Candidates have choices. Help them choose you.

Have you ever scrolled through Netflix trying to find something appealing to watch, only to settle on watching Step Brothers for the 109th time because there are way too many choices? Like you, candidates today have more choice than they’ve ever had before, and because of this it has become crucial to equip your talent acquisition strategy with the bells and whistles necessary to attract and convert candidates so they don’t settle for watching Step Brothers for the 109th time.

Fun fact. Passive candidates make up about 60% of the workforce and are highly valued because of their skills, experience, and success in their current roles. Passive candidates will browse careers sites occasionally, but if they don’t see something that grabs their attention, or looks more promising than what they currently have — they aren’t going to apply.

The Paradox of Choice (written by Barry Schwartz) argues that eliminating consumer choice can greatly reduce anxiety for shoppers. One of the most important parts of the book is Schwartz’ the process of how consumers make choices.

(1) Figure out their goal or goals
(2) Evaluate the importance of each goal
(3) Array the options
(4) Evaluate how likely each of the options is to meet their goals
(5) Pick the winning option
(6) Modify goals.

Why is this important? Well, we’ve talked about how candidates are consumers and the parallels between consumerism and candidatism (yes, I just made this word up) before.

In short, understanding how candidates make choices with the key focus on aligning with their goals, and helping them evaluate how your organization will align with those goals is a simple boost to your talent acquisition strategy to better convert job seekers into engaged candidates. Offering a differentiated experience in the form of providing meaningful touch points, and relevant content helps candidates choose your organization over your competitors.

An easy way to start offering goal-alignment right now with no cost (beyond a little time investment), and differentiating from your competitors is to toss out your templates and start a new best practice when it comes to crafting job postings.

Majority of job postings/descriptions offer a short job description, some requirements, some duties and some benefits. However, the best job postings do one thing really well — they recognize and understand the importance of the job search from a candidate perspective.

Here are 5things you can add to your postings that will instantly offer goal-alignment for candidates to help them make an informed decision.

1. Salary range

Can we please address the elephant in the room already? A recruiting advantage isn’t an advantage if everyone does it too. Set the bar by being the organization that prioritizes pay transparency. “TBD” or “DOE” doesn’t mean anything to a candidate. Be upfront and honest with candidates in the job posting about salary expectations and you’ll save so much time in the back-end. Also, Glassdoor is a thing — so candidates can find out the pay pretty easily.

2. Role expectations

Role expectations are very different than job duties. Role expectations should be written to describe what the candidate can expect to learn, do and accomplish in a certain time period. Some really awesome job postings I’ve seen recently break this down into 1 month, 3 month and 6 month periods. What will they do in their first month? What will they do in their first 3 months? What will they do in the first 6 months? Let the candidate know what you expect of them, and what they can expect!

3. Opportunities for Growth

This is another big one that is often forgotten in job postings. It’s essential to outline how your organization can help them grow — both professionally and personally. Providing a general roadmap of where they will move next within the company, or the courses or resources available for them to broaden/strengthen their skillsets is incredibly valuable for candidates. The key here is to think longterm. Spend some time proving why this goal is not only great for them now, but why it will be great for them in the future too.

4. Pitfalls

Discuss what roadblocks or negatives that candidates will find in the position. Tell your candidates that they are not a fit from the start and you’ll actually attract more RIGHT-fit candidates. For example: “If you’re the type of person who needs structure, this role is not for you”.

5. Company Insight

Most companies tell candidates about their company — but most companies don’t really sell their candidates on their company or opportunity — and even fewer show them via video/pictures. The idea to offering company insight is to provide an inside look that can’t be easily found by a quick Google search. Crowdsource some photos from your current employees. Get your hiring manager to film a short video of why they should want to join the team. There’s so much talk in the industry about “personalized candidate experience”… this is THE opportunity to capitalize on that and really push the needle forward and make you stand out.

Going above and beyond the standard will set you leaps and bounds above your competition and kickstart your journey on providing a more transparent, and meaningful candidate experience. At the end of the day, candidates are looking for key insights, and appealing content that will align with their goals — the same way you look for great Netflix shows that are appealing and keep you entertained. So, add these 5 things to your job postings so you can get your 100% candidate experience rating.