Have you had that same job listing up on Craigslist for a while now? Is it getting old? I know, when you write something that you think is spectacular you find no need to change it up. If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it, right? Well, ask yourself if that advertisement is bringing in the candidates you are searching for and the amount of candidates you are seeking. If the answer is no, then here are a couple of helpful tips in rewriting that ad.
What is in it for them?
Hreonline.com noted a study I would like to share with you today. They state, “David Jones, associate professor of business at the University of Vermont and one of the study’s co-authors, says that typical online job postings focus on employer expectations, including skill sets, work ethic, degrees, certifications, etc. However, Jones and the team discovered that ads emphasizing what employers can provide job seekers—things such as work autonomy, career advancement and engagement—deliver better employee-company matches as well as larger numbers of more qualified applicants. The study, titled “Does Emphasizing Different Types of Person–Environment Fit in Online Job Ads Influence Application Behavior and Applicant Quality? Evidence from a Field Experiment,” is set to be published in the Journal of Business and Psychology. It was based on data from 991 applicants who responded to 56 ads for engineering and project management-based positions. The ads that emphasized a “needs-supplies” fit, i.e. things the organization can supply to meet an applicant’s needs, received almost three times as many highly rated applicants compared to ads with “demands-abilities” fit wording, i.e. what abilities and skills the organization demands of candidates.”
Keep it Short and Simple
The truth of the matter is that applicants hardly read the descriptions. If hiring managers make judgments after a minute of looking at an applicant’s resume or application, they themselves do not spend more than that reading your job posting. The Buzz on Hr weighs in, “If you’re not updating your postings, you’ll end up with under-qualified and/or long-shot applicants who think their persistence might just pay off.”
Post regularly
The Buzz on Hr had another great tip on applications. They note that while you are screening them, they are screening you too. Here’s what they had to say, “When applicants see that you’re postings are routinely recycled, they wonder what kind of organization they’d be working for. How can you legitimately claim to be forward-thinking, innovative and cutting-edge if you haven’t updated your job post wording in over a year or more? If you want to attract top talent but you’re not updating your postings, you’ll end up running off those high performing applicants who think you won’t be able to further develop their talents. Don’t cause open jobs to linger longer and hurt your talent pool by using stale job postings. If you’re not yielding the applicants that you want and need, it’s probably time to update that old faithful job posting with some fresh new wording.”
