Why You Need to Improve Your Job Descriptions to Get the Best Candidates
Ms. Pomerantz has served as the Chief Executive Officer of Mary Pomerantz Advertising for the past twenty five years. She was formerly the Chief Executive Officer of Pomerantz Staffing, which grew to be one of the largest privately-owned staffing companies in the US under her leadership.
Trying to attract the best candidates for your company is a constant challenge, and today’s hot employment market makes it even tougher. That’s why you need to do everything possible to stand out from your competitors when recruiting for open positions at your company. One of the best ways to do this is by partnering with an experienced recruitment marketing agency like Mary Pomerantz Advertising and drawing on our resources and expertise. Even something as seemingly simple and straightforward as crafting a job description for an open position has many pitfalls that can torpedo your efforts and leave you wondering “where have all the good candidates gone?”
The 4 Key Elements of Successful Job Descriptions
According to Lori Sylvia, Founder and CEO of the online recruitment marketing community Rally – there are 4 key things that your job descriptions need to do to attract better candidates for the open positions at your company. They must: 1.) Grab the candidate’s attention, 2.) Deliver the information that candidates are seeking, 3.) Help candidates quickly assess their fit, and 4.) Influence them to apply. I feel that her 4 elements do a good job of highlighting some of the essential components of effective job descriptions and will expand upon each of them below to illustrate how they can help you with your overall employee recruitment strategy. [1]
How to Grab the Candidate’s Attention
When creating a job description to attract better candidates from a job posting website it is critical to capture their attention immediately by making your posting stand out from the competition. Let’s face it; most job postings look very similar to one another, and it is very easy to get lost in the crowd as a potential candidate sifts through dozens of openings to find the right fit for their skills and experience. Fortunately, many job posting sites already offer options to help you stand out. These include the ability to add header images, use personalized templates, and add links to content such as videos – all of which will make your job posting “jump off the page” among the sea of text-heavy competition. Even sites with only text-based options can be “jazzed up” with a “hook sentence” or question to draw the reader in by highlighting something interesting about the position or your organization. Working with the creative team at a recruitment marketing agency like Mary Pomerantz Advertising can be a great way to take advantage of creative writing and graphic design opportunities on any job posting site and make your job description really “pop.”
Make Sure to Give Candidates the Info They Want
Your job description should be focused on the information that better candidates want to know about the position and your company – not internal jargon that they may not even completely understand. When working on a job description you should always make it easy for the candidate to answer the question “what’s in it for me?” by highlighting the challenges and rewards of the position. CareerBuilder, no stranger to the job description and posting business, has actually surveyed users to determine the things that job candidates want to see, illustrated in the graph below.
Source: CareerBuilder.com
How to Help Candidates Assess Their Fit
There is no added value to making it difficult for candidates to determine whether your position is a good fit for them. You should break up your job description into clearly delineated sections that can be easily skimmed by potential applicants. And, for those individuals who don’t “fit the bill” for that specific position, why not include a link to similar jobs that might be a better fit at your organization? – or a “call to action” to sign up to receive updates on future opportunities? This approach limits applications from candidates who don’t match your requirements while also potentially building a “talent network” that you can tap into in the future. Not sure how to set up a system like this or more effectively brand your current ATS? – Give MPA a call to lean on our considerable expertise in these areas.
How to Influence Better Candidates to Apply
The best job candidates can pick and choose from among many opportunities, so you need to give them a reason to choose your business over the competition. A great way to convince them to do this is to include a persuasive employer value proposition (EVP) in your job description. If you are unfamiliar with the concept of an EVP, it can be best summed up as what your company specifically offers employees that differentiates it from your competitors. Every company’s EVP is different, grounded in the benefits you offer, the work culture you maintain, or the opportunities you provide for employees to achieve recognition or make a difference in the community.
Once you’ve established what your EVP is, you need to communicate it clearly through text and visual content. Oftentimes, the most effective way to do this is through links to employee testimonials, employee ratings on sites like Glassdoor.com or images or videos of your workplace and workforce. At MPA we’d be glad to help you with any stage of this process – from crafting an effective EVP based off of employee surveys or market research to communicating clearly and persuasively through a variety of media options.
Attract the Best Candidates Now with Revamped Job Descriptions
The increasingly tight market for well-qualified job candidates means that you need to do everything possible to recruit the best individuals for your organization. And, improving your job descriptions is one of the quickest ways to bring better candidates in the door. Of course, even a cost-effective task like rewriting job descriptions still takes time, resources and expertise – things that are always in short supply when you are looking to recruit more candidates to your workforce. That’s where Mary Pomerantz Advertising can help. Our experienced staff can help you retool your job descriptions and work them into your recruitment advertising to ensure that you attract the appropriate talent for your company’s needs. Give us a call at 732-214-9600 to get started today!
