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The COVID-19 crisis has brought staggering change to the world of work for recruiters, employers and employees alike – but also to job seekers. It has caused many to reevaluate their professional lives, and, in the process, their attitudes to work have changed. In fact, their ‘ideal role’ might look very different now to how it did pre-pandemic.
When reading job adverts and considering applying for a new job, active job seekers will be attracted to brands that provide a positive experience from their first point of contact – and that includes the job adverts they read at the beginning of the job application process. So, organizations must promote their job vacancies to professionals in compelling and meaningful ways if they are to engage and attract them successfully.
We live in a busy digital world, so to make your advert stand out from the crowd, here are a few things to bear in mind when briefing your recruiter:
Writing a job description is – in essence – professional writing, so there are certain rules that should be followed when composing one. Promoting your role through a recruitment partner will ensure you have access to the skills and experience to write one that is aligned with your brand’s tone of voice, using the correct language.
Things to remember when crafting a job description include:
After salary, culture is the most important aspect of a potential job for candidates. Conveying this in your job advert is critical if you are to attract candidates who would be a good fit for your company. Therefore, you will need to brief your recruiter on the details of your company culture and how your team works together.
Suggestions for this include:
A job title like “customer experience executive”, for example, doesn’t necessarily tell the candidate very much about what kind of job it actually is. Not only is this job title uncommon – meaning candidates are unlikely to search for it – but without context, it’s tricky to tell what this role relates to.
Look out, too, for spelling mistakes in your job titles, as this would look unprofessional and negatively impact on the likelihood of the advert appearing high up in the results on search engines. Another common practice among organizations is to omit any salary range, which may leave candidates unclear about the seniority of the role, and deter potentially suitable people from applying.
Does your overview of your brand’s vacancy clearly communicate what the position actually is? Or are you instead simply filling up the space with vague buzzwords and clichés, like “open and collaborative culture” or “a forward thinking company”?
Many organizations are guilty of describing themselves in job adverts in ways that those outside the company cannot easily understand. In the process, they might fail to communicate insightful information about the business’s culture or values, which is much more interesting to candidates.
Does the list of duties in your organization’s job advert give meaningful insight into the role’s broader purpose or how the successful candidate would be contributing towards organizational objectives? Or is it a short and uninspiring list that doesn’t paint a transparent picture of what the candidate’s typical day would look like?
Organizations sometimes make their job descriptions too brief, and the skills mentioned too generic, while failing to shed light on the wider context of what the given role entails. This may compromise the ability of the employer to attract applications from candidates with the skills required to do the job.
The ongoing challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic makes it all the more crucial to inform candidates in your job adverts about your organization’s remote and hybrid working policies.
Depending on their personal circumstances, many candidates are likely to be thankful for potential employers showing flexibility on the possibility of home working. So, if your job adverts make no reference to remote or flexible working at all, you could be hampering your ability to lure the best candidates.
Potential applicants can see hundreds of job adverts every day, so it’s vital to make the title relevant and descriptive to hook the candidate in to read more. Exactly how you structure the title will also hinge on how you wish to position your available vacancy.
This should be a single paragraph that gives a flavour of the most exciting aspects of the role and your organization, perhaps while drawing attention to key points, accolades and awards.
This is the part of the job advert when you will need to outline the main component parts of the role, without overwhelming the reader with too much detail.
To determine what to write here, consider what challenges you will expect the new hire to resolve in this role. Also be sure to reference aspects such as the working hours, salary, benefits, development opportunities, and anything else an employee might find enticing.
The person specification is a powerful part of a job advert, consisting of a list of the required skills and desirable traits of an organization’s ideal candidate.
This description of the ideal candidate should be effective in narrowing down a shortlist of candidates by attracting applications from those suitable for the role, while keeping the job advert broad enough to also attract those with transferrable skills.
Your job advert should end with a closing statement that encapsulates the best parts of your role and organization, and expresses an eagerness to continue the conversation after application. Sell your company further, too, by including links to any website pages or videos which illustrate what it’s like to work with you.
Combine the above steps with the creation of complimentary employer brand content – such as captivating blog posts and engaging images, videos and biographies of your team members on your website. And encourage your employees to share this content to reinforce the messages in your job adverts. This will put you in a better position to reach the right candidates in the new era of work.
For more advice from our recruitment experts – contact us now
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