Job Adverts: How to Engage Candidiates Effectively

Creating an engaging, exciting, and inspiring job advert is the first step to securing that perfect candidate. Yes, you can simply list the requirements and duties in bullet-pointed lists, and hope it attracts the ideal person, but giving your job post a little more care and attention can make sure it really jumps out at jobseekers. That extra touch of eye-catching intrigue could be the defining factor in finding the right person for the job, too. Here’s how to make sure you don’t miss talent (and make sure to read more about how job ads fit into a wider recruitment strategy in our Ultimate Hiring Guide):

 

Think Like a Candidate


Before you even put pen to paper (or finger to keyboard), put yourself in your ideal candidate’s shoes. It’s a good idea to think about the standout candidate qualities you’re looking for too. We’ve all been jobseekers at some point, so think back to when you were looking for a job yourself, and what stood out for you in job listings. Most candidates are looking for these key points in any job advert, but you can tweak this list based on your own experiences as well, of course:

  • A quick overview of the position.
  • What makes this particular role stand out from other, similar positions (it could be the company itself, the location, the benefits, and so on).
  • What skills and/or experience are required?

Once these main points are established, you can work through them step by step to create a framework for your job post.

Silhouettes of potential employees with skill graphics floating above them

 

Candidate Targeting


Are you looking for a highly skilled, niche candidate for a long term role, or a temp for some office admin? Tailoring your advert to appeal to these groups individually will be much more effective. One concern a lot of temps and contractors have is fitting into company culture, for example. You can address this in your job posting by drawing attention to any positive aspects of company culture. Is there a monthly night out for employees? If so, mention it.

For more niche candidates, you can make sure they find your job advert more easily by using any specialised industry terminology in both your title and content. These kinds of jobseekers are generally experts or specialists, so will be searching for roles based on these more niche terms (My SQL manager instead of database manager could be one example).

These are just two examples of candidate targeting – simply take this principle and apply it to whatever role you’re posting. A little research into your candidate group can go a long way here as well.

 

Create the Title


The title of your post is the first thing that jobseekers and candidates will see, so you want to make this as intriguing as possible. Getting creative is highly encouraged here – instead of simply posting ‘IT analyst, London’, try and incorporate some of the unique elements of the role, and mould these into a catchy sentence. Going with our example, ‘IT Analyst’ could become: ‘Amazing IT Analyst Needed for Ground-Breaking Tech Startup’, or something similar.

There are a few practicalities to think about too. Firstly, it might be tempting to pack as many exciting sounding adjectives into your title as possible. The danger here is that the title will become bloated and too long. Not only that, there’s the risk of overselling the role, or making the post seem a little bit desperate. These send the wrong impression to jobseekers, and could put them off.

Secondly, it’s crucial to consider the searchability of your job post. Making sure you have the essential keywords in the title and content will make a huge difference in both Google and internal job board searches. This, in turn, will make it much easier for your potential candidates to find your role.

 

Create a Story


Think about opening of your advert as the beginning of a narrative, rather than just a job post. Your aim here is to catch the attention of your reader (or jobseeker), and encourage them to continue to read all the important details.

Starting with something like ‘Do you dream in code? This role at one of the world’s leading software companies could be for you.’, for example, helps to showcase elements of the skills required for the role (coding) and one of the benefits (leading software company).

Try and bring out anything that makes the position you’re offering stand out in any supporting text, before getting into the skills and responsibilities of the role.

Three potential candidates with hands on their hips

 

Showcase the Skills and Responsibilities


While you don’t want a job posting to be purely bullet pointed lists, there is most certainly a time and place for them. The skills and job responsibilities sections are it – this is where you can communicate the nitty gritty about a role, and what is required.

Skills
Jobseekers are likely to be scanning through a lot of job boards and job adverts in their search, so help them identify if they’re the right person for the job by splitting the skills section into something like ‘essential skills’ and ‘additional/advantageous skills’. You can still match the overall tone of your initial introduction if it’s appropriate, and it doesn’t inflate the bullet points too much.

 

Responsibilities
The same applies to this section. Keep it short and focused, but don’t be afraid to add a little flair in if it’s suitable – it can make scanning through an otherwise fairly dry list a little bit more interesting (‘being awesome’ or ‘having a great sense of humour’ could be something you could use for example, if it fits with the company culture and role).

 

Extra Tips to Keep in Mind


Now you’ve got the basics for creating your job post, here are a few additional things you can keep in mind that could help add that extra touch of individuality:

  • Humour can be very effective, but also needs to be used carefully – it could be ideal for jobs in the entertainment, club, or barwork industries, but might not be the best idea for an investment bank. It’s really best to gauge this based on company culture.
  • Make it about the candidate. While it is of course important to provide a good overview of what’s expected from any candidate, no one wants to feel like a cog in a machine. Outline the expectations, but focus the majority of the job post on what the candidate will get from the role – career prospects, benefits, location, and so on. Highlight the employee value proposition.

Now you’re feeling inspired and ready to go, head over to our employer registration page (if you haven’t already), or login, and post your role with us here at JobLookup, and remember – it’s completely free.

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