How to Get the Right Tone In Job Descriptions?

Imagine that Amrita, a perfect candidate for the job you've posted, wants to switch jobs because she feels she doesn’t have too much opportunity for growth in her current position as an experienced mid-level data analyst. The trouble is, most of the job descriptions she reads sound like they are trying way too hard , using an over the top tone to try and sell the positions, or just making the job sound too boring to even bother applying. What if she has ignored the job description you had written, too? There goes all your hard work!

That won’t happen if you get the tone of your JD perfect. The best content is clear and concise - you do not want to bore the candidate with irrelevant info. Let’s see how the best companies in the world manage to do it time and again.

Check out Airbnb’s impactful clarity - their mission and how they envision achieving it. So what can we learn from this?

Beginning by telling candidates about the company should excite and inspire them - make THEM want to work with YOU.

Tell them about the problem your company is solving, or how many people around the world are using it - impress talent like Amrita.

Tell them about the role that gives all info in one or two sentences. Always keep short attention spans in mind and take a direct tone. For example, Amrita will come to know about the main points of this job in the few seconds it takes her to read the one clear sentence about the role.

Uber also takes the same route (pun intended) , and gives a solid call to action in the last sentence, starting with “Help us.”

Once the candidate is hooked into reading further due to your call to action, they want to know what they will ACTUALLY be doing if they accept the offer and join the position. Talk to them directly - say “You will be… You are expected to…” , so that they don’t reject your offer at the last moment due to any confusion between what your JD said and what they were told in the interviews.

Uber straight up tells potential applicants what they will do - in fact, as you can see, the subheading of their JD says exactly that!

Depending on the position you are hiring for, you must decide the appropriate level of detail in the must-have qualifications. The tone should not make the qualifications sound boring. You can avoid this by maintaining an informative tone that focuses on the information.

For example, Uber sets the experience benchmark very precisely, but only loosely defines the rest of the basic qualifications.

Then they add a preferred qualifications list , which means candidates like Amrita get another chance to pre-qualify themselves.

Using a communicative and to-the-point tone, Airbnb and Uber can land the perfect talent like Amrita - and now, so can you! Get certified at Instahyre Academy and learn not just JDs but Boolean search hacks and much more - free!

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Diversity hiring is fast becoming important in the Indian workplace.?

Check out Paypal’s many D&I initiatives: Unity, Pride, Thrive, Serve, Believe, and Women Luminaries. As a brand grows, it needs to embrace a diverse workforce.

You too can build your brand as a diversity recruiter by learning from the best organizations, like we do! Get certified in double-quick time while having fun with Instahyre Academy - and what's more, it is free [for now - hurry up!]

A 2018 study by BCG found that diverse companies generated 19% more revenue! This is proof that a diverse workforce works wonders for business. To attract diverse candidates, you must keep your tone neutral while creating JDs. If you are not sure how to do this perfectly, HR leaders suggest using AI tools, so that you can remove all types of biases , like gender or age, from your JD.?Now, act along the lines above while writing a great job description next time, and don't forget to add the Instahyre Academy certificate to spruce up your resume!