Adapted from the book Finding Keepers: The Monster Guide to Hiring and Holding the World’s Best Employees by Steve Pogorzelski, Jesse Harriott, Ph.D., and Doug Hardy. Published January 2008 by McGraw-Hill.
A good job description emphasizes what an employee has to achieve on a day-to-day basis and how success will be measured. A good job advertisement emphasizes why a qualified individual should apply for the job.
Notice we said apply for the job. That could mean finding out more information, filling out an online application, sending in a résumé, or picking up the phone. The key is that the candidate takes action. The advertisement will list a job description’s requirements, tasks, skills, and the like, but most ads stop there or they tack on a bit of boilerplate about the company. Good ads inspire the right people to throw their hats into the ring by weaving the employer brand message throughout the necessary information. For example, if a central message is that you want people who can make decisions and act rather than deliberate, you’ll emphasize that with phrases like “takes action quickly to satisfy customer needs,” “XYZ Co. wants sales professionals who can act decisively,” or “bring firm direction to department.” The following is a basic template for such an advertisement.
The best part of being a marketing assistant: “Our customers come from all over the world. Anybody who is curious about people, who loves to persuade and loves to communicate will find that the job of marketing assistant is a graduate course in human nature.”
Ad Title
Not the job title, but an eye-catching title for the ad itself. Imagine a candidate wading through 23 ads titled “Legal Assistant” and then encountering the title “Need Legal Eagle with an Eagle Eye” or “Help Kids in Trouble with the Law.” Candidates scan job ads like you scan résumés, so give them a reason to be interested!
Snapshot of The Job (What the Recruiter Is Looking For)
Start with a job title and quickly state the results you expect: “increase sales at least 20 percent,” “delight patients with unexpected service,” or “turn 50 percent of new customers into repeat customers.”
Employer Brand Statement 1 (Including Intangible Benefits)
The next statement leads with intangible benefits of the job, based on your thinking about your company brand, and tells the candidates what is uniquely in it for them. This can be specific to the job, as in “this superb team needs an innovative leader” (innovation and leadership are key), or to the company, as in “after 40 years without a layoff, XYZ Co. feels like a second family. We care about each other and our communities.”
Why This Job Is Important
Again, refer to the heart of your company culture. For example, if “pride” is a key message, tell why this particular job inspires pride: “the home service technicians are the face of XYZ Co. to our customers, and their pride in a job well done is key to our success.” A direct statement from the manager here is particularly effective: “the manager of this position is looking for people who take pride in their work, their company, and themselves.”
Basic Job Information
Responsibilities, tasks, required skills, and experience -- all come from the job description. Ask yourself, “What’s really required for the job?” This still allows you to filter responses according to your choice, but it doesn’t take good candidates out of the running. If a quality is preferred but not required, say so.
Tangible Job Benefits (Salary, Benefits, Etc.)
Statements like “we offer competitive salary and benefits” are boilerplate, and candidates expect them. Unique tangible benefits can liven this up a bit; for example, if you have a membership deal with the local gym or day care center, say so.
Employer Brand Statement 2
Reinforce the heart of your employer brand. If candidates have read this far, they are interested. Now raise the emotional stakes by telling the skilled candidates why you really, truly believe this is the best organization they will find. Think about the poised candidates, who are now judging their current reality with a fantasy of working with you. Before you call them to action, talk about a benefit you offer that they should leave their current jobs to have. For example: “just as we believe in constant improvement in our products, we insist on constant
growth for our people, and so we offer every employee tuition reimbursement, adult education classes, and on-site management training.”
You can also reinforce the first employer brand statement. For example: “innovation is more than a slogan; it’s a way of life for us; every year our employee product council awards more than $20,000 in special bonuses to fellow employees who have come up with innovative ideas.”
Call to Action
If you want their résumés, “Apply Now!” is an okay statement. If you’re really treating applicants like customers, think about them being online, reading your ad, two clicks away from your competitors’ job listings. What can you promise (and deliver) that’s different? An instant reply and a response within a week -- either “No, thanks” for unqualified applicants or a phone call to good prospects? How about a response within three days? Is that promising a lot? Yes. Does it make you different? Yes!
There are two other calls to action that have become standard online: “email this job to a friend,” and “find out more about XYZ Co.” If candidates choose either, you can use them to reinforce your interest. If they e-mail the job to a friend, have your system set up to send them a separate e-mail -- thanking them and inviting them to send in a résumé to your database. If they click on a link to “find out more,” direct them to a section of your organization’s careers Web site, thanking them for their interest in careers at your company.
If you send them to the corporate home page you won’t control the employment-branding message. You want to capture their interest in working for your company before sending them on to study the nice shiny products on the rest of your site.
That’s not to say you can’t use the product brands to advantage. McDonald’s arranged to give away electronic coupons for McDonald’s menu items to anyone who applied for a job from the Web site. Whether or not the person got a job, the company wanted to thank people for their interest. It leveraged all that consumer advertising money, and customer loyalty, to burnish its recruiting. Now, that’s memorable.