Unless you can offer the top salary on the market, you’re going to have to do some legwork when it comes to attracting candidates. You’ll need to make the role sound exciting, show off about your great company ethos and shout loudly about the benefits on offer.

It all starts with a carefully crafted job ad post. To help you improve your job ads to attract more candidates, especially those that are perfect for the role, we looked at data gathered by the augmented writing platform Textio.

Textio’s researchers collected and analysed data and insights from 350 million job posts and hiring outcomes on a range of platforms and jobs boards. They used these insights to create a list of the best tips for job ad writing success:

1. Less is more – keep it brief

Based on how well current job ads perform, yours is more likely to succeed if you can keep the word count between 300 and 750 words. The perfect job ad is apparently between 600 and 700 words. Remember that the average number of words for the perfect job ad tends to drop every year, presumably in line with the attention span of job hunters.

2. Write a fresh ad, don’t reuse an old one

This happens so often in the recruitment world, where an old listing is used as a starting point. Different people may get their hands on it, adding and removing their own bits and pieces. The result is an overly wordy ad with no clear message.

3. Be concise and keep your sentences short

According to Textio, the ideal word count for an ideal sentence is 13 words. This makes sentences easier to read, whereas sentences of 29 words are very difficult to read.

4. Be direct

You should aim to speak directly to the candidate, using pronouns like “you” and “we” to really engage them.

5. Use inclusive language

This is a really important one, as Textio’s researchers found that stating your commitment to fair hiring practices and avoiding gendered language made a big difference to the response to an ad. Textio’s CEO Kieran Synder told CIO: “What we see when analysing around 50 million of our clients’ job postings is that removing gendered language means these vacancies are filled, on average, two weeks faster,”

6. Be job specific

This may seem really obvious, but you need to tailor your language to the industry and the profession. For example, job ads for IT roles that used the word ‘creating’ rather than ‘delivering’ were more successful. It’s sometimes subtle and nuanced, but very important.

7. Stay tuned to the local vernacular. This is particularly crucial when recruiting globally, as you’re more likely to connect with people if you use their local corporate jargon or buzz words.
8. Be careful of being too casual

This is a final tip from LinkedIn, whose research has shown that candidates shown an extremely casual job description were 2-4 times less likely to apply. This is because to many candidates, overly casual language means an unprofessional company.

Need help crafting the perfect job ad or filling a vacancy? Get in touch with the experts at SOLOS Consultants, specialists in sourcing candidates for digital, IT and tech roles.

 

 

image courtesy of IndypendenZ @freedigitalphotos.net