A Guide to Attracting Talent: Writing Effective Online Recruitment Adverts

A Guide to Attracting Talent: Tips for Recruiting Online

Writing Effective Online Recruitment Adverts

For many jobseekers your online advert will be the first interaction they have with your company, so you need to make sure it’s a positive one. Think like a marketer; your ad needs to be well written and an effective job advert should:
Inform and attract relevant talent

• Discourage weaker or irrelevant candidates
• Increase recruitment efficiency
• Promote your company, employer brand and reputation

 A well written job advert is imperative to attract the best talent when advertising online, and here are a few points to consider when doing so.

Who are you trying to talk to?

Your recruitment advert should connect with your target audience through the type of language, expression and motivation you use. The tone and style of the advert should effectively communicate with your target audience. Consider how you communicate with your customers.

Our creative team will craft your copy and design your employer branded advert.

Choose an appropriate job title

Avoid using internal or vague job titles. Stick to job titles that jobseekers are likely to recognise and search for. Job boards work on a keyword relevancy basis and having an appropriate job title is essential to ensure your vacancy is easily found by the right people.

Get your ad content right

In order to attract the right talent, using relevant content is crucial. Your advert is your product; the readers of your advert are your potential customers. The aim of the job ad is to attract interest, communicate quickly and clearly the essential (appealing and relevant) points and to provide a clear application method.

Key areas to consider:

1. Provide a good overview of your company, the culture, and future plans. Consider the reasons somebody would want to work for your company.
2. Include the key duties; the description may be as simple as a few sentences or a short list of bullet points. Jobseekers should be able to gain a good grasp of the day to day duties by reviewing the list. Remember this is not a job description, it’s an advert.
3. Promote the benefits the successful applicant will receive and remember it’s not just about salary; do you operate flexi-time, have a bonus scheme in place or offer annual leave entitlement above statutory thresholds, etc?

Make sure your ad is found

As previously mentioned, job boards work on a keyword relevancy basis so think of the terms your ideal candidate is likely to use when looking for a vacancy like yours and be sure to use these throughout the advert. Put yourself in the shoes of your desired talent.

Salary

Include a salary wherever possible. Jobseekers are more likely to apply for a position if they know the salary; it provides reassurance that they can afford to take the risk of leaving their current role for yours and taking time to apply is worthwhile. If the salary level is variable dependent on experience, then provide a salary band. Failing to provide a salary will affect the search ability of your advert online and quality of responses.

Keep it legal

If you’re unsure of the do’s and don’ts legally when writing an advert make sure you take the time to look them up, or even better, seek professional advice. As a hirer it’s your responsibility to ensure your advert is not discriminatory towards any protected characteristics. Even simple phrases such as ‘requires a minimum of 2 years previous experience’ can be considered discriminatory. For more information refer to the Equality Act 2010.

Final points to consider

 Be clear and concise, avoid jargon, acronyms, internal phrases and symbols (these can translate poorly online), don’t make it too long or too short, use bullet points and subtitles for ease of reading. Remember to include key responsibilities / duties and requirements for the role but don’t just copy and paste the job description and person specification! Last but not least, make it clear how to apply and keep it straight forward.

If you’re keen to improve your recruitment adverts but have a million other tasks on your to do list, JVP can help - ask us how!