When you’re looking for new talent as a business, it’s important that you hit as many potential markets as possible. You want to find candidates that not only have the skills you need but fit the wider company culture. If you’re a team manager or a recruitment manager, understanding how different channels all supplement your recruitment efforts is vital. In this article, we explore how to properly advertise a job and all of the steps you can take to ensure recruitment success.
How to Advertise a Job Opening
Below are the 7 key steps you can take to properly advertise and recruit for a job opening:
1. Establish recruitment needs
Before you advertise a job role, it’s critical to know what the company needs and how the role will fit into the wider hierarchy. You should look to build a clear understanding of what your culture is, the candidates you can expect to apply and an overview of the potential job role itself. With this in mind, you can start creating a candidate checklist that you can use to cross reference against applicants.
2. Identify target markets or demographics
It’s much easier to advertise a job opening if you understand the people you either require or will see the advert. If you’re looking for a candidate to fill an entry-level role with the opportunity for ongoing training, for example, you’re more likely to target graduates or younger candidates that match the experience level of the role.
Once you have the target demographics in mind this informs the approach you take, the social media channels you use and other key points that support your recruitment efforts.
3. Create a job description
The cornerstone of any good job advert is a great job description. This is what your entire recruitment effort hinges on and should not only describe the role but engage the reader and make them want to join. If you have a weak job description, all of your efforts attracting people may be for nothing.
Format your job description in a concise and easy-to-understand way. It should be built in a way that readers can quickly access the information they need, using bullet points or text formatting. Likewise, the description itself should be honest, concise and descriptive, ensuring candidate’s have reasonable expectations.
At this point it’s critical to also keep your own expectations in check. If you create a job description that effectively mixes three different roles together – which often happens in marketing or similar industries – you’re not going to get the right talent. People who work in the market won’t apply for a role like that. Likewise, make sure you include salary expectations and other compensation.
Take a look at our vacancies.
4. Consider internal recruitment first
Many companies jump to external recruitment when they actually have great candidates already within the company. Take the time to speak with existing employees regarding their own ambitions or people they may know.
Employees all have their own connections which can lead to a referral. Referrals can be a great way of sourcing talent, particularly if your existing employee understands the in’s and out’s of the role alongside the skill set of their referral candidate.
Existing employees may also want to move up the ladder or take on new responsibilities, which not only accelerates the whole process but you know you can already trust the candidate.
5. Use social media
Depending on your existing social media reach, you can extend your job openings to a much larger audience through these channels. Firstly, use your research around job demographics and job responsibilities to decide which channels to use. If you’re looking for an older employee in a professional services role, you might use LinkedIn, for example.
Once you have this in mind, keep hitting these social media channels with adverts or starting conversations with your network around the opening.
6. Leverage job boards
Platforms such as Reed and Indeed still receive a lot of traffic from job searchers and represent a great way to source talent from the active market.
The most important part of posting jobs to these boards is how it’s formatted. Make sure your profile has up-to-date business details and the job description you’re posting is as high-quality as possible.
It’s a good idea to have a dedicated person managing the adverts across these boards, as you may receive significant interest based on the role.
7. Work alongside a recruitment agency
While job boards are great for accessing the active market, a recruitment agency is ideal for accessing the passive market – opening up your job advert to people that might not be actively searching but still a great fit for the role.
Recruitment agencies don’t just offer extended reach. They can also support the entire process – from writing the job description to identifying the candidates you need.
If you’re looking for a recruitment agency in the Midlands to support your employee recruitment, get in touch with us here.