When pursuing a board appointment, searching for and applying for advertised board vacancies will be part of the process. A recent study found that 50% of organisations in Australia that have boards have recruited a new board member in the last 12 months. By my count, that means there are approximately 45,000 board vacancies filled annually. With so many vacancies, why do so many struggle to find board opportunities that are right for them? My goal here is for you to receive the best return on your investment of time.
How many board vacancies are advertised?
I recently asked current board directors how they were appointed to their most recent board role. 10% responded that they were appointed by responding to an advertised board vacancy, and another 10% told me they were appointed via a recruiter. It wasn’t a perfect study, as recruiters often advertise vacancies, which likely resulted in some overlap. Being generous, I estimate that at most 15% of board vacancies in Australia are advertised in some shape or form. But truthfully, I believe that is far lower.
Why? Because one of the services we provide for our members is access to Australia’s list of board vacancies. We have a team that procures these opportunities from various locations, including recruiter-led sources. Excluding the ones we have exclusive access to, we advertise ~5,000 board vacancies each year. That equates to ~10% of the estimated total board vacancies filled each year. That is probably a more accurate figure.
Where to find advertised board vacancies
Traditional print media
Traditional media sources are still a good way to find legitimate advertised board vacancies. To begin with, you should also focus on the weekly national and state newspapers. The weekend national papers, such as The Weekend Australian and The Financial Review, are also valuable. In addition, advertisements sometimes appear in industry or trade magazines.
Online platforms
LinkedIn is becoming the #1 platform for finding advertised board vacancies. Roles are listed by organisations seeking new non-executive directors or by recruiters tasked with finding new directors for their clients. You should search LinkedIn regularly and set up relevant job alerts, which will be sent to your inbox.
There are also well-known job seeker websites, such as SEEK, Indeed, and CareerOne. However, your search results can often be hit-or-miss, with refining search queries challenging. Feedback from my members is that there is usually not much on offer. But they do, at times, find a diamond in the rough.
Paid sourcing services
There are several websites tailored to advertising board and committee vacancies. These are all paid services charging annual membership fees.
- The AICD advertises board roles, but you will need to be a member and then pay an additional fee to access their often-limited offering.
- Women on Boards also advertises vacancies. You do need to be a paid member to access their opportunities. Their focus, of course, is to promote board opportunities for women.
- Appointbetterboards.co.nz does an excellent job of finding advertised board vacancies in New Zealand.
- And of course Board Direction. We have a team dedicated to finding every publicly available board vacancy and listing them all in one place for our members.
Recruiters also advertise board vacancies
In Australia, no one firm specialises in board recruitment roles. It would be incredibly convenient if there were. Many have tried to dominate the market, and whilst some do better than others. A recent study found that there are 3,783 executive search firms in Australia, but only a few, I imagine, take on regular board appointments. They are, however, often tasked with the more significant board appointments. If this is the space you see yourself in, you will need to speak with and keep in touch with numerous recruiters to stay abreast of current board opportunities. To make it easier, we have compiled a list of ~30 search firms that often recruit board members and make them available to our members.
Where to find specific board vacancies
The sources above provide access to a wide range of paid, voluntary, and expenses-only opportunities across the government, for-purpose and commercial sectors. However, there are some sites and resources available for those who want to narrow their search to specific industries or sectors.
Not-for-Profit opportunities
For-purpose board and committee vacancies can be found in many of the places listed above, but there are some additional resources you should also consider.
Websites like probonoaustralia.com.au or communitydirectors.com.au are excellent sources of voluntary and expenses-paid opportunities. Due to financial and personnel resource constraints, these roles are often not listed on LinkedIn or major job boards. They can be great sources of roles, particularly for people starting their board careers.
Peak and industry bodies
These sorts of organisations will more often than not appoint from within their membership. To receive notifications and newsletters, you must be a member and register. Often, this is how you will find out about upcoming board or committee vacancies.
Government opportunities
Many of you are interested in public appointments. Once you start researching, you might be surprised by the number and variety of board, advisory board, and committee opportunities available. Opportunities are available at all three levels of government.
Local Government: Every local government has committee vacancies. Some seats are almost exclusively held by executives, but most committees require independent, expert or stakeholder members. Vacancies will be advertised on their website and also on some of the sites listed above.
State Government: Each state and territory has its own website that lists current vacancies on boards, advisory boards, and committees. You can find these lists by simply searching online or on your state government’s website. Vacancies may also be listed on external job sites or on recruitment firm websites for some of the more significant roles.
Federal Government: You can search for and find all of the Federal Government’s 1,250+ boards and entities listed on this website. Vacancies are often listed on the websites of the relevant federal department, and at times, on external websites.
Some state governments and federal departments encourage you to register your interest in board opportunities by uploading your details and a board CV to their website. You will then be notified about upcoming advertised opportunities.
Paid board roles
To find paid board opportunities, all the above sources should be utilised, with a greater emphasis on recruitment firms. Bear in mind that fewer than 5% of advertised roles are paid.
Finding board vacancies is time-consuming and tedious
For most, finding and applying to advertised board vacancies is part of the process of gaining a board role. However, finding these opportunities can be hit or miss, making it time-consuming and frustrating. This is further exacerbated by the numerous different places where the details of board vacancies are listed. There are better ways to spend your time when trying to secure an appointment.
Wouldn’t it be nice if the majority of advertised board roles, including some that are not publicly listed, were available to you in one place? This service is available to all our members. We provide all the necessary details for you to apply, and we send a weekly reminder to your inbox. Our dedicated team has been doing it for over a decade and can find roles you cannot. In that time, they have listed well over 25,000 board vacancies for our members, allowing us to confidently claim that we are Australia’s largest, most reliable and most diverse advertiser of board vacancies.
Regardless of where or how you find the opportunity, you need to know how to apply in a way that will separate you from your competitors, and you will need to be prepared for the realities of a highly competitive board application process. I’ll step you through how to do that in my following articles.
Related Articles
About the Author
David Schwarz is CEO & Founder of Board Direction – Australia’s leading board advertising and non-executive career support firm. He has over a decade of experience of putting people on boards as an international headhunter and a non-executive recruiter and has interviewed over one thousand non-executives and placed hundreds into some of the most significant public, private and NFP roles in the world.
Share this article on your favourite platform!