Employers and recruiters often face difficulties when searching for good specialists. What should you do when there are few or no responses, and the candidates who do apply don’t meet the requirements? How can you make a job posting appealing to top candidates? In this article, I will try to answer these and other questions that HR professionals encounter daily.
Where to Look?
There are several strategies for finding candidates. The most popular is posting job ads on job websites. These sites offer ready-made solutions for recruiters to search for employees. Indeed, this is very convenient. The large user base of such websites allows you to receive the maximum number of responses to a job posting. Additionally, you can use keyword searches in resume databases. This simple strategy works best for general-profile positions.
For hiring specialized professionals and top managers, recruiters are increasingly turning to social networks. The most popular ones are LinkedIn and Facebook. More than 60% of recruiters post job ads on their social media profiles and in specialized groups. This method has its advantages, such as the ability to view a candidate’s profile and often gather more information than from a resume.
Gainrep provides recruiters with the opportunity to publish job postings in the form of posts and search for candidates among the platform’s users. Add employees from your company, former colleagues, recruiters, and candidates to your network. The larger your contact network, the more effective the system becomes. You can create your own candidate database and fill not only current vacancies but also future ones. For example, you might receive a resume from a great candidate after the vacancy has already been filled or find a candidate who doesn’t fit the open role.
A significant advantage is that the platform sends a weekly digest of job openings to candidates whose profiles match the employer’s requirements.
So, we’ve identified some resources for posting job ads. But how do you write a job description that attracts the right candidates?
Candidate Profile
First, you need to clearly understand whom you’re looking for. Employers often don’t fully know what their ideal employee should be like. To define this clearly, you need to create a candidate profile. Who are they? Where have they worked or are currently working? What do they know, what is their educational background, and what values should they share? These criteria will help you create your job description.
How to Write a Job Ad
A recruiter is also a sales manager but, instead of selling a product or service, they’re selling a vacant position in their company. Therefore, it makes sense to apply the same principles used in creating sales cases.
- Put yourself in the applicant’s shoes and anticipate questions they might have when reading the job description.
- Remember that applicants always first assess whether they’d like the job and only then check if they meet the required qualifications. Your task is to spark the candidate’s interest first and present the requirements second.
- Consider what sets you apart as an employer. What benefits do employees gain by working with you?
- Avoid overly formal language, write concisely, and maintain a clear structure.
Job Post Content
1. Title Use a clear and familiar title. You can refer to keyword searches on job sites based on your job profile.
2. About the Company If you want to attract target candidates, describe your company in detail. Share a few facts about your activities, team, and achievements. You can also include links to your website and company social media pages.
3. Work Conditions and What You Offer This is one of the most important sections of the job description. Include benefits and perks that will attract applicants. Nowadays, people are rarely impressed by an office’s good location or free coffee, but every good company has something to offer its potential employees. These could include salary levels and bonuses, opportunities for growth and development, a paid gym membership, employee training, the option to work remotely, etc.
4. Responsibilities Be as clear as possible about what you expect from the future employee. Write the job responsibilities in such a way that the candidate has no questions about their scope of work. Including specific goals is also a good idea.
5. Requirements List only the key and critical requirements for the role. For example, if education isn’t important, there’s no need to mention it just because it’s a common practice in the labor market. However, if the role requires a car, be sure to specify that.
6. Stay Accessible Double-check that your name and contact information are correctly listed so that candidates can easily reach you.
Finally, don’t forget to encourage applicants to take action—ask them to send in their resume.
