Compelling Job Adverts

Couple of weeks back, was delivering a work shop on Job Adverts within the Resourcing groups. We discussed on how we can create interesting Job Adverts, some important checks to be kept in mind, that will attract talent and improve candidate applications.

I came across an interesting and very simple link…”What’s in for me?”...People get attracted to any Advert when they find something connecting to their aspiration or goals. Hence the Job adverts should spell out quickly if it's an appropriate role for them, enticing them to keep on reading. Remember we have 40 sec to catch the attention

Let’s look at the Pros and Pitfalls

Pro’s

• A appealing Job Title can do wonders, however keep it Simple and associated to the desired Roles in the Organization.
• Make your job ad aesthetically pleasing. “What will candidates love about this job?”  and “What do employees say they love about your company?” Words like ‘YOU’ in the JD will help engaging with candidate from start.
• Use Standard Fonts (Tahoma, Arial, Times Roman) for all postings and color black only.
• SPELL CHECK for any errors
• Keep the content of your job posting brief by emphasizing only the most important and unique pieces of information. Primary Skills should have all alternatives of “Must have” skills. Try using all alternatives of skills in your advertisement. This helps your advert to optimize for proper searching by candidates and gain better visibility in SEO rankings.
• Your Role/Job Description should talk about what the person will do in his/her new and not what is required as a Pre-requisite of the job. JD is often confused with Job specifications in our adverts. Only include job responsibilities and not skills / experience.
• List between three and seven main tasks the successful applicant will be expected to undertake. A short introduction with about 40 words
• Try to relate these to a business objective where possible so the applicant can envisage how the position fits into the company's plans.
• Your Job Specification– Please mention only skills, technologies, education and years of experience.
• Incorporate Videos and pictures about the organisation/employee's Testimonials in your advert to improve visibility of your postings

Pitfalls

• Avoid any negative comments / expressions/misleading/unethical/bias in adverts.
• Avoid supplementary phrases in Titles, keep your subject line standard like “Excellent opportunity”, “Urgent Opportunities” etc.
• Do not use short-forms of job titles. E.g. “Soln Architect”. Use “Solution Architect”
• No “Greetings!!!” J Avoid using characters like !, $$$ etc.
• Avoid using multiple fonts in the template. Avoid highlighting or underlining in the Adverts. Should be standard text.
• Do not put the same content in Job Description and Specification field. Do not put your signature in adverts.