Writing the perfect Job Advert

It can be quite useful to think of a job advertisement as a function of advertising. When you are advertising you are selling a product. The readers are your potential employees and you must sell the idea of working for you and why they might want to.

Your job advert should be a collaborative effort between a senior member of the department recruiting and an HR Executive. This is in order to be able to construct a legally worded advert and to avoid any discriminative wording. The HR Executive should understand how job board search engines work to ensure that the advert goes out at the right time of day/ night for the best response and with the right wording to reach the top of the search engines.

A good job advert will include:

• Keeping the advert simple including the language used
• Sell the company as much as the role to attract interest in the job
• Use bullet points for clarity
• Use a suitable headline - usually the job title or something catchy
• Ensure readers can visualise themselves in the role
• Keeps the skills and experience levels broad

A bad job advert will include:

• Too much technical detail
• Fussy layout
• Complicated words
• Patronising tone/words
• Clever headlines which cause confusion about the role
• Too many words and sentences
• Uninspiring descriptions of role
• Too much emphasis on the person and not enough on the job

Other topics coming soon ……….

§ Effective and legal short-listing

§ Dealing with unsuitable responses

§ Psychometric Testing

§ Avoiding legislation claims