Reel in Good Candidates with Effective Job Postings
Posted January 28, 2014 & filed under Hiring Resources
Any manager involved in the hiring process has run aground of this scenario: you’re looking for a technical veteran and all the resumes you receive are irrelevant to the position. There are enough applicants to choke an industrial furnace but none of them are close to good. It may be easy to declare a bad hiring market but in fact, the fix might be as simple as optimizing your job postings to attract good candidates.
Effective job postings take careful consideration and need to have the buoyancy of your brand at its core. Think of effective job postings as marketing tools.
Successful companies attract good candidates by outlining their engaging projects, their culture, and their corporate personality all in one fell swoop. If a company can’t bring to light its best qualities, how can it expect candidates to see them?
To attract good candidates, job postings should:
Have a clear job title.
Effective job postings are written in ways that make them easy to find. When a candidate is staring at a blank search bar on Careerbuilder or LinkedIn, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Usually, it’s a broad discipline like Electrical Engineer or Quality Assurance Technician. Niche technologies and processes at the front of a title will get it sent to the back of the queue. Complicated titles like Six Sigma Power Distribution Engineer will not get results.
Drop keywords trails.
Effective job postings use keywords the ways search engines want them to be used. Search engines, in addition to looking at the title of your job posting, focus on the keyword usage and density. The more keywords naturally sprinkled in a job posting, the higher that posting will appear in search results. Yet effective job postings aren’t over-embellished. Keywords shouldn’t glut the job posting, they should attract good candidates.
Don’t skimp on the good stuff.
What makes your company extraordinary? What makes projects with your company worthwhile? Effective job postings sell candidates on more than just a five of six digit salary. They attract good candidates by promising more than just a job; they promise an entire work experience that consists of engaging projects, a vibrant culture, fun benefits, and opportunities to grow.
When in doubt…
Even if you are using these techniques to write effective job postings, it doesn’t hurt to expand your tactics. If you contact one of our recruiters, we not only can get you the cream of the crop, we can do it fast. Attract the best talent without having to type a single word.
by James Walsh
