In today’s low-unemployment, high-turnover environment, employers are finding themselves with more and more job openings to fill and yet fewer and fewer qualified candidates responding. There are lots of jobs out there competing for attention from the pool of qualified candidates. How do you make your job post stand out among all of the options available to today’s jobseeker?
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What can you do differently to ensure that your job post gets noticed by the right talent? Let’s take a look at some tips:
- Pay attention to the headline. It may be the only thing a candidate sees, especially if he or she is browsing a long list of available job openings. The headline needs to convey not only the job title but also perhaps more information to entice someone to click to get more information.
- Ensure the job post is tailored to the ideal candidate. Job posts don’t need to be generic. As long as you’re still fulfilling all of your legal obligations (such as not posting discriminatory requirements or hiring preferences), the job posting can be written in such a way to be enticing to the type of candidate you’re looking for. Talk about the job benefits that matter to your ideal candidate.
- Include information about the organization and why someone would want to work there. Talk about the organization’s values, vision, and mission.
- Consider including the salary with the job posting. This can help get the attention of jobseekers who may be on the fence about a job posting but see that the salary range is appropriate and worth the effort—they may be more likely to apply. (Conversely, you’ll also likely keep people from applying who would not have accepted the job at that salary level. While this does not increase the applications, it improves the efficiency of the process by helping make it less likely you’re wasting time on recruiting someone who would not be likely to accept.)
- Pay attention to competing job posts. Look online and in all places where you will be posting the job and see what similar jobs are listed. See what your competitors are doing to get attention. You need to be doing as good or better than they are if you want to compete. Look at the key words they’re using and the benefits they’re offering, and compare your offer to see how it stacks up.
- Be very clear on how to apply. It seems obvious, but if the potential applicants are unclear on how to proceed, it will at least delay the process—and may mean they opt to not apply at all.
- Use multiple means to distribute the job post. Today’s jobseekers have a variety of ways to look for a job. They could be using social media, a local staffing agency, online job boards, newspaper classifieds, word of mouth, employer websites, and more. The more visible your job post is, the more likely you’ll be seen by top talent. (This can also help ensure that you’re not inadvertently discriminating by only posting in places where certain groups are likely to see the post.)
- Ensure the job post is abundantly clear about the job requirements. There should be sufficient detail for the potential job applicants to make an informed decision about whether this job might be a good fit before they apply. If there’s not enough information to make that decision, they may just skip it altogether.
This is just the beginning. In part 2 of this article, we’ll give you even more tips on getting your job post noticed.