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Jonathan Greenhalgh HR, Technology & IT...

How to write a job advert designed to attract the right people

Write effective job adverts

Efficient recruitment is one of the most important priorities for any HR team responsible for hiring. This not only means filling vacancies quickly, but also making sure that recruitment activities have been targeted correctly, ensuring that the candidates you hire will be a good fit for the business.

Developing a compelling, specific and detailed job advert is one of the most effective ways of making sure that you are attracting the right people through your recruitment efforts. A well-written job advert is a powerful tool that can help your company stand out in a competitive jobs market, and ensure that you are only attracting applicants with the right skills and capabilities to succeed within your organisation.

Here, we will explore the factors to consider when crafting a job advert that will help you to target the candidates you need to help your company grow.

AnchorWhat should every job advert contain?

Creating a compelling job advert is about selling your company to prospective candidates, communicating what you expect of a new recruit, and highlighting what they will receive in return. If your job listing fails to achieve these goals, you will not be able to attract the applicants you need.

Here are the basic elements that every good job advert needs to contain:

●      Job title - the job title you include in your listings should be specific, but also easily searchable and properly optimised for search engines. An unusual or quirky job title will make it difficult for candidates to find the advert, and will not provide the information they need on what the job actually involves.

●      Salary and benefits - information on salary and reward packages should be considered essential in today’s competitive marketplace. This lets you advertise your key benefits, set the right expectations and prevent candidates from having to contact you to find this information out, which can put people off applying for a role.

●      An overview of your business - you will need to provide a compelling and concise overview of your company’s activities and mission, to show candidates how their skills and labour will fit into the overall objectives of the business in a way that is exciting and inspiring.

●      Details of the role and its responsibilities - this section should be detailed and clear, providing easily scannable bullet point information on exactly what the role will involve on a day-to-day basis, what challenges new starters will face, and what kind of career development opportunities are offered by this role.

●      Key requirements - here you will need to list all of the skills, qualifications and experience that candidates must have to apply for the role, as well as any optional attributes you are looking for in an ideal candidate. By communicating this clearly, you can ensure you only receive applications from candidates with the right skills.

AnchorHow can you ensure your job advert is correctly targeted?

The above points offer a strong outline for a job advert that will provide the most essential information that candidates need to understand the basics of the role and the employment offering.

However, there are also a number of other factors to consider that can help to further differentiate your job advert and ensure you are targeting the applicants who are best suited for your vacancy:


●      Always be specific about the location of the role and the geographic catchment area for your candidate search, to make it easier for candidates in your area to find the advertisement, and to give them a clear picture of where they will be working.

●      Discuss the culture of your company, and what makes working for your company different from others in your industry. The success or failure of a new recruit to assimilate into your team will often depend on their compatibility with your team’s personality or affinity with its values, so you will need to convey this in your advert.

●      Keep the advert focused on the job. Although it is important to talk about your business, spending too much time on this can put candidates off - instead, you should keep the focus on the details of the role and keep the needs and expectations of the candidate at the centre.

●      Do not be overly demanding in your job requirements, as this may make the listing appear too selective. Think carefully about what qualifications are truly essential for the role, compared to what is merely “nice to have” - by doing so, you will be able to broaden the pool of suitable candidates who can apply.

●      Tailor the language and tone of the advert to match the profile and personality of the candidate you are looking to attract. This may mean utilising the right technical language, or adjusting the tone of voice to fit the personality of your target audience.

●      Measure the success of your job adverts. You can measure in terms of the number of applicants each advert receives, and the suitability of those applications. By analysing this data, you will be able to focus in on the most effective advertising methods and improve your efficiency over time.

AnchorHow we can help

Tailoring your recruitment efforts correctly will always be much easier with the support of a specialist recruitment agency partner. Calling upon the expertise of a dedicated recruitment specialist with years of experience in developing optimised hiring strategies for businesses will help to give your organisation an advantage in a competitive recruitment market.

Employment Solutions is a specialist engineering and manufacturing recruitment agency that has been delivering effective recruitment solutions in this sector for more than 20 years. We will work alongside your HR team to create a tailored approach to hiring, giving you the best chance of quickly finding the right candidates for any given vacancy.

To learn more about how Employment Solutions support your HR team in delivering efficient and well-targeted recruitment, call our team on 0161 839 5353, or complete the contact form below to arrange a callback.

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