In yesterday’s Advisor, we noted that recruiters today are faced with a dearth of qualified applicants—making it increasingly important to craft a job posting that gets attention. We gave several tips on how to get your job post noticed. Today we’re continuing that list of tips.
|
- Don’t forget to focus on the applicant and the job benefits. Think about what this person wants out of a job and what he or she will get out of this one. Word the description in such a way to convey the benefits to the new employee, not just to the organization. Your organization is being assessed before you even meet the candidates—it helps to gain their attention at this stage by focusing on their needs.
- Use keywords appropriately and consider including them in the job title. Keywords should be integrated throughout, but they’re especially important in the title. While not every organization’s job titles are used in the same way—a training position might be called a “people development specialist,” for example, or a recruiting position might be called a “talent acquisition manager”—the applicant still needs to be able to find these jobs when searching. The key is to think like the candidate when it comes to including search terms. If you’re not using the most common keywords in the job title, you may even consider changing it for the purposes of getting traction on the job post.
- Don’t forget key details. It’s easy to overlook simple things, but every time you make a job candidate second guess whether they’re right for the role, you may be missing out on an application because you’ve just introduced one more hurdle for the applicant to cross. So double-check the job post to ensure it contains all critical information, such as the job responsibilities, job location, required experience/education/certifications, how to apply, where to get more information, etc. Don’t make the candidate search for things that you can provide up front.
- Consider including images. Regardless of the medium, posts with photos or other images tend to gather more attention than those without. It’s a simple way to draw the eye toward the post and make it immediately more interesting. (Be sure to appropriately tag and title the photo, too.)
- Don’t skip testing. This issue is important for online job postings—test how the final result looks on various devices and screen sizes and browsers. Ensure that the final product looks professional while still conveying everything you intended. Ensure that your links all work and that your application process is accessible from every medium.
- Pay attention to detail. Just as you expect applicants to submit their information free of errors like misspellings or improper grammar usage, they will expect the same of you and will immediately have a less favorable impression when this expectation is not met. Proofread—ideally by multiple people—before going live.
What other tips have you learned over the years to get maximum attention to your job posts?