Humor in Recruitment pt.2

Published in

Recruiters of Interest

4 min readFeb 5, 2017

We’ve already talked a lot about the need of creativeness in our job descriptions, so why not trying with humor?

Thinking outside the box is the key to getting ahead. Whether we’re looking for fresh talent or want to attract experienced professionals, incorporating some humor and creativeness can help us land the perfect candidate.

So, how to use humor in the job adverts?! It’s not just about writing something funny, but writing something funny that the right audience will get right. And there it is! Our chance to be different and to win the candidate.

An idea — in our collaboration with the hiring leads we can ask for some specific job related jokes. Such jokes, that just the specialists in the area will get.

Do you post the same job advert everywhere?

· Add fun pictures while posting the link to the job in LinkedIn or Facebook;

· Probably don’t be that creative in the job boards and our career site

Why is the difference? In my opinion, while posting in social media, we’re trying to get the attention of the passive candidates. However, the candidates who are going through the job boards are really looking for job and there’s a higher risk to get them frustrated by our creative ventures.

Another option is to include fun pictures or some memorable slogans.

Or to go to the next level and count on puzzles and mind games.

Let’s go through some genius examples and get inspired for our next job ads:

Picture in the middle: Hungry Designers Wanted

Advantages:

· to be remembered

· get higher chances of recommendations and referrals

· more shares, more views

Risks:

· not to get the joke right;

· the joke is actually not as funny as we think;

· to annoy someone (especially if he already was in a bad mood before reading our post)

· take our advert as an action in poor taste

Should we use humor in the candidate interaction?

Definitely yes :)

It shouldn’t be just about the job, their experience, skills set, exact time of the interview and details around it. Let the candidates be sure from the very beginning that they are talking with cool people. We are the “face” and if we are cool and friendly it’s more likely to think that their potential future colleagues will be as well. Furthermore, while talking with the candidates and saying something funny, we will make the candidates feel more comfortable. Even more talkative and most probably we’ll get more details.

Some ideas:

In the f2f communication — starting with small talk, telling a slight joke; explaining something funny that happened recently in the office

Emails — if there was something remarkable in our previous conversation with the candidate, we can mention it in our follow up email.

Email approaches — make a good impression and make the candidate read your message!

Just something that came in my mind while writing: “Probably I am the third recruiter contacting you today, but if I am not,….. probably the other recruiters are not paying attention as me about the details OR ….. probably you should work harder on your LinkedIn profile” (never tried it!)

Risks:

· to cross a line

· to lose focus, to get distracted

Advantages:

· get better chances of a response

· make good impression

Humor in communication with other colleagues

Let’s discuss it live in our seminar :)

Instead conclusion: