The importance of a well written job ad, or job posting, cannot be underestimated. The job ad is your direct medium of communication with a candidate. In reading, a potential candidate quickly forms a lasting impression of your company culture and how that potential candidate envisions daily life at your workplace.
Writing an good job ad optimizes your sourcing investments. I cannot emphasis enough that time spent on writing a good job ad is money saved in your short and long term recruiting budget. A good job ad will reduce time to hire and increase duration of employment. In writing your job ad, I have four broad strokes of advice (followed by a guide on how to optimize each section of a job ad):
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- Be concise. At SmartRecruiters, we have found that the companies that write concise job descriptions receive more candidates. Put only the most important facts on the table so that the candidate will be engaged enough – to not just skim – but actual read everything, and want to talk more about the details.
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- Entice the candidate. Remember, this is an advertisement. The job ad is not an internal listing of a job description on company file. Its purpose is to attract the candidates who have the skills and attitude to better your bottom-line and company culture.
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- Know what you are. Company description is the first section on a job ad. It is your direct introduction. Write about your company with pride but don’t brag. You need to describe what your company does, but you also can drop hints as to what kind of company you are by briefly mentioning what your company has accomplished and hopes to accomplish.
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- Be transparent. This final piece of advice has the most impact on duration of employment. It’s true – some aspects of the job opening are more enticing and less enticing than others. Fight the temptation to upsell the enticing points and downplay the “grunt work” because while it may increase your candidate volume, it definitely will not improve your candidate fit. Transparency in your job posting will quickly establish accurate expectations and a higher level of trust with a potential co-worker.
Good job ads make a difference.
First impressions matter. A concise, enticing, and transparent job ad will attract the best candidates for your company. Below are the details of how to optimize each section of a standard job ad:
I can honestly say that if Jerome Ternynck had not written a great ad for a Marketing Intern, I would never have applied to work at SmartRecruiters, and then I never would have progressed from Intern to Director, and had the opportunity to be an integral part of a rapidly growing company.
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