How to write a winning job advertisement

Now more than ever you need to be diligent and focused on recruiting the right employees.

It’s a tough market out there with candidates taking the pick of the roles and often negotiating a remuneration package well above the market rates.

So, what will help you identify and attract the best candidates when you have a vacancy?

Here are a few handy tips to make the process a little easier

Make sure your advert is mobile friendly – around 70% of job seekers search this way

Your job title needs to be relatable – use common words that are easily recognisable and understood i.e. Office Manager rather than Office Guru

Break your advert down into defined sections that are easy to read – Title, About the company, About the role, Duties, Skills & Experience, Culture, Benefits and How to Apply

Make sure your advert clearly reflects the day-to-day role. Ask someone else to read your draft and tell you what they would be doing in the role. Use their feedback to fine tune your advert.

Make sure your advert reflects the position description and outlines the major duties and responsibilities in 4-6 bullet points. Write them in order of importance.

What’s in it for me? Put yourself in your candidate’s shoes – what would attract you to the advert and the role? Culture, flexibility, strong team focus, remuneration, bonuses etc.

Highlight all the benefits of the role and company as well as developmental opportunities.

Use positive words to encourage job seekers to keep reading. Words like creative, friendly, team orientated, reputable, progressive, innovative, acclaimed.

Avoid negative words such as little, staff, perhaps, maybe, small, position.

Include your name, email address and mobile and invite potential new employees to contact you with questions. Whilst at first you may feel this is a time waster, you may just speak to someone who sounds perfect! You can really hear “motivation” over the phone.

Spell check – nothing worse than seeing an advert that asks for “attention to detail” yet has a typo. Last time we did a job search for a “Manger” there were 277 listed! We wouldn’t apply for a manager role like that. Would you?”

Sally Garner has decades of successful recruitment experience. Proactive recruitment practices, the development of specialised talent communities and utilisation of technology and automation have proven key to gain the best results and build strong teams in tough markets. HR Advice Online run workshops and training programs to support businesses in best practice recruitment.

Please contact us at [email protected] or 1300 720 004 for further information.

Information in HR Advice Online guides and blog posts is meant purely for educational discussion of human resources issues. It contains only general information about human resources matters and due to factors, such as government legislation changes, may not be up to date at the time of reading. It is not legal advice and should not be treated as such.