The common mistake I see most people make with [recruitment] communication

Go on, hands up if this is you.

You think communication is just words on a page.

= I write, therefore I communicate (well).

You even note Exceptional Written Communication as a top skill on your resume.

Except… you don’t have high readership and you find most work emails, job ads, or LinkedIn posts fail to generate your desired action (a reply, an application, a comment, a cricket).

Because why?

By merely assembling words on a page, you're failing to consider what you want the recipient/s to do with your message when they receive it (and all the things that can get in the way to thwart that).

Here's what it looks like in recruitment when you don't start with the end in mind:

• young tech marketing bro writes a job ad using hyped up masculine coded language that deters women applicants unknowingly
• mixed messaging - where your employer brand shouts about how cool, young and innovative you are, but your careersite is dull, monotonous corporate toned with cheesy stock imagery, your candidate emails are cold, nonsensical templates, and your job ads are copy pastes of the full job description complete with its 50 essential requirements and responsibilities (images communicate, too!)
• dumping job ads on job boards when your ideal candidates are on tiktok (and you, ahem, aren't)
• Sharing dull, repetitive, vague messaging on social media that is drowned out by everyone else sharing the same dull, repetitive, vague nonsense, so no one knows you exist
• Using recruitment cliches and corporate jargon that bewilders and deters (what does ‘work hard play hard’ mean for a mother vs a grad, and does ‘hit the ground running’ mean you’ll have no support, that your workload is so unmanageable you’ll burn out within a month based on your previous experience applying for a role asking for the same thing?)

There's a lot more I could list, but you get the jist.

Fun fact: There’s a science behind effective communication [fun + science in a sentence]

To communicate effectively, you need to have a super clear understanding of your target audience and your channel to be sure your message gets through and inspires the desired action.

And at the risk of exposing my true nature and going super geek right now, I wrote a blog explaining how communication works (and what that looks like in HR/recruitment).

Because we're not just talking about basic demographics here, we're talking about all the noise and friction getting in the way of your messaging, including the channel you choose and audience background, including all those zany social, cultural and relational norms they grew up with that shapes the way they see their world (I share an example in the blog).

Want to learn more about it? You can read said super geek blog post about [recruitment] communication here.

It's worth going the extra mile up front so you can get it right, because effective recruitment communication will deliver better quality / aligned candidates, saving you time in the long run!