The job market today is incredibly competitive on both ends. There are more vacancies and more applicants out there too. This still means appealing to the right applicants can be a challenge. However, recruiting top talent is key to ensuring the success of your business. Your job advert, therefore, is vital because it is often the only opportunity you have to pitch the role and your business to prospective employees. Writing a great job ad is a skill. Let’s dive in.
- Selling the Role & The Company as a Whole
While you are, of course, looking for the best candidate, applicants are also looking for a great job opportunity within a great business. If you fail to sell the role or even your business, then you are not likely to attract the calibre of applicants that you are looking for. When constructing a job advert, you need to think about why the right applicant would excel and enjoy this opportunity. What does it offer to them?
This often speaks to what it would be like to work for your business as a whole. Lots of workers today prioritise job listings that have the benefits and perks that they want. This is why you should always include the benefits that any employee can expect when they work for you. The company culture is also important because should a candidate accept an offer to work for you only to discover that while offered the benefits that they want, the company culture is lacking, they are more likely to leave. Do you have higher rates of employee turnover? If so, this could be why.
- Constructing the Ad
When you begin to put the ad together, there are a few things that you will need to remember to include. A great job ad begins with the title. You need to title to advert well. It should be appealing and provide the basic details like the name of the title and any other pertinent information like whether it is part-time, full-time or a fixed-term contract. However, you should avoid providing too much additional detail because this should all be found in the body of the advert. Following the title, you can then begin to implement the tips mentioned above about selling the role and the business as a whole.
After that, you should then include a job description. You need to ensure that your ad is going to reach the right candidates, which is why it is necessary to be specific with the job description. It should encompass all duties and responsibilities, but again, you should avoid providing unnecessary information or getting into the minutiae at this stage. It is also advisable to relate these duties back to the business objectives to provide applicants with an idea of how their role fits into the bigger picture. Putting together a good job description is key to ensuring that you are attracting the best candidates. There are plenty of ways for you to learn more about this. For example, looking up examples on Hiring People can help.
The next thing that you will need to think about is the person specification. What does a successful candidate look like in terms of essential experience, skills and qualifications? You should include all of this in the job advert to weed out those who simply won’t be a good fit for the role. That being said, you will also need to consider where, if any, there is any wriggle room in this specification. This means divvying up the traits as either essential or desirable. Think about candidates that you would consider if they fulfilled some of your criteria but not others.
- Publishing the Ad & Next Steps
Once the ad has been written, it is time to post it. Most job seekers today find vacancies on the internet, but this is not your only option. Some businesses still advertise in trade publications if it makes sense to do so. Think about where your ad will prove to be the most effective. There are a number of websites designed to advertise jobs which you can utilise, some of which are free and some of which do charge to host your ad, so bear that in mind. Finally, you also need to think about how you are going to measure the success of your applicants. Make sure that you have metrics in place to help you shortlist candidates. It is often helpful to have the job description and person specification to hand to see whether each applicant has hit the right criteria or not.
The Bottom Line
The efficacy of your job adverts directly affects the calibre of applicants that you can expect. The above tips can really help you when it comes to the construction of the advert and ensuring that you attract the right candidates to your vacancy. However, you also need to remember that during the recruitment process, you are also selling the role and the business at large to potential candidates, so bear that in mind.
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