13 Ways to Improve Your Life Science Job Adverts

For pharma recruiters and hiring managers, creating an effective job posting is key to standing out as an employer in the life sciences industry, and in attracting the best talent to your company.

Unlike a job description which?relays very detailed expectations on what an employee of the company should be prepared to bring to the role, a job posting acts as a marketing tool; created with the aim of engaging potential candidates by outlining why your company is a desirable place to work, and how they can benefit from joining.

We’ve put together these key tips for?creating an effective job posting to help you attract the best pharma candidates?to your company; with tips on language, structure, accessibility and search engine optimisation (SEO).

Chose a Clear Job Title

This will help a candidate?quickly decide whether or not your posting is relevant to them whilst also helping to widen your reach on search engines. A good tip for pharma job postings is to not rely on abbreviations alone. If you are going to use them, include a full job title too to prevent restricting your reach.?

Include Important Keywords

Incorporate keywords into the title of your posting as well as throughout where appropriate. Not only will this improve your reach in terms of SEO, but it will also make sure that when potential applicants are scanning your posting, they can clearly see the relevance of the role to them.

Be Clear and Concise

Don’t overwhelm potential candidates with heaps of information and instead focus on delivering the key points about the role and your company, using language that is both easy to understand and to the point.?

Put the Most Important Information First

Starting off your posting with the information that’s going to engage your candidates the most is key. Start off by telling candidates what the job opportunity is, how they can benefit from working at your company and how you are unique to the rest of the life sciences industry.?

Once they’ve decided that the posting is relevant and beneficial to them, they can then choose to read the rest to find out more.

Keep it Mobile Friendly

A lot of candidates search for jobs on the go so it’s vital that your posting is mobile friendly. Where possible, break down your writing into shorter paragraphs and make sure there is lots of white space around your text to make it easy to digest. If you’ve included images or even videos in your posting then consider how the format of these will look on mobile too.

Keep it Inclusive

Don’t put off potentially ideal candidates by using gender-specific terminology or language that implies a preference for a certain type of individual. Remain factual with your terminology to ensure the role is open to all relevant candidates. As an example, don’t use the term “young” when advertising an entry-level role – the two aren’t always synonymous!

Include a Clear Call to Action

You should make it as easy as possible for potential candidates to complete an application with you by including a clear CTA such as an ‘Apply Now’ button. This should be paired with clear information on how the candidate can apply along with a closing date to encourage them to take the action sooner rather than later.??

Include as Many Benefits as Possible

Remember, your job posting is a chance for you to tell candidates what they can gain from working for you. Try to include the benefits as close to the top of the posting as possible and to highlight the most unique ones to show candidates why they should apply for a role with you and not another pharma company.

Include a Salary Where Possible

Although many companies choose not to disclose this in their postings, including a salary allows candidates to gauge whether or not they have the experience to apply for a role and if they will be increasing or decreasing their pay by joining your company.

If you aren’t going to include a salary, make the benefits of working for your company even more obvious in the posting and make sure your job title is clear about who should apply for the role; for example, by including markers such as ‘Graduate.’

Outline Company Culture

Again, this is another thing that can set you apart from other pharma companies that might be offering similar roles to you. Make sure to tell your candidates what working for you could look like, and how such an environment could benefit them. Highlight your key achievements and be sure to mention how your culture helped you get there.

Proofread!

Typos in a job posting will make it appear rushed and unprofessional and can make it harder for potential candidates to understand what the role is about. Remember that you need to engage candidates and writing that contains incorrect spelling and poorly structured sentences isn’t going to do that.

Make Sure Your Website is Up to Date

After reading your job posting it’s likely that interested candidates will move over to your website to find out more about what you do. Especially if your posting contains links or a call to action that takes you to your website, you need to make sure your site is all in working order beforehand.?

Make sure your ‘About’ section is easy to find and navigate, and that your website content delivers your company’s mission and what kind of work they do in clear, specific terms.?

Be Consistent

If you’re posting multiple jobs across multiple platforms, you should make sure your branding and content are consistent. Remember that your postings can also act as marketing tools and should therefore help your company to be easily recognisable online, especially on busy job boards.

Make sure there are no inconsistencies in your content and the facts about your company as these can confuse candidates and make your company’s achievements appear less legitimate.??

Ready to Post?

Following the above advice should help to improve your job posting’s visibility online and help you to reach your target audience of candidates. If you’re ready to create your posting, visit our?Recruiter Services Information Page ?for more information about how we can help.?

Also take a look at our?Career Hubs ?- they are a perfect way to help you promote your organisation as an employer of choice.?

To Find out more, contact our sales team on?+44 (0)845 5651771?or email?[email protected] .