Are your job adverts attracting the right candidates?

When you’re advertising a role, you’ll probably want to attract the highest-quality candidates. After all, the better the people you have working within your organisation, the better your company will perform.

Creating an engaging job advert is important if you want to convince talented candidates to apply. Here are some of our top tips for making your job advert stand out.

Identify your ideal candidate

When you write marketing copy, you think about the target audience so you can write in a way that appeals to them. It’s the same when you write job adverts. You need to understand who you are trying to attract so that you can write an advert that engages them.

Create a profile of your ideal candidate. What experience, ambitions and values do they have? What motivates them? Why would they be interested in working for your organisation?

Don’t be creative with job titles

You might call your IT specialists ‘tech ninjas’ or your marketing executives ‘creative heroes’, but they aren’t job titles that candidates will be searching for. You can always include unique role descriptions later in the job advert, but if you want candidates to find your ad, stick to traditional job titles.

Use the word ‘you’

Instead of saying; “the successful candidate will be responsible for…” try saying; “you will be responsible for…”. Using the word ‘you’ helps the candidate imagine themselves in the role and gets them more engaged in the advert.

Use sub-headings

Make your job advert reader-friendly by including sub-headings such as ‘skills’, ‘responsibilities’, ‘benefits’, ‘qualifications’ or similar. Just as employers scan CVs, candidates scan job adverts for key information.

Include the salary

Research shows that job adverts with a salary included attract 40% more applications. Don’t miss out on candidates by not advertising the salary; people want to know what they will be paid.

Outline the key benefits

As well as the salary, include other benefits that you offer, such as training and development opportunities, great pension schemes or flexible working options. People want to feel valued at work, so show candidates how you look after your employees.

Think about your employer branding

Too many companies think it’s enough just to talk about what they want from candidates, but you also need to think about what candidates want from you in return. In our article about improving employer branding, we talked about how candidates want to work for the right company rather than just any company.

Think about your employer branding when writing your job description. Is the working environment informal, high-pressure, corporate or relaxed? Do you promote collaborative working or do employees need to work autonomously? Give the readers an insight into what type of company you are and what your values are.

“ABC Company is an innovative and fast-paced technology company, offering employees the opportunity to maximise their potential through state-of-the-art systems and collaborative working environments.”

or

“ABC Group is a customer-focused manufacturing company, looking for an honest, reliable administrator to join our small but friendly office team.”

or

“ABC Ltd is a fast-growing commercial cleaning company. We’re looking for a self-motivated business development manager who has the tenacity and energy to help us drive the business forward and expand our portfolio.”

The varying language used in the above examples shows how you can create a picture of your company and the person you are looking for in just a couple of sentences. Make sure your brand shines through in your job advert by using language that matches the tone of your organisation.

Whatever the role, whatever the level of experience, salary or skill, you need to make sure that your advert attracts the right candidates, with the right attitude, values and capabilities. Take some time crafting your job advert, don’t rush something together and hope for the best. If you want to attract talent, then you need to put in some effort.

About Key Appointments

At Key Appointments, we are dedicated to helping our clients attract the right candidates and helping our candidates secure the right roles. We offer a range of recruitment packages and can tailor our services to the needs of your business. If you’d like help creating effective job adverts or would like us to assist with any aspect of your recruitment, then we’d love to hear from you. Contact our friendly consultants to find out how we can help.