There is nothing more frustrating than having an amazing opportunity advertised, only to receive only five applications or even none at all.
One of the reasons for a low response ratio is sometimes hidden in plain sight: THE JOB DESCRIPTION. Have you taken a look at your job advertisement lately?
Ask yourself these questions:
Is it a generic description containing terms like flexible, dynamic and hardworking similar to all the other job descriptions posted?
Can you identify the essence or purpose of the role easily when viewing the advertisement?
Does the opportunity stir a sense of excitement in you to such an extent that you want to inform others about it?
Is title, duties and money the focus of the advertisement or are other important themes like opportunity, challenge and culture also addressed?
Are you selling a job or a career?
Is there any use of infographics or video links to increase candidate attraction and engagement levels?
What is the USP (Unique Selling Point) of the role?
Is the advertisement sufficiently describing the reasons why someone would want to work for your company, in other words, the CVP (Company Value Proposition)?
Has attention been given to the level of language and grammar styles to appeal to the type of candidate audience you would like to attract?
Does the role description seem overwhelming or anaemic in terms of wording and word count?
In my next post, we will take a look at WHERE to advertise and promote an opportunity to effectively target the correct candidate audience.