5 Essential Things You Need To Add To Your Job Postings.
This week, Hired released the 2018 Global Brand Health Report which focused on revealing what tech workers specifically consider when they want to work for and what they value in a job offer.
There are many factors that candidates consider when deciding where they want to work, and these factors are directly correlated to how your employer brand is perceived by candidates. At every single stage of the job search experience, your employer brand is being measured by candidates whether they know it or not. Candidates are looking for the right information to make the most informed decision. The companies that secure top talent are the ones that are able to create a consistent brand-led experience that leaves a lasting impression.
“Employer branding is critical for hiring, and retaining, folks that will thrive at your company. Tech company cultures are often stereotyped and generalized, while they are in fact very nuanced and different from each other. If you don’t take the time to thoughtfully and accurately differentiate and define your culture (in a way that factors in both your company’s current state and where you plan to be in 1–2 years), you run the risk of being just another open floor plan with a ping-pong table.”
- Colleen Finnegan, Recruitment Marketing (Squarespace)
Of course in the candidate experience there are many factors you simply can’t control. However, when it comes to providing the right information, particularly in your job advertisements and careers pages, you’re in complete control. More often than not, a candidate’s first point of contact with an opportunity is a job description. And, also more often than not, that job description is not even written in a way that is designed to pique the interest of the candidate. The result? Candidates leaving and never looking back.
According to Hired, there are certain things that are absolutely critical in helping a candidate evaluate your organization and opportunities. The top five factors job seekers consider in the application process are compensation & benefits, company culture, opportunity to learn new skills, providing challenging problems to solve, and finally the team make up. If you’re in talent acquisition and you’re reading this and you don’t have these five things as key parts of your job advertisements… don’t worry it’s not too late.
Now you’ve literally got the blueprint to knowing exactly what your candidates are looking for when they are reading through your job advertisements or careers site. By simply focusing on adding these five things to your job descriptions you’ll go a long way in better converting your job seekers into candidates.
Furthermore, in the Brand Health Report there are also five reasons why candidates engage with a company.
Although you might not have a “friends and family get in free” policy at your company, and you might also not be a completely recognizable brand name — being able to provide transparency with putting a salary range upfront, providing the context behind what experience is necessary to succeed in the role, and reaching out to candidates in a personalized manner are very simple way to provide a better candidate experience, and will ultimately help you engage the talent you’re looking to hire.
I know, this stuff might not seem very groundbreaking at all. However, I see companies everyday missing major opportunities in providing great candidate experiences by simply overlooking some of these small additions that can be easily added into a job posting or careers page at no extra cost. So many organizations are looking at shiny new HR tech tools to their already overflowing stack, yet, what candidates REALLY want is consistency, clarity and transparency in what can be expected of them, and in what they can expect in working for your organization.
A very simple way to implement these insights into your careers pages and job postings is to do an audit. Put yourself in your candidates shoes and take an objective look at your careers page and job postings. If you don’t see that it’s very obvious that you’re speaking directly to compensation & benefits, company culture, opportunity to learn new skills, providing challenging problems to solve, and the team they’ll be working with — your candidates are also definitely not seeing those things. Make sure that things are front and centre in every single step of the candidate experience so, no matter what or where your candidates might find you, they’ll be fully aware of the key factors they’re looking for when considering your organization and opportunities. You’ll be providing a transparent, and fulfilling candidate experience and at the same time improving your employer branding by giving candidates precisely what they are looking for.
