No matter how great your company’s interview process is or how detailed your screening process may be, none of your recruitment efforts will matter unless you can attract the best candidates.
Hiring managers need to not only know what they’re looking for in a candidate, but also understand how to find the workers with the skills and experience for the role. And the journey toward the ideal candidate begins with a compelling job posting.
It may seem obvious, but all too often, companies haphazardly throw together a job description that fails to pull in the best candidates. In today’s marketplace, job seekers are more adept than ever at reading between the lines. A job posting that places too much emphasis on keywords and not enough on getting the right people excited about the position will never convert to an influx of resumes. To that end, here are some steps that will help your job posting attract the best talent.
Keep it Short
We live in a short attention span world, and as such, you should keep your job posting as concise as possible. Applicants likely have other opportunities they’re actively pursuing at the same time, and you don’t want to waste their time. If you want to get them into your candidate pipeline, you need to get to the point quickly. You don’t have to divulge every detail of the position, just enough to get applicants intrigued enough to apply.
Be Specific About the Role
While you shouldn’t go into excruciating detail about the position or the company itself, you do need to be specific with what you do include. For example, you don’t need to explain in depth who the candidate would be reporting to, or the size of the entire team. Those are unnecessary details. Ideally, spend the most time outlining the responsibilities and requirements of the role you’re hiring for specifically. You don’t want to scare away qualified candidates who might be one “preferred” qualification away from submitting their resumes, but you also need to include enough detail to pull in the right candidates.
Consider Search Engine Optimization
As we alluded to earlier, you don’t want to carelessly overload your job posting with keywords. However, there’s no harm in including a few relevant terms in the text to boost your chances of finding worthwhile candidates. In fact, it could mean the difference between an applicant’s decision to apply or to move on to another position that looks like it’s more in line with their career path. You want your posting to show up on job seekers’ search results organically. Otherwise, you might lose qualified candidates to your competition.
Convey Your Company Culture
The primary responsibility of your job posting is to help interested applicants to decide if they might be a good fit for the position. Yet, you’re also selling the company itself. What mission would your candidate be contributing to if he or she wins the role, and what vision or values would they be representing in the workplace? Oftentimes, these questions are as vital to applicants as the position they’re applying for. Do don’t neglect to describe the company culture and what kind of personality you’re looking to add to your team. It’s better to establish that now than after making an offer.
Draw Inspiration from Competitors
We encourage you to always follow your own vision, and do your very best to convey the impact the position has on your company. That being said, it doesn’t hurt to keep an eye out for what your competitors are doing to attract applicants for similar positions. Since you’re targeting the same kinds of workers, these are the roles that might be winning over the qualified candidates who might be scrolling right past your job posting. Take note of what your competition may be doing well, and consider how you might incorporate that into your own text.
Make Applicants Prove Their Skills
Part of the application process is to determine if candidates really possess the skills necessary to fill the open position. Rather than simply listing out the responsibilities and qualifications of the role, you might consider actually giving them the chance to prove their expertise. Including an assignment or timed test with each job application is becoming an increasingly popular move, and it’s one that easily separates those qualified individuals who are truly passionate about the position from those who probably aren’t the right fit anyway.
Simply the Best
With a winning job posting on their side, companies are that much closer to landing the ideal candidate for each position. Don’t think of your posting as simply a boilerplate set of keywords and qualifications. Rather, it’s your first chance to make a great first impression on potential candidates, to prove that the role you’re looking to fill is a good fit for them.
it’s just as essential to present a positive impression of the company itself, in addition to the role. After all, company culture is one of the greatest contributors to why an employee decides to stay in a role long-term. So if you’re truly looking to find a permanent worker to take on the position in question, ensuring that he or she gels with the company at large will go a long way toward securing success. Bear that in mind when it comes time to craft the job posting, and you’ll be in much better shape from the start.
