The Secret To Writing A Captivating Job Description

When you’re searching for the best talent, it’s essential to have a clearly defined picture of the skills and characteristics that person needs in order to thrive at your organization.

For most employers, the problem begins with the perception of the job description. Many fail to recognise and appreciate the time, effort and thought that must be invested into each job description to ensure you craft your messaging correctly.

To make sense of the value and role that the job description plays in the talent acquisition process, it might be helpful to think of this from a marketing perspective.

In e-commerce terms, your job ad is the product page. This holds all the power and responsibility to either convert someone into a customer (candidate) or not. In the world of online marketing, the product page is something that is split tested, measured, refined and honed every month, week, or in some cases, every day.

Yet in recruitment, a job description page is often spit out of an ATS without any real thought given to content, messaging or conversion.

Your job description pages are essentially the sharp end of all your employer brand and EVP activation efforts, holding a disproportionate amount of power over whether a visitor decides to become an applicant.

If you want to attract top talent that is well matched to your culture, then you need to take your job descriptions seriously.

By using this tried and tested method, you will be able to craft compelling job descriptions that propel you ahead of the competition and attract more of the right applicants to your organization.

The power of job descriptions – if you’re prepared to repel the many and compel the few first

Before we dive into the actual ingredients themselves, we need to take a step back and re-consider the function and purpose of the surrounding employer brand and EVP before candidates decide to dive straight into a job description.

Traditional employer brand methodology proposes a one-way transactional value exchange. In short, we want your skills, experience and capabilities in return for a prescribed list of strengths, benefits and opportunities that our organization can offer.

But have a real think about this approach. This conventional employer brand framework does nothing to reveal the truth about the employee experience. It fails to address the burning questions on the minds of candidates, and does nothing to acknowledge the sacrifice, commitment and achievement of current employees.

Moreover, it places a premium on quantity over quality. If you only espouse the best aspects of your culture and fail to acknowledge the explicit truths of what is required to thrive at your organization, then of course you will receive applications.

In reality, however, quantity of applications is counterproductive. Ask any hiring manager or recruiter what they really want and they’ll say the same thing: “less of the wrong applications and more of the right applications.” Not only does this save time and allow for more bespoke, one-to-one conversations, but it ultimately ensures that only the right fits join your organization.

With this in mind, then, the job description should actually serve to compel those potential candidates that have not been deterred from joining your organization due to a clear two-way proposition. It might sound counterintuitive, but the very best candidate experiences are explicit and brutally honest from the outset. Tell people – what does it really take to thrive at your organization? Lean into the harsh realities and the adversities that employees must overcome. In doing so, you can really hone in on the specific personality traits, competencies and cultural match required to succeed.

When you set things out in simple, honest terms, you essentially propose a challenge to candidates. “Do you have what it takes to thrive at our organization?” This reverse psychology dares the right people to lean in and want to find out more about the role and opportunity – and not in spite of the hardships they may need to face and overcome, but because of them.

To the right candidates, tough challenges and potential environmental conditions can (and should) serve as validation that your organization has something of value worth earning and striving for. After all, when was the last time you felt proud of an achievement that was easy to complete? Candidates, more than anything, want to discover a place where they can experience a sense of purpose, impact and belonging.

Herein lies the power of well-crafted job descriptions: you can use these pages to reinforce the smart filter created by your employer brand and EVP for your recruitment funnel to repel the many and compel the few.

First, however, you need to understand how you can supplement job descriptions with a wider array of employer brand content. When done correctly, this surrounding employer brand content will work in tandem with your job descriptions to increase the quality and volume of culturally-matched candidates.

Here are some top tips to help you nail your employer brand content:

1 . What are the top five reasons people should not join your organization?

By asking this question, you’ll tap into the challenges that people must be comfortable facing and overcoming. Whether it’s a lack of structure, a super fast pace, zero tolerance for ego’s or the expectation that you’ll need to work around the clock, when you’re honest and upfront about these, you’ll be able to compel the right candidates to see your own unique brand of adversity as a challenge worth overcoming.

2. Why do people join us?

Don’t be afraid to be brazen about the strengths, benefits and opportunities available at your organization. For example, “It’s super easy to progress quickly here if you’re a top performer.” These are the things candidates want to know and hear in advance, so they can assess whether your culture would be a fit for their own goals and values.

