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Welcome to episode 14 of Claire Shares. I’m so glad you’re here. I’m going to be sharing with you high energy, bite size videos, about all things talent attraction, talent acquisition and talent retention. Make sure you’re subscribed to Claire Shares wherever you get your podcasts! Today’s talent attraction topic is about making your job postings attractive to your ideal candidates. A job posting is an amazing marketing asset and I’m excited to dive into some new ideas and best practices, with you.
Before we get started with today’s talent topic, I want to share with you my recommendation of the week.
Recommendation of the week
I’d like to introduce you to a fantastic organization called Cancer and Careers. According to cancer and careers website, “1.9 million new cancer cases are diagnosed each year in the United States. As of 2022, there are more than 18.1 million cancer survivors in the U.S. With the number of survivors continuously growing, there is an increasing need for resources and support to help them get back to everyday life and work after diagnosis and treatment.
According to the National Cancer Institute, the number of survivors (defined as anyone who has been diagnosed with cancer) will reach almost 22.5 million in the next decade. Many of us already know this to be true: These days you’re hard pressed to find someone who doesn’t have a cancer story, whether they were the one diagnosed, or a family member, spouse, friend, teacher, coworker, etc. Not only are more people being diagnosed with cancer, but more people are surviving and living long after. As the number of cancer survivors continues to increase, the need for support around survivorship issues, such as working during and after treatment, is becoming more and more important.
I first learned about cancer in careers when they were an exhibitor for the SHRM annual conference in 2018. I spoke with Nicole Jarvis, Assistant Director of programs who shared with me some of the amazing resources they provide – whether your employee needs support themselves, or are navigating a loved one who has cancer. Cancer and careers also offers professional development webinars where HR professionals can earn SHRM recertification credits. Please visit their website at cancerandcareers.org for more information.
Now onto our talent topic of the day… designing job postings to attract your ideal candidate. On the last episode of Claire Shares, episode 13, I dove into how to highlight your company’s mission, vision and values in the talent attraction process. Job postings is one important avenue to showcase your organization and attract your ideal candidate. Let’s go!
Structure of a great job posting
I hear from my HR Community network that they are getting lots of applicants for their open roles, but they’re not the right applicants. Usually I see their job post reads like a job description, a bulleted list of tasks and there isn’t anything specific in there that would catch the right person’s attention.
The job duties are what they are, but what can you do to show case your company mission, vision and values and speak to your ideal candidate in the job posting? Here are some things to consider to improve your job postings, so you’re ideal candidates feel the connection to your organization and apply!
- Share a story about your company history
- Talk about the difference your products or services are making
- Show case community impact and corporate social responsibility
- Highlight opportunities for employees to develop and grow
- Show your values in action, such as linking to a video of employees in action on the job or in the community. Your ideal candidate upholds these values, so it’s important to share them!
- Link to current company news or press releases about new products or services this person would be contributing to
- Include photos, videos, or links to employees in action whether it be on the job or in the community
This information can be included at the top or bottom of your job posting – it’s up to you! Some applicant tracking systems and careers pages allow you to add headers or footers to your job postings, so some of this information can be automatically part of the job posting page.
In addition to adding in these items to create that brand stickiness between your organization and ideal candidate, I encourage you to speak to your ideal candidate! Rather than saying things like “the incumbent will be responsible for XYZ” just say “YOU will be responsible. At Lighthouse Technology Services, we like to tell candidates on our job postings what they’ll be doing, and what they’ll need to have, rather than using responsibilities and qualifications for our section headers.
Can’t find anyone qualified?
Another pain point I hear from my HR Community is that they can’t find anyone qualified for their open jobs. I immediately think about the job posting, sourcing, and advertising process they’re using. I encourage you to ask yourself and maybe even your company leadership or hiring managers, How are you defining qualified? What is included in your job postings that may or may not be causing you to get the applicants you’re looking for?
Making job postings more inclusive is a great way for a wide range of qualified candidates to express interest. Let’s dive into some specifics.
- Remove he/she wording. Use their or you or job holder when describing tasks being performed
- Be very careful about including industry acronyms or abbreviations. A friend of mine recently updated her job title on LinkedIn when she started a new role and I had to ask her what it meant! If only folks within your organization know the abbreviations and jargon, it’s hard for anyone viewing that job posting to identify with it. Of course include well known acronyms for tech skills, as candidates will be able to identify with those or similar technologies.
- Remove words like manpower or aggressive. Technology tools such as Textio can help with your writing and word choices. The world’s most recognizable brands trust Textio for their job posts. Whether you’re filling a first-time role or recruiting rocket scientists, win top talent with inclusive job ads that inspire a diverse group of candidates to apply.
- Try and stick to top 3 must haves – especially for “entry level” roles. Challenge yourself to really think about what is necessary and what can be taught or trained.
- Be sure to include what’s exciting about the role and why should people apply. Your ideal qualified candidate is likely considering multiple opportunities at once.
- Why include bachelor’s degree preferred if it’s preferred? Candidates will see that and decide not to apply if they don’t have a bachelor’s degree, even though it’s preferred. If it’s not required, think about why you’re really adding it
Going back to how are you defining qualified, I’ve worked with hiring managers in the past who have passed on a candidate because they had 5 years of experience instead of 10, therefore, they weren’t qualified. In a tight market, we really need to examine how we are defining qualified and if years of experience really matters. OR, do we want to focus more on certain power skills, tech skills, and personality traits for our open role. Of course there will be times where that 10 years of experience matters depending on the role, mentorship needed within the team or whatever it may be, but we need to be more closely examining on a regular basis why we think folks are not qualified.
The next thing I want you to think about is including compensation ranges on your job postings. I want to share an incredibly powerful post I saw by Caro Griffin at HireTechLadies.com.
“If you want more women to apply for your open roles, one of the easiest things you can do is include a salary range. “Competitive compensation” can mean a lot of things to a lot of people!
If you hesitate to do so because the final salary range depends on a few things, then share a little about what it depends on – the candidate’s location, a leveling exercise (depending on experience), amount of other bonuses/equity/compensation provided, etc. This level of transparency benefits ALL job applicants and saves you and your team time too. We can see firsthand how the applicant rate changes with vs. without comp info.”
Pay transparency laws are now in effect in many states, including New York, so you should have this information on your job posts already (: At Lighthouse, we include salary ranges on all of our job postings. We also include contact information and invite candidates to email us if they have any questions about the job posting or salary range.
Job postings are meant to call the right people in – encourage folks that resonate with our brand and meet the minimum qualifications to apply! Let’s use them as a marketing tool and call to action to apply for your ideal candidates. Implementing the tips I shared above helps ensure your ideal qualified candidate isn’t deciding on their own not to apply.
Wrap-up
This week, evaluate your job postings, especially the ones for hard to fill roles, and think about where you can implement these positive changes to encourage your ideal candidate to apply. It’s worth a try! Remember job postings are not job descriptions.
Thank you for being here with me and joining me for these bite size videos all about all things talent attraction, talent acquisition and talent retention. These areas of HR and People Ops are my favorite and specialty, and I’m so excited to dive in with you. This work is what I do, if you need help with the tools, technology and process around how you attract, acquire and retain talent, reach out to me and let’s talk!
Claire is Coaching 