One of the questions our Loxo customers ask a lot is how to write job posts that attract top candidates.
Recruiters are increasingly needing to think like marketers in order to compete in a very noisy hiring space and since we see a lot of job ads created at Loxo— both good and bad ones — we thought we would share some job posting “best practices” with you.
But first, why are recruiters being forced to think like marketers? As a marketer who ventured into the hiring space, who now works for a tech company that empowers recruiters to reach their best potential, the ties are very clear.
The main reason for this shift in the recruiting space is the advancement of web technologies that give sophisticated recruiters the ability to not only post a job but market it to targeted job seekers.
“Recruitment marketing” has even become an industry buzzword with software companies trying to create tools to help recruiters tackle the new challenge.
Think back to pre-internet days. How did an employer advertise their job openings?
That’s right. “HELP WANTED” ads filled the Classifieds section of a newspaper.
While this worked back in the 80’s, we are currently in a candidate-driven market where the skills gap is real and everyone is looking for top talent… on the internet.
The web has pushed a lot of industries forward and the recruiting industry is no exception. When job boards were first created, new recruiters would “post and pray” that a candidate would find and apply to their job.
Fortunately, for both the job seeker and recruiter, this tactic is no longer effective.
Recruiters need to think like marketers.
Recruiters need to have a basic understanding of product, price, promotion and place. Not only do they need to understand the details of the job (or product) they are filling, but they need to know how the job seekers in this field think and search for jobs.
Knowing how to promote a job opportunity to highly-skilled talent is now a must, not a nice-to-have skill.
Placement is also key. If you are using job boards, which boards are your candidates looking at? Are they even looking at job boards? This may surprise you.
As you develop an advertising strategy for your job posts, it is important to keep key factors in mind; key factors that digital marketers implement every day.
Below are a few actionable tips on creating better job ads for the modern job seeker — but don’t stop here. Continue to grow your job (and candidate) marketing skills. It will be imperative as you compete to influence top talent.
Indeed, the world’s no. 1 job site, wrote a great blog about writing job posts for the job seeker.
Writing your job post so that the ideal candidate finds and applies to your job is no easy feat, but we have compiled some best practices for you here.
We could go on and on (and might share a second post on this later) about writing better job ads. The modern job seeker is savvy and if they are looking for opportunities on the internet, they are not just on job boards, they are seeing opportunities in their social news feeds and being referred by friends.
Don’t stop at posting an ad, share the job post on social channels like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc. If you are in a creative space, share your opportunities on Snap Chat. If you are in the legal space, look for bloggers who will link to your opportunity.
Posting and praying is no longer an option in the competitive hiring space. Everyone wants the best players on their team and you need to go the extra mile to inspire top candidates to look at your opportunity.