How to add or remove Categories, Locations and Work Types on your Refari Job Board (JobAdder)

Created by Aaron Refari, Modified on Mon, 20 Jul at 7:03 PM by Aaron Refari

This article explains how to add, change or remove the Categories, Sub Categories, Locations and Work Types that appear on your Refari Job Board, and why a value you have just created may not show up straight away. If you use JobAdder, all of these values are managed in JobAdder rather than in Refari, so this is where you go to change what your recruiters can choose from and what candidates can filter by.

Note: You need to be a JobAdder administrator to follow these steps. If you cannot see the Account Settings area described below, ask whoever administers JobAdder for your team to make the change.

A quick word on the two terms you will see

These two sound similar but mean different things, and knowing which is which makes the rest of this article much easier to follow.

A Job Portal is JobAdder's name for a destination it posts adverts to, and it is the wording you will see on screen in JobAdder, under Job Ads > Job Portals. Refari is set up in your JobAdder account as one of these, usually named something like "Refari" or "Refari-JobAdder". Each Job Portal holds its own list of values.
Your Job Board is the careers board on your own website, powered by Refari, that candidates and referrers actually browse. The values from the Job Portal become the filters down the side of it.

So: you edit the values in the JobAdder Job Portal, and they show up as filters on your Refari Job Board.

How your JobAdder values reach Refari

This is the part that surprises people, so it is worth getting clear before you start. Refari does not copy your list of values across from JobAdder wholesale. It learns them from the job adverts you post. A value only becomes real on your Job Board once at least one live advert is using it.

In practice the journey looks like this:

You add the value to the Refari Job Portal in JobAdder and save it.
Your recruiters can now choose it when they post an advert.
Someone posts an advert using it, and that advert synchronises to Refari.
The value now appears as a filter on your Job Board, with a count of matching jobs beside it.

Note: Adding a value in JobAdder on its own will not make it appear on your Job Board. Until an advert is actually using it, there is nothing for a candidate to filter to, so Refari leaves it out. This is deliberate: it stops your filters filling up with options that return no jobs.

Opening your Refari Job Portal values

Sign in to JobAdder as an administrator.
Go to Account Admin > Job Ads > Job Portals.
Find your Refari portal in the list and click Values on the right-hand side of that row.

Note: If you have more than one Job Portal listed, make sure you pick the Refari one. Values you add to a different portal will not reach your Refari Job Board.

Inside the portal you will see four tabs, one for each type of value you can manage: Category, Sub Category, Location and Work Type.

Adding a new value

Choose the tab for the type of value you are adding.
Scroll to the bottom of the list and click Add another, then type the new value into the empty field.
Click Save Changes. Nothing is stored until you do.

Idea: Setting up a lot of values at once, for example a full list of the cities you recruit in? Use Quick add multiple rather than adding them one at a time. It lets you paste in a whole list in one go, which is much faster and avoids typos creeping in.

Sub Categories and sub-locations

Sub Categories and sub-locations work the same way, on their own tabs, and they sit underneath a parent value. On your Job Board they appear nested: a candidate ticks the parent, for example "IT & Telecomms", and can then narrow down to a specific sub category beneath it. Job adverts show the full path, such as "IT & Telecomms > Software - Developer".

Work Types

Work Types are the employment types you offer, for example Permanent / Full Time, Contract or Temp, Part-time and Casual. They live on their own tab and are edited exactly the same way.

Note: Keep your value names tidy and consistent. Whatever you type here is exactly what candidates see as a filter on your Job Board, so "Perm / Full Time" and "Permanent / Full Time" will sit in the list as two separate, competing options.

Putting the new value live on your Job Board

Once the value is saved, it becomes selectable when your recruiters post an advert. In JobAdder that happens at the Classifications step of writing an advert, where the Category, Sub Category, Location and Work Type dropdowns are all fed by the values you just edited.

Post the advert as normal, making sure the Refari portal is ticked at the Select Job Boards step. New adverts usually reach Refari within a few seconds, and Refari also runs a scheduled check every hour as a safety net in case that instant notification is missed. If you would like the full picture of what synchronises when, see How often does Refari synchronise information with JobAdder? ↗

You are done when: the advert is visible on your Job Board and your new value appears in the filter list beside it, with a number in brackets showing how many jobs match.

Where these values show up in Refari

The most visible place is the filter panel on your Job Board. Categories, Locations and Work Types each get their own group, and the number beside each option is how many live jobs currently match it.

The same values are used in a few other places too. They appear on each job advert itself, so a candidate can see at a glance where a role sits and what type of work it is. They are also the criteria behind job alerts: when someone subscribes for new roles matching a category or a location, these are the options they pick from.

Removing a value

To remove a value, open the same tab in the Refari Job Portal, click the x at the end of its row, and click Save Changes. This stops it being offered to your recruiters the next time they post an advert.

Adverts that are already live keep the classification they were posted with, so nothing disappears from your Job Board the moment you delete a value. The filter option clears itself once no live advert is using it any more, which normally happens naturally as those roles are filled or expire. If you want it gone sooner, expire or repost the remaining adverts under a different value.

What you do in JobAdder	What happens on your Refari Job Board
Add a value and save	Nothing yet. The value is available to recruiters posting adverts, but it is not a filter until an advert uses it.
Post an advert using the value	The advert appears, and the value joins the filter list with a count beside it.
Rename a value	The new name reaches Refari with the next advert posted under it. Adverts already live keep the old name until they are reposted.
Delete a value	Recruiters can no longer choose it. Live adverts keep it, and the filter clears once none of them are using it.
All adverts under a value expire	The value drops out of the filters on its own, and comes back automatically the next time an advert uses it.

A value you added is not showing up

Almost always this is one of the following. Work down the list in order.

Check	What to do
Is any live advert using it?	This is by far the most common reason. Post an advert against the new value, or repost an existing one under it.
Did you click Save Changes?	Values typed into the list are not saved until you click Save Changes at the bottom of the tab. Reopen the tab and confirm your value is there.
Was it added to the right portal?	If your account has several Job Portals, check the value is on the Refari one.
Was the advert sent to Refari?	The Refari portal has to be selected at the Select Job Boards step. If it was missed, edit the advert and repost it.
Has the advert itself appeared?	If the advert is missing too, the cause is with the advert rather than the value. A handful of field problems can hold an advert back, which the article linked below walks through.

That last one is worth ruling out properly, because a missing advert and a missing filter look identical from the Job Board. If your advert has not come through either, work through Why a job advert might not appear on your Refari job board ↗

Final Notes

It is worth reviewing this list once or twice a year rather than only when something is missing. Values that were added for a one-off role tend to linger, and a long filter list is harder for candidates to use than a short, well-chosen one. Remember that the names you use here are candidate-facing, so plain wording beats internal shorthand.

If you have made the change in JobAdder, posted an advert against it, and the value still is not showing on your Job Board after an hour or so, get in touch with our support team and we will take a look.

Other articles you might be interested in:  Why a job advert might not appear on your Refari job board (JobAdder)  |  How Often Does Refari Synchronise Information with JobAdder?  |  Job Board Settings: choosing which jobs appear on each job board