3. Why do people stay?

This is your chance to tell a ‘secret’ about what candidates will find at your organization. This type of content will add more substance to what you have on offer, and it will appeal specifically to those that are well culturally matched.

4. Why do people leave?

This is a question you can’t afford to overlook. When you find the answers, be as refreshingly honest as possible. For example, “Most people get poached by Apple after three years and get paid 10x what we can offer.” Or, “People leave because they can’t stand the pace and it’s too much for them.” In being truthful upfront, you can create content that encourages candidates to self-select out of the process - before they even apply.

OK, so if your candidates are still ‘leaning in’ at this point, after they’ve digested a very clear ‘Give and Get’ proposition, then you’re ready to tip them over the edge with a captivating job description.

The five secret ingredients to writing a captivating job description

The following story structure is perfect for grassroots communications, especially elevator pitches to job descriptions and ads. If you follow this formula, then you’ll be well on your way to captivating talent and capturing their full attention.

1.  Empathy

The best job descriptions start with a connection to the heart. People feel ten times faster than they think, so to capture attention you should seek to create affinity based on the emotions. Here, you can use the emotional pull of your organization’s purpose and vision to connect with people on an individual level.

For example, this could look like:

“What if your coding expertise was the only thing stopping us from curing cancer this year?”

2.  Curiosity

Once an emotional connection has been established, you can draw candidates in further by piquing their interest even more. The best way to achieve this is by asking a question or leading with a suggestion or statement that creates intrigue and an appetite to continue reading.

For example, this could look like:

“We’re committed to funding and supporting one of the world’s only dedicated software engineering teams building a solution to find tailored, personal cures for cancer 100x faster than anyone thought was ever possible.”

3.  Surprise

To complete the emotional connection, use the art of the unexpected to heighten the desire of the reader and open their mind to the possibility of receiving (and remembering) facts and key information about the role. Your candidates might well be surprised to read about transparent harsh realities and reasons not to apply to your organization. But remember, in doing so, you can actually help readers make a more informed decision about whether or not they would be a good culture match.

For example, this could look like:

“Did you know that of the current 267 cures for different types of cancer, our team was responsible for 121 of them? We estimate we have already saved more than two million people’s lives, but that’s not enough. With the help of your expertise, we hope to increase that impact by ten times in the next two years. Therefore, we’re also one of the most highly paid and revered teams, known for our work around the world.”

4.  Insight

Here, you can provide important factual information about the specifics of the day-to-day role in the most inclusive manner possible by sharing examples of what the candidate might do, and what skills would be most useful to the role, too. When providing this information, you can also share aspects of the character and mindset required to perform well under the conditions of your unique employee experience. If you have videos of existing employees performing this role, then this is the section to include those.

For example, this could look like:

“What you could expect to be doing daily:

·        Brainstorming and testing new algorithms with peers

·        Collaborating with doctors, scientists and biologists

·        Writing complex code based on new theories and disruptive ideas

The types of strengths we would like you to bring include:

·        Fluent coding ability in C++ and Python

·        Excellent organization and attention to detail

·        Excellent written and verbal communication skills to explain complicated coding in very simple terms to a diverse audience”

5.  Action

Finally, every good job description must include a compelling call to action that will inspire the right candidate to take the next step. Usually, this is achieved by circling back to the main empathy statement and making a clear link between the role and what is required to help the company achieve its vision.

For example, this could look like:

“Let’s crack the code to cure cancer together. Find your place in history here: www.companyx.com/careers”

Once you have the job description in place, you need to cross-check this to make sure that the ingredients included are serving the right purpose. You can use the following story arc to capture the importance of the role and place it within the wider context of team and organizational purpose:

·        Company → role: Show the impact you have on the purpose

·        Team → role: Show how team impact on the purpose can provide belonging

·        Company → team → role: Unify them all together

When you start with empathy, confirm that this includes a clear correlation between the overall purpose of the organization and the specific role on offer. Next, move to the team and the role. Here, you should show the direct impact the candidate can make within their team and what specific attributes will be required from their individual role. In the final section, the call to action should circle back again. In this instance, you can reinforce the intrinsic link between the overall organization, the team and why this vacancy exists in the first place.

By addressing purpose at each of these levels, you show the candidate exactly how, where and why they will fit into your organization’s higher vision.

If you’re interested in learning more about how you can craft compelling job descriptions, then you can pick up a copy of my new book, ‘Give & Get Employer Branding’, available now on Amazon and at all major book retailers.