Attracting the perfect candidates for your company’s key roles is essential, but not easy! What many don’t realise is that how successful this journey is starts with the job advert. Getting this right can make the difference between attracting high-quality, great-fit candidates, and wasting hours sifting through unsuitable applicants. Read on to discover the key elements employers should bear in mind when advertising their roles.
Make a job advert work for you
At the bare minimum, a job advert outlines a job opening within an organisation, but it can also encapsulate the essential details of a role, such as responsibilities, qualifications and compensation, whilst also offer a glimpse into a company’s culture, values and aspirations. To achieve this, your job ad should:
- Start with a clear, concise job title
- Avoid excessive jargon
- Be kept as simple and concise as possible
- Clearly outline key expectations and responsibilities
- Include details such as job location, schedule and package
- Provide an overview of company values and benefits
- Include reasonable expectations in terms of qualifications and experience
- Use inclusive language
- Be thoroughly proof-read
Ensuring your job advert is created with the above points in mind, helps to not only attract top, high-quality talent, but also reduces the time taken to carry out the overall hiring process, promotes and enhances your company brand and culture, and increases diversity and inclusion within your organisation.
Your job advert should also conclude with a strong call-to-action, such as ‘Apply now at…’ or ‘Click here to start your application…’ or ‘Contact our HR team to find out more on…’.
Think like Google
Did you know that by formatting your job advert in certain ways, you can improve its visibility by getting it towards the top of a Google search result? Using Search Engine Optimisation techniques will ensure a higher ranking. Include key words and phrases that job seekers might use when searching for a similar position to the one you’re advertising. Try Google’s Keyword Planner if you need some help.
Then, create the job title to include these key words, ensuring that it correctly defines the role, and incorporate the terms throughout your advert. Including the role location in the job title and description will optimise it for local searches, helping to attract local candidates.
Thinking outside of the context of the content of the advert, you’ll need to ensure that it is mobile-friendly and responsive, as Google gives precedence to these websites. Improving the speed of the relevant page will also give you the same result, as will building high-quality backlinks from other, reliable sources.
Where next?
Having created the ideal job advert, you now need to ensure maximum exposure to your target audience. Typical options include:
- Online job boards
- Employee referrals
- Company website
- Social media
Of course, the best way to get news of your business and available role(s) to the candidate market is to engage a recruitment agency. Our extensive candidate networks, agreements with multiple job boards, and knowledgeable, specialist consultants will provide you with the most efficient solution and the widest range of outlets for advertising your vacancies and promoting your organisation as a great place to work.
Contact us today to find out which of our solutions will work best for you!
