The Art of Nailing Job Adverts

Working as a Talent Acquisition Partner for more than 5 years, I have had a chance to read, discuss and write many job adverts. I’d like to share with you what I have learnt from my experience. 

Firstly I’d like to clarify some terminology which may be a bit confusing. When we say Job Specification (JS) or Job Description, usually we refer to the document your hiring manager will hand over to you listing the duties & requirements for the role. When we talk about the Job Advert (JA) or Job Listing, this refers to the information which will be published externally in order to attract job applicants. As Talent Acquisition Partners, our job is to turn the job spec into an appealing & attractive job advert which helps us bring the right audience to our door. 

There is not a perfect type of job advert which suits every role, every team and every business. It should be aligned with your employer brand, the role and its seniority, as well as reaching out to the audience you want to target. However, we can agree that keeping the same format within a brand is a good idea for consistency and efficiency across the business, so JA's can be issued faster. 

Find here my tips on creating a clean & concise job adverts that will help you get the right candidates. 

• Study the role. Research. How are other companies advertising similar roles? What are they offering to candidates? Check how the businesses you admire sell the role & the benefits they offer. 
• Identify your audience. Who are you targeting? Where do they spend their time? What is attractive to them? Analyse and identify the best way to sell your role. 
• Differentiate the Job Spec from the Job Advert. Your hiring manager or team will give you the JS. Now you need to add your magic and turn this into a JA which aligns with your employer brand and focuses on attracting the targeted audience. A nice tool to help you out with your wording is Textio.
• Put in the work on the JA. Think carefully about the words you choose and who might pick up on the terms and phrases you are using. You can use websites like Google Trends to compare terms & Hiring Solved to find related terms you want to include.  
• Get the Job Title right. You don't want great candidates to miss out on your JA because you gave the job a title that they didn't intuitively search for. Look at how your industry is applying job titles for the same role and choose the one that people are most likely to associate with their role. Enlighten Jobs is a great source for this.  Make sure that you include some wording that explains why there is a need to hire for this role. It should also be clear what this person will be doing day-to-day and what the business expects from them (duties & expectations). It should also specify the skills, qualifications and behaviours this person needs to have (requirements) in order to be considered for that role. 
• Do not forget to include how this person will be supported to grow and overcome obstacles within the business and any professional and personal development opportunities available to them. 
• Speak about the real benefits of holding this role, what makes the business special, why people love coming to work every day. 
• It is helpful to also include information on how your business deals with diversity & inclusion to encourage under-represented communities to apply. For example: Even if you meet 60% of these qualifications, we encourage you to apply. We are looking to create a diverse and multifaceted team. We embody inclusion, which is reflected in our company values where we embrace diversity and equal opportunities for everyone.

I hope these tips help you to develop great Job Adverts that help you get the best candidates. If you have any other tips of your own, I'd love to hear them!

Thanks to my colleagues within the TAP team for the great discussions & Amy Le-Milliere-Tinney.