Are you not seeing enough applicants on your job postings, and the applicants that come in are not aligned with the skills you need? Over the past few years, there have been numerous major changes in the job market both for employers and candidates. One of the major changes is what job seekers are looking for from an employer post-pandemic compared to pre-pandemic. Company culture, salary, and benefits offered – including scheduling and work-from-home flexibility have taken on greater importance. Many employers and job posting writers have not adjusted how they present their posted jobs. On our most recent podcast, we connected with two of our partners who are experts in the field, Sylvia Dahlby (SmartSearch) and Amanda Quirk (Monster), got together and discussed this exact topic – why do most job descriptions suck? And, how can they be improved? If you’d like to improve your job postings, take a listen to this episode. Get a pen and paper out to take notes; we cover a lot of useful information! Also, find a summary of the highlights below.
Job Descriptions are NOT Job Postings
First and foremost, do NOT post a general purpose, generic, and verbose (aka boring) general summary of the role. One that may have been provided by your HRIS system as a middle of the road general purpose template. Those generic job descriptions tend to use a lot of flowery words that make the position sound important, but really fail to describe anything unique about the role. This is a surefire way to make certain your job posting will be ignored and/or the wrong candidates will apply. Your posting should be specific to the role that needs to be filled and NOT include every possible permutation of the role that could ever exist. Tell the Candidate what they will be doing in this role, using plain English. Also, if your job descriptions for any given role have not been updated recently, as in never, they should NOT become a Job Posting.
Job Title
You may have an excellent job description, but it won’t matter unless you have an equally excellent job title. If job seekers aren’t clicking on your job title, they’ll never see your job description. Here are a few ‘to-dos’ and ‘not to-dos’:
To do
- Use an industry-standard job title. Consider the most common title you can use to describe your position. You can dive into more details in your job posting. Google will favor SEO optimized standard job titles and compelling job descriptions.
- Make it searchable. A large number of candidates will search for a specific title. Think about what kind of search term a job seeker will be most likely to use to find your job. You’ll want your title to be optimized for search engines.
- Keep it short. Google requires job titles to be less than 65 characters, and this is a good rule to keep in mind regardless of which job board(s) you’re posting to. Keep your job title as short and to the point as possible.
Not to do
- Include info that can go in the job description. Information such as job location and work hours should be included in the job description, not the job title.
- Spammy language. Avoid using phrases such as “earn holiday cash”, ALL CAPS, numerous ?’s, and !’s, and anything else that may come across as spammy.
- Acronyms: Avoid using acronyms or industry jargon in your job title, unless they’re commonly accepted.
Job Description
Start your job posting out with a compelling job summary. This is where you have the opportunity to get the candidate excited about your organization as well as the job itself. Job seekers are looking for opportunities where they are valued and can feel a sense of purpose in their job role. Say a few words about why the job exists, how the candidate’s contributions are important to the organization, its customers and the internal team(s) they will be working with. Talk about company culture. What kind of candidate does well in your organization? This will fuel their motivation and want to learn more about the position and submit their application.
Responsibilities
Share information about the day-to-day responsibilities. What can a candidate expect the typical work-day to look like? Consider the top 5-8 job duties and write them out in bullet points to make them easier to read and take in. Depending on what type of job it is and what type of candidates you are looking for, it may be acceptable to write out longer job descriptions. IT candidates for example will be more likely to take the time to read through longer job descriptions detailing out the technology stack they will be working on, for example. Keep your demographic in mind, and include only details that are truly pertinent to the job.
Qualifications
This is where you will let the candidate know what type of skills and experience you need them to bring to the job. A common mistake is for employers to write out their entire wishlist of every little thing they would like to see in a job candidate. This is a mistake. Not only are you not going to find a candidate that has all the 58 things you listed out, but it will cause candidates to self-omit from applying because they don’t think they have the qualifications you’re looking for. Write down all of the qualifications you want your candidate to have. Then, divide them up into two categories, and list the top 5-8 or so in each:
- Must-Have: These are the skills and experience you require from a candidate, and that will be disqualifying if they don’t have them.
- Nice to have: These are the skills and experience that would be nice if the candidate can bring with them, but it’s not a deal breaker if they don’t have these skills.
By separating out the qualifications, you’re communicating to your potential candidates the skills and experiences that are critical and what’s an added bonus if they can bring to the table. You’re also greatly reducing the risk of an otherwise qualified candidate self-omitting from applying.
Benefits & Salary
According to Monster, there’s a 20% increase in applications when a salary is included. In our annual salary survey candidates told us that benefits is one of the most important factors when it comes to job satisfaction. Use this section to let candidates to know about what kind of benefits you offer. When candidates see your benefits, they will weigh that against the salary range you’ve listed. The more robust your benefits package is, the more likely that candidates may be open to accepting a lower salary range. You can also use the benefits section to re-iterate your company culture by listing things such as “bagel Tuesday”, “free snacks and beverages in the break room”, or any other fun perks that come with that job and are part of the company culture.
Call to Action
This is where you close the deal. If the candidate has made their way through your job description, chances are they might be interested in applying, Don’t forget to ask them to. Put a sense of urgency behind it for immediate action. You can also include language to highlight the importance of the role as we discussed for the summary section.
“This position is a top priority for us. Submit your resume now!”
“Due to increased customer demands, we are looking to fill this position quickly. Apply today!”
Keep it Mobile Friendly
The average job seeker may spend on average 3-5 minutes at most reading a job description they’re interested in. Keep in mind when composing your job posting that a large % of job seekers will be reading your posting from a mobile device. A short paragraph on a large desktop monitor can fill up a whole screen on mobile, so consider each word and each line of text valuable real estate. If a piece of information not necessary, leave it on the chopping block. Keep only the most important information you need a job seeker to know in order to apply. The rest can be discussed in an interview. For example: Including qualifications such as “good communications skills” or “experience with MS Office” are commonly expected skills, and you should be able to easily discern from the applicant’s resume if they have those kinds of skills and experience. If you’re hiring a customer service rep with 2+ years of experience, it is very unlikely they will not also have MS Office experience. For the sake of keeping the job posting short and to the point, leave those kinds of job qualifications and details out.
iMPact Business Group is a staffing agency specializing in Information Technology, Engineering, Finance/Accounting, and Business Administration/Process positions. Talk through your hiring needs with a member of the iMPact team today. It could be the start of a mutually beneficial partnership.
