Is your job post not getting the response you want? The description might be to blame.
The way you advertise your organization to job seekers determines who will respond. If you make it too formal, you make your organization seem stiff. If you make it too casual, you could be missing out on professional individuals who can help your organization grow.
It’s all about balance, but to break it down further, here are five tips on writing an effective job description.
1. Start with a small summary
You want to be completely transparent here. This section is a simple summary of the job since you’ll list more detailed duties later, but you want to tell potential candidates the most crucial things that they will be doing. Make it light though. Keep paragraphs to three or four sentences max. Too much information could overwhelm people and cause them to stop reading the rest of the ad.
2. Describe the company.
The next thing you will want to describe is the company and work environment. This is a place that an employee could potentially be spending a lot of their time in for several years. They want to know what they’re getting into. Companies with happy employees outperform their competition by 20%, so finding someone who will be happy with your company can benefit you too.
List your company goals and mission. Describe the layout of the office. Is it a cubicle situation? Is there an open floor with designated desks? Is it a telecommuting reliant job? This description will weed out those who might not feel that they fit the environment of the company and bring you people who feel that they do.
3. List duties of the job.
You have already summarized the job, but now you need more detail. What exactly do you want this employee to be doing? Use action words and bullets for this section so that it’s eye grabbing and catchy. This is what the potential candidate will be doing so you want to list everything about the job here. Job seekers will want to see if what you are advertising matches what they want to be doing.
Make sure what you want isn’t too much though. Job posts can sometimes be overwhelming for potential candidates if they require too much of a person. You don’t want to leave anything out, but you should make sure what you are asking isn’t impossible.
4. Lay out skills and qualifications you want.
Job seekers need to know that you want from them. To cater to this, you will need a section about skills and qualifications. Don’t leave anything out. If you want someone who is enthusiastic and energetic, list it. If you want someone who can handle working on a team or working completely on their own, list it. You aren’t going to get the people you want if you don’t tell them what you are looking for.
5. Keep it short.
Once you have everything laid out, you will want to look it over. You want to make sure that everything is right. A survey of 2,030 job applicants showed that mistakes or sloppy editing kept them from applying for jobs. Proofreading and editing are major last steps.
You also want to make sure that everything is short and to the point. Job seekers are searching through several ads so you want to make sure that they can absorb the information quickly and retain it.
Making lists and short descriptions will help with this. Keeping things light and casual will also help attract new employees. You want your words to match the tone of the company. If you want to present a formal and professional company, use that tone. If you want to showcase the energetic or enthusiastic side of the organization, use that tone. They way you speak about something attracts or disengages people to or from it.
Your job description is probably the first thing a potential employee will see about your company so it is very important. You want to send the right message. Follow these quick tips and you’ll be hiring that new colleague in no time.