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Learn how to write job descriptions that attract top talent.
Do you wonder why you’re not getting great job applicants? You might want to take a closer look at how you write your job descriptions. Instead of focusing on getting a large number of applications, you should concentrate on attracting the right types of employees to hire for your business.
Your job listing will be many candidates’ first impression of your company. While you want to avoid keyword stuffing, you also don’t want to fill your listing with cliches or fluff. So how do you create a more effective job description to attract the best candidates? Business owners, recruiters, marketing managers and career experts outlined the basics.
When you are writing your job description, you want to include information about the following things:
A good job description goes deeper than a typical list of skills, tasks and role requirements. To attract the best applicants to your position, give them a feel for your company culture so you can hire for a cultural fit, said Jean Cook, former business coach for The Alternative Board.
Rebecca Barnes-Hogg, founder and former CEO of YOLO Insights, shared similar views, stating that quality employees will invest in businesses that reflect their own interests and values.
“They want to understand your products and what you stand for,” she said. “Your ad needs to tell them that. The first few sentences need to capture the candidate’s attention. Like any effective sales pitch, make it about them and their interests.”
Jaynine Howard, founder and career strategist at JJ Howard & Associates, recommends being upfront about salary in a job description. Many applicants will turn down an offer at the last minute after being informed of the pay, she added. Clearing this up from the start will prevent you and your applicants from wasting time.
Michael Lan, senior resume consultant at Resume Writer Direct, recommends including application directions that contain a specific CTA. Whether it’s to email a specific person, leave a phone message or include a code word in their cover letter, asking applicants to do something extra can help you narrow down your interview pool quickly.
A clear CTA like this “serves as a built-in screening process as you will be able to weed out applicants who are not able to follow directions and demonstrate a clear lack of attention to detail,” Lan said.
When constructing your job description, keep these tips in mind.
When you write your job description, you’ll want to use a tone that represents your company’s brand, said Joseph Terach, a director at American Express. For instance, if you’re searching for creative employees, make your job post quirky and amusing. Meanwhile, detail-oriented tech employees may do better with concrete lists of necessary skills.
Since many people are distracted and rushed, they will likely respond better to listings that are easy to read or scan, especially on mobile devices. Don’t overwhelm your candidates with useless information or lengthy paragraphs.
Steve Dempsey, Head of People at Aquent, recommends organizing key responsibilities with bullet points and separating sections with descriptive headers.
“Most job seekers are scanning,” he said. “They are on the hunt for the right job and will look at a job post and scan the details before deciding to apply or to ignore it.”
Jan Hudson, COO of Surf Search, agrees. “Most job candidates search job boards on their phones now. Keep it simple and always use bullet points.” She also suggests using the headings “Responsibilities” and “Requirements” before bulleted lists for added clarity.
Light humor can make candidates remember your listing and want to apply. Chris Mindel, copywriter at AdsIntelligence Marketing, uses subtle jokes in his job descriptions. “It makes the applicant smile when they think about your company,” he said. “They’re more likely to apply.”
For your next open position, you can write a better job description by following these two suggestions.
Consider using this structure for your job description: a two-sentence opening pitch about your company, followed by two bulleted lists under the headings “Responsibilities” and “Requirements” and a one-sentence CTA asking the applicant to click a link to fill out an application.
For better readability and a higher response rate, make sure to include the important information about job duties, skills, tasks and necessary experience in the “Responsibilities” and “Requirements” lists.
Hudson provided the following job description, which attracted candidates with excellent qualifications in the life sciences field:
Global medical devices leader seeks a Supplier Quality Manager to lead a supplier quality team in the development of new Class III medical devices. The Supplier Quality Manager will lead supplier quality initiatives and qualifications as well as provide mentoring and oversight of a supplier quality team. Travel is expected to be around 25 percent, both domestic and international.
Requirements:
Responsibilities:
Dustin Diehl, former director of strategy and performance at Digital Current, provided this quirky job post aimed at a creative content marketer. Notice the use of headings and humorous tone.
This is probably, what, the seventh job ad you’ve seen today? 10th? Hey, if it’s your first, we feel lucky! We understand that finding a new job can be tough, so we want to make this as easy as possible.
What are you hiring for?
A content strategist!
What exactly is that?
If you have to ask, you may not be right for the job.
OK, well, what’s Digital Current’s definition of a content strategist?
Fair question! There are lots of different ways to interpret the role of a content strategist, so here’s our take:
At DC (that’s our abbreviation for Digital Current, not the comic book company, although that would be awesome â we’ll ask you about your favorite Justice League member during your interview, don’t worry), our content strategists:
Great! Where do I sign up?
Send us your resume and we’ll set up a call! Can’t wait to meet you.
Once your job description is complete, you need to get it in front of potential hires. You can do so easily through job posting sites. On these websites, people looking for new positions can search for opportunities that interest them. The hiring sites will then pull up the jobs most relevant to the query. That means you can sit back and relax as candidates come to you rather than the other way around:
Whether you’re hiring a senior engineer or an entry-level marketing specialist, it’s important to write concise job descriptions that showcase the most important parts of the position. Adopt good practices, such as using headings, bullet points and clear CTAs, to increase readability and response rate. Don’t be afraid to make your job listing match your company culture. This way, you’ll attract more candidates who fit your organization.
Max Freedman and Brittney Morgan contributed to this article. Source interviews were conducted for a previous version of this article.