Job advertising might not be a fine art, but it can be tricky to get right. Investing time researching how to write the job advert, considering what you need to include and how to find and target your audience, will all ensure you are able to deliver a comprehensive and compelling document, which will help you to make the right decisions in order to get the best return possible when placing your advert.
Once you are ready to advertise your job, you will need to negotiate the best price with your job site partners, and identify the best applicant tracking management system to use. Using an applicant tracking system (ATS), with the support of a fixed cost recruiter, will enable you to save time and money by distributing your job advert across multiple job boards.
How to write a job advert
Start by writing the job advert – you might want to adapt this from a job description that you already have. If not, you can create a job advert from scratch by using a job advert template, or you can find one online as there are lots on job sites.
It’s imperative to write a compelling job advert as this will improve your chances of engaging with more candidates and will help to increase your applications.
Here are some tips:
Sell the company:
What is unique about your company? Why should people want to work for you? Ensure you give an insight into the culture of the company, the people who work there, and what it is that makes it such an enjoyable place to work.
Salary:
Research what salary is best aligned to the job: Researching salary for the job you are advertising will help you to understand the market rate, and ensure you aren’t paying too much money, but will also confirm that you are offering a competitive salary, thus giving your company the best chance to attract suitable candidates. There are many salary sites and job sites in the market with salary information available. Check-a-Salary is a leading salary comparison site in the UK. They offer information on nearly every job, in every sector, providing information on how salaries differ by location, and also how much people earn with different levels of experience in all industries.
Be Realistic:
You need to make sure that the candidate you have outlined in your description actually exists. Don’t ask for 6 years of experience working with tools, software & a programming language that’s only 4 years old. It just makes you look like you don’t know what you’re doing.
Experience:
You can’t include age in the job advert, but you can share the amount of experience you require. If you feel a certain level of experience isn’t so important, then be clear about this as you will get more applications.
Qualifications:
With some jobs, certain qualifications are imperative, but this doesn’t apply to every job. If this is the case, but you prefer the candidate to have a certain type of qualification, be clear to reference this as a ‘nice to have.’
Keep it as simple:
Language is so important. Even those who are talented at what they do, can be baffled by businesses and jargon. Having said that, don’t make it too simple – there will be certain areas which you would expect potential candidates to know about, without having to break everything down.
Job title:
when choosing the job title, make sure you select something that is commonly used in your industry. You want something that you audience is familiar with, as this will be one of the main search criteria they use to filter their job search.
Use keywords appropriately:
Don’t flood your job description with keywords. Yes, you want it to be found, but it’s more important that it reads well.
Where can you advertise a job?
Once you are happy with your job advert, you need to know where to target the best-suited job seekers, and decide where to advertise it.
The places to consider include specific job boards, social media platforms, and online publications. If this is where your potential applicants are likely to spend time, then you should target these places to generate candidates. You can identify these job sites on recruitment directories then have conversations about their services and agree the best price with the suppliers. Another option is to work with a flat-fee recruiter, who will ensure you get the best price from the job sites, will give your advert the most coverage and help you to manage the process. They will also provide other services that you may find helpful.
When considering which job boards to work with, you should think about:
- Prices
- Overview of the company
- Number of users
- The type of job board it is
- How many jobs they advertise
- Internet traffic volume
- How many candidates in their database
You may wish to use a ‘paid-for job ad’, which is a job ad that is performance-based, meaning the amount you pay for the advert is determined by how many people look at it, or contact you about it. This type of job advert can save you money because you only pay when people who are actually interested in the job view the listing.
How to place the job advert
You can publish the job advert independently on your chosen job site or, in less time, you can use an applicant tracking system, which enables you to post your job advert on various job boards in one go. An applicant tracking system (ATS) enables you to share your job advert to hundreds of sites in one process. These can include well-known paid-for sites, free sites, and job aggregators.
The ATS also provides access to hundreds of job partners and you can access job boards and sites that you didn’t even know existed, giving you even more options.
The ATS software helps by gathering CVs from all of the sites where you have placed your job advert. The ATS includes functions that help you search through your talent pool of candidates and engage with them – either to ask further questions, invite them for an interview, or to rule them out.
Other features include analytical data and insight reporting, which overall will help you to be more efficient when it comes to recruiting. The market leader in the applicant management software space is Logic Melon and other companies include Bullhorn, JazzHR, Workable, Recruitee and JobAdder.
