The job advert game has changed.
Long gone are the old school hit-and-hope recruitment advert strategies, typified by sending as many adverts to as many people as possible, and spreading your advert across as many job boards as possible, all in the hope of engaging the right person.
In some sectors, this attitude still exists. But the candidate return is sketchy and the quality of candidates unstable - the return on job advert investment simply isn’t there anymore.
In the post-pandemic era, job adverts have to be hyper-targeted. When the cost of hiring the wrong person is astronomically high, and the recruitment market is decidedly candidate-led, you want to make sure your advert is finding the right people.
You want the focus to be on quality, not quantity.
To find the right talent, you need to make sure your company is being advocated for in the right networks, and that your job adverts are finding their way into the inbox, job board or direct message of your perfect candidate.
This requires some written word magic - you want to inspire candidates to apply, you want to talk their language, and you want to highlight opportunity, to grab future stars, developing talent, and next-gen leaders.
Within the Pharma, MedTech and Life Sciences industries, job adverts are typically rich in industry detail, specific in requirements and highly niche in the use of language. However, writing jargon-heavy job ads and sticking them on medical jobs boards does not guarantee quality CVs in your inbox.
There are many aspects of a job advert to consider before you put pen to paper, such as:
● Where you’re posting the advert - what sites, which networks and for what particular candidate?
● How does each platform dictate what does and doesn’t work for job adverts? E.g. should you be wording an advert on LinkedIn the same way you are for other jobsites, or Twitter?
● Are you leveraging your employer brand enough? As employer brand specialists, we know that your entire job advert needs to be written under the brand umbrella of your EB.
● Will your job advert attract both passive and active candidates? What candidates are looking for a new job? Which ones are looking only passively? Do you know the difference between the two, and how to speak to both parties?
● Does your referral network know you're accepting CVs, and are they, too, advocating for your live jobs?
The modern job seeker.
Consider the modern job seeker - mostly digital natives who are facing a disrupted future, having made it out of the pandemic, who are aware of the cost of living rising for months if not years to come, and desperately seeking job security even as they launch “side hustles” to both explore their career paths…and make ends meet.
What type of job advert is going to attract those people? What style of language speaks their language?
The perfect job advert.
While further below we pick apart the main pitfalls of job advert writing, you want to have the following basic information in a job advert:
● Introduction - a brand-focused intro paragraph where you announce the role, the company, the time scale for hiring, and a breakdown of the opportunity on offer.
● Main Section - this needs to be a detailed description of the company and its values; the reason or reasons for hiring for the role; the history of the role and its place in the matrix of the company; the leadership team and their needs; the company plans for the future, and the primary responsibilities of the role.
● Compensation and benefits - the real meat of the role: what you’re paying your new hire and details on their full remuneration package.
● Call to action - clear information on how to apply; clarification on the recruitment flow (whom the application is going to, how long the process could take etc), and links to further reading, such as a company career page, social media pages or recruiters’ LinkedIn pages.
Things to watch out for when it comes to writing a job advert.
Job seekers want three things:
● They want to know how they’ll be remunerated - is the salary in keeping with my expectations?
● They want to know where they’re working - does the role have remote work options (the no.1 candidate demand)?
● They want to know your brand purpose - does the company's purpose match my expectations, views, and vision for what my labour means. Does each candidate understand and feel a sense of value in their work?
These three aspects of a job ad answer the most pressing post-pandemic candidate questions around building a viable, sustainable career.
Details matter - remove all vagaries in job role, responsibility, pay or benefits. Be specific and be honest about it.
Make your call to action clear - the trick to effective recruitment in the age of the great resignation is you want to make sure by the time your perfect candidate has read the job advert, they do one of two things - dive further into your brand (either via links to your website, career page or social media pages), or be so inspired they simply have to apply straight away.
Both points of contact need easy to access, clear hyperlinks, web addresses, email addresses or phone numbers. Make it easy for your candidate to get in touch with you and explore your brand!
