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July 1, 2015

8 Tips for Creating Better Job Postings

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When you’re trying to bring talented people to your team, making a good first impression is always essential. The best candidates will always be looking for job postings that stand out and speak to them. Usually, the ones that aren’t too appealing on first sight end up being skipped over and ignored. That’s why it’s important to know how to write a job posting before the search officially starts.

You need to really take the time to create strong job postings if you are looking to attract top-tier talent. Of course, creating the perfect job posting is not an exact science, and no recruitment process is ever foolproof.

But there are things that you can do that will surely make your postings more appealing and interesting to prospective employees.

Be Clear and Concise

Knowing how to write a job posting requires a lot of restraint. There are probably tons of things that you want to include in it, but you need to really limit yourself so that the job ad doesn’t end up being incredibly long and full of filler.

On the other side of the coin, it shouldn’t be too brief either. One thing that should be fairly brief is the description of the actual job. Keep it to two or three sentences. There’s no need to list every single responsibility that the candidate could eventually end up having.

When listing the minimum qualifications, you should be thorough. This will help dissuade people who are under-qualified from sending a resume and just “taking a stab at it.”

However, when you are putting together the “preferred” requirements, that’s where you might want to go easy. Demanding too much could potentially lose you some excellent candidates.

And don’t forget to always end your job posting with a direct and interesting call to action, letting potential candidates know why they should want to work for you.

Talk Up Your Team

Excellent candidates are not only interested in the type of company they are going to be working for, they also want to know the type of people they are going to working with. If you have awesome employees who have degrees from top universities and experience in huge companies, why not flaunt it?

People really do care about the kind of people that have been hired before them. Many top candidates want to work with people who they can learn from and people who they are compatible with in terms of experience and knowledge.

If you have some very impressive employees, show them off. Some companies even include links to the LinkedIn profiles of some of their star employees within a job posting. If you want to do that, just make sure it’s alright with them first.

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Talk Up Your Culture

If you have a cool company culture, feature it in your job posting. Do you have fun team building activities every now and then? Do you have a game room and catered breakfast and lunch at your office? These types of amenities are incredibly attractive to top candidates.

They show that you invest in keeping your workers happy, relaxed and motivated. If your company gives great benefits, be sure to mention them in your job ads.

Do you offer exceptional 401(k) and health plans? Do you encourage your team to stay fit and healthy by paying for their gym memberships? Are you flexible when it comes to working from the office?

These are all things that should be integrated into your job postings, because company culture is becoming an increasingly important factor when it comes to getting yourself top candidates. If there are four or five companies in your area that are offering similar wages for a certain position, the fact that you have an interesting company culture full of great benefits can be the deciding factor that helps you get the candidates you want.

Don’t Go Overboard with Creativity

Everyone has seen the funny and original job postings that go viral every now and then because they are amusing and different. And sure, it would be great to make a job posting that is so interesting that it gets shared around the world, but really, what are the chances?

While creativity can go a long way in getting your job listing seen by many people, it shouldn’t be the only criteria. More times than not, companies trying to make funny and weird job ads never achieve the desired effect.

Don’t try to be creative just for the sake of being creative. You can add some fun to your job listings, but make sure that there is something of substance accompanying the creativity. Balance is everything when it comes to writing a job listing that is both amusing and effective.

Avoid Clichés

You’ve seen them all a million times. Buzz phrases like “self-starter,” “team player,” “motivated,” – all of these are clichés. Of course, you are looking for all of these traits when hiring, we all are.

If you are going to list personality traits and characteristics that you are looking for, at least get a little creative with them so that your job ads will stand out from the crowds of droning corporate rhetoric.

Don’t Forget About SEO

If you are posting your job listings online, and it’s highly unlikely that you are not, then you have to think of the ad like you would think about any other web page of content that you are putting on the Internet to promote your company.

That means that you need to think about search engine optimization because obviously, you want the right people to easily find your job listing when searching for jobs online.

You can always pay to get a premium spot on popular job sites, but if you don’t want to shell out the money, you really need to focus on including all of the right keywords into your job listing.

If you are looking for a public relations person, try to fit in both “public relations” and “PR” into your description. Do some keyword research and try to find the keywords that will give you better search results and greater visibility.

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Clearly Define Your Audience

When you think about how to write a job posting, think about your audience. Do you want high school students for part-time work? Is your job geared more towards older, family-oriented people? Do you want to attract fresh-out-of-college millennials?

Be sure to capture a clear picture of who your demographic is and then mold your job postings according to what you think they would like to see most. Younger professionals tend to prefer relaxed environments, open space offices and casual dress codes. If you offer all of that and are looking for 20-30 year-olds, be sure to mention those things in your job ad.

If you are looking for high school students for part-time work, state in your job listing that you offer flexible schedules and learning opportunities.

Find your audience and then create job listings that speak directly to them.

Get Visual

If you really want to stand out, why not start using more pictures instead of words? Turning your job postings into visual presentations like infographics or videos will definitely make them stand out.

Younger generations of workers that have grown up on the Internet tend to respond better to visuals. So why not make your job listing less of a read and more of a “look?”

How to write a job posting – conclusion

It really is all about finding the right balance. You don’t want to suffocate the readers with too much information, but you don’t want to be vague either. You don’t have to list every aspect of the job that you can imagine, but you shouldn’t simply write “duties may vary” either.

Writing good job listings is definitely a trial and error process and the perfect job listing really does depend a lot on your niche and the type of employees you are looking to hire.

Whatever you do, make sure that you are constantly analyzing the reach and effectiveness of your campaigns and tweaking future ones accordingly.