3. How to make amazing job posts
‘How to make amazing job posts’ is the third chapter of Create, the second book of The Hiring Playbooks, 5 ebooks that will turn all your hires into wins. Created by the Homerun team.
This article will help you get more qualified applications, differentiate your jobs from your competitors and hire people who fit.
An introduction
A job post isn’t a job post. It’s an advertisement for your job.
Yes, it needs to explain everything about the position you’re offering,
but even more importantly, it needs to sell your job and company to
the people you want to hire. To do that it needs to communicate your
company culture/employer brand and engage your target audience.
It’s a piece of marketing equally important as a social media post or tv
commercial: a great job post will connect with your target audience; a
poor one will turn them away.
(Before starting on your job post, you’ll want to make sure you have a
solid job brief in place. If you’re not sure what that is, see the previous
article in our guide: Writing the Job Brief.)
How do I make a really great job post?
1. Include all the basic info
People need to be able to understand exactly what the job is to know
if they want to apply for it. They also need to know if they have the
necessary skills and attributes that would make applying worth their
time. That’s why the first step to a great job post is making sure you’ve
covered the basics.
Include the following information, depending on the job opening:
• Job description with key responsibilities
• Job location
• A detailed list of qualifications
• Desired skill level
• Important soft skills
• Salary range
• Benefits
• Description of management style and culture
(You’ll find all this info in your job brief.)
2. Make it easy to find
You need to make it easy for people to find your jobs online, whether
that means in search engines or on job boards.
To make your job post super searchable we suggest you:
• Find the most commonly used title for your job, and then use it!
• Identify the popular keywords for both the job you need to fill,
and for your industry, then use them throughout your job post.
• Make sure that your headings and subheadings incorporate your
keywords.
To find the right title and keywords, check out other job posts by
companies in your industry.
3. Sell your job like you sell your product
The majority of job posts focus on telling job seekers what the employer
wants and needs, but your job post needs to do more to attract the
best people. A lot more. People don’t want bullet point lists, they want
stories that they can engage with — and even better — become a part of.
Good stories need characters, so it’s time to put the people behind your
company, your culture, and the job itself, in the spotlight.
As well as showing off awards you’ve won and the impressive
companies you work with, it’s really important to feature the human
side of your team as well. This content will immediately make your post
much more personal, accessible and interesting. A great way to do this
are Homerun’s Job Blocks (you know, the ones we mentioned above).
These allow you to give people a real taste of the office — what music
you play, what you get up to during work and after it. If the reader likes
it, great. You might have a match. If not, too bad, but at least you’ve
both saved yourselves a lot of time by identifying a bad fit.
4. Be shareable
If you’ve followed all the steps above, then you’ve made a great job
post. Give yourself a pat on the back! We’re certain that people will
like the post, and if they really like it, they’ll share it with their friends.
That’s great, because the more people that see your post, the merrier.
You’ll get more eyes on your job posts and the hiring process should be
speedier. All you need to do is give them a hand by making your posts
easy to share.
You can do this by including prompts that encourage people to share
your post to their social networks, or better yet, use a platform that
allows people to share your post via social media or email with a single
click. Remember, this is another chance to show your company culture,
so don’t miss a chance to stick in a funny caption or a joke where
appropriate.
What do I do next?
Publish your job post on your career site and share it on your company’s
social networks. Don’t forget to encourage your team to do the same to
their personal networks.
Get even more attention for your job post by following our tips and
tricks from the next article in Playbook #3 Boost.
By the way, if you have any questions on anything in this playbook or
the wonderful world of hiring, then we’d love to hear from you. Say hi at
hello@homerun.co
All Images by Studio Spass.
