As the number of vacancies in the UK remains high and fewer candidates apply for roles, making sure your job advertisement stands out becomes a critical factor to the success of any hiring campaign.
To help with this, we decided to put together Webrecruit’s 5 top tips on how to make your job advertisements unmissable, ensuring that you beat your competition in hiring the best talent on the market
Be bold and advertise the salary
It may be tempting to keep the salary vague, however, a ‘competitive salary’ isn’t nearly as competitive as enticing potential candidates with transparency about the monetary benefits of their labour.
When the salary isn’t listed in a job advertisement, our data shows vacancies experience a 25% to 35% drop in candidates. For most candidates, the salary is the primary determinant as to whether they apply. So, by opting to not advertise your vacancy’s salary, you could risk waving goodbye to up to 60% of applications, who may go on to fill a role with one of your competitors. To make your advert stand out from the crowd, it’s advisable to be explicit about the role’s most enticing asset.
Don’t underestimate the benefits and USPs
Now you’ve got your candidate’s attention, what makes your job advertisement distinctive is the benefits you offer as well as facts about your company and the pluses of the role: your unique selling points (USPs).
By laying out the role and your company’s most attractive qualities, you are urging job seekers to grab the opportunity with both hands. Perhaps show off that you are a market leader, award-winning and/or an innovative company and showcase your people culture.
Webrecruit’s data shows us that candidates are 78% more likely to apply for a role if its advert promotes benefits. One of the most persuasive benefits is flexibility and by including anything you can offer from development opportunities to table tennis or company/team socials, your advert will have the dual effect of catching candidates’ eyes whilst showing off your company’s culture.
Show, don’t tell
It’s easy to get carried away with the superlatives and adjectives when trying to prove that you are a ‘leading, innovative company’ or a ‘great place to work’. However, these phrases litter job advertisements so frequently that they risk becoming meaningless to candidates. Rather than simply telling your prospective candidate, it is important to show your innovation, market position, achievements and work culture.
Providing revenue figures, awards won and exciting projects and products on the horizon can allow candidates to gain a better understanding of your business and how they might fit into your culture. Rather than using banal phrases or descriptors, you should sell candidates the dream that is also the reality.
Tailor your job advertisement
A crucial thing to bear in mind when writing your job advertisement is that its style should correspond to your company’s industry and the role you are advertising for.
To make your advert stand out from the crowd, it should be focused on your target audience. Employing a jovial, creative style brimming with informal language would, for example, be inappropriate for a corporate law role and would potentially alienate some candidates. However, this style would set apart your quirky start-up graphic designer job advertisement. If your role is creative, don’t be afraid to push the boundaries. For example, for a music producer role, you could divide essential and desirable criteria into ‘A-side’ and ‘B-side’.
Be kind to candidates’ eyes
Your job advertisement could have a salary, extensive benefits and a suitable style and still fade into the background if it isn’t aesthetically pleasing and easy to read.
To avoid putting potential candidates off, utilise clear titles to break up the advert, keep your sentences short and paragraphs to two sentences. By steering clear of endless, awkward sentences and overwhelming blocks of text, you will get your message across in a way that candidates will actually read. This will prevent the disaster of losing a candidate that could have been a perfect fit because of a chaotic and drawn-out advert.
