The Job Ad – How to make sure you get it right

Kirsty Craig Associates

HR Consultant, Recruitment Consultant, Business Coach & Mentor

You may have seen a previous blog topic of ours where we posted about how to interview successfully – and we hope you found it interesting and that it gave you food for thought.

For this blog, we thought we’d take a look at the very first step of the hiring journey; the bit that comes before the interview… creating the job advert.

“Over the years, I’ve cringed at more than a few woeful job ads that could so easily have been saved,” says our MD, Kirsty Craig. “First and foremost, remember to bear in mind that often, that ad is the candidate’s first sight of your company and brand (from a career perspective) and will tell them whether yours is a company they want to work for. It’s as important to get the tone of voice right as it is to get the detail right.”

And talking of detail, getting a job ad wrong could maybe lose you a couple of great candidates who overlooked your job because the basic facts were missing - like whether the job is permanent or temporary, what the salary range is, or even, where the job is based. It’s been done before!

Things to think about
To get you started, here are a few basic things to think about:

In the case of an existing role, take the time to sit down and check in with who’s doing it now or if that’s not possible, a member of the same team. Ask them what they feel the job entails, whether their job title is right for the role and where they think that the priorities lie; as their view might be quite different from yours. For example, it might be that a role has really evolved over the couple of years that your current staff member has worked in it, and thus, dusting off the last version of the job ad and rehashing it won’t do you any favours. “You’ll end up attracting the wrong candidates, and that’s just wasting everyone’s time,” says Kirsty.

Or, it could be that the role is brand new – your business is at the stage where it needs someone to breathe new life into your creaky old website, set up and manage your social media, create exciting content…and you’re a bit out of your depth in terms of what title to give the job. Make sure you do your research and ensure that this exciting new role is given the attention it deserves by ensuring it’s labelled correctly.

Do some research
“Do a bit of research, ask a few business friends or speak to an expert in recruitment who will be able to save you from hiring an IT Manager when what you really need is a Digital Media Manager,” says Kirsty.

Writing a job ad isn’t easy, and in today’s candidate-short market, taking the time to create an accurate and appealing advert is definitely time well spent.