executives who are looking for career growth, and wanted to provide them with a platform to find new opportunities.
Career Center Design
ISTAT’s and LMA’s career centers include a list of jobs, featured jobs, a search function with the ability to sort by location and keyword, and an option to upload a resume and receive feedback. Both associations choose a career center platform that is designed for associations, and by leveraging an out-of-the-box technology, LMA and ISTAT created an efficient and cost-effective career center model. In addition, the platform manages functionality, technology enhancements, user troubleshooting, and customer service, taking the responsibility off the association staff team.
Results
LMA’s career center is now the go-to place for its members to post positions within their companies and allow legal marketers to search for new job opportunities. LMA’s career center is consistently in the top three annual revenue drivers and in a non-pandemic year, LMA earns $300,000-$400,000 in revenue by offerings its members additional value through the opportunity to use its career center. Even in this past year – still a pandemic year – LMA brought in over $400,000. ISTAT, who recently soft launched its career center to meet the needs of members during the pandemic, is seeing initial engagement with new job postings and comments on social media, and anticipates the career center will become a valuable tool for its members.
Georgie Seago is in the Corporate Marketing unit at Smithbucklin.