Why writing an appealing job advert is key to attracting the right talent!

“There’s no good candidates out there!”. “We’re finding it really difficult to hire the right people”. “We don’t know where we’re going wrong… no one is applying to the role”. These are all common phrases I’m hearing regularly from companies who are finding the current candidate-led market a real challenge to recruit in! Previously, they could post a job advert on their careers page (and maybe a free site like Indeed) and have their pick of suitable applicants. However, the job market is now so competitive that they’re finding these methods no longer work for them and their vacancies are remaining unfilled, costing them time, money and putting a strain not only on their current team, but also on their growth plans….

Sites like Linkedin and job boards such as cv library, Reed, Total Jobs etc are all full of adverts, but what I’ve noticed is a lot of them all look exactly the same! You’ll find many standard job posts stating the main duties of the role, and what the company is looking for in the “ideal candidate”, but there’s nothing unique in the advert that brings that role to life and gives the reader a feel for what it would actually be like to work there and what’s in it for them, the candidate. Seeing as the main point of a job advert is to attract good candidates to apply, this completely baffles me!!

When we take vacancies from clients, we ensure we have a thorough conversation with them to find out what the day-to-day duties of the role will actually be for the successful person and why they would want to work for that company, over their competitors. We won’t work on any roles without having this conversation first (even if we’ve been sent a detailed job description) because there will always be unique things about a role that isn’t on that piece of paper! Put yourself in a candidate’s shoes…. If you’re an experienced marketing person for example, you could probably have your pick of companies that are crying out for your skills, so what would make you want to apply to a vacancy? Questions we like to ask clients include:

What does a typical day in this role look like?

What kind of things may they be doing in the role that’s not included on the job spec?

What’s the current team like?

What’s the working environment like?

What company benefits are included?

What is the opportunity for progression?

What makes your company a great place to work?

Any other info we can use that will essentially make your role stand out?

We then take all the above info and write an interesting, unique job advert that will really bring the role to life and attract the right kind of candidates to the vacancy 😊

Standard things we always advise to include in addition are as follows:

· Salary info, including any bonuses, commission structure etc

· Working hours

· Company benefits eg holiday allowance, healthcare etc

· Location

· Any other relevant info that makes the role stand out!

If your job adverts don’t include anything about your business, your company culture, your staff benefits or standard facts such as how much you’re actually going to pay someone to do the job, then you are going to find it tough to attract top talent in today’s market!! Candidates are real human beings who want to work for forward-thinking and progressive organisations, so make sure you really take the time to think about why someone would want to work for your company above your competitors and write your adverts accordingly. Think about why you enjoy working there and what you’d like to read about if you were looking for a new job and write ads with some actual emotion behind them, rather than just a list of duties and what you’re looking for… remember, candidates want to know what’s in it for them too!

Nb if creative writing isn’t your thing and you need some help with your job adverts/hiring strategy, please do get in touch as we’d be happy to help!