Will your dream candidates choose you - or your competitor?
This means there will be lots of job adverts out there and yours will be competing with your competitors to attract that perfect candidate. Despite the upheaval of 2020, there aren’t necessarily hundreds of high-quality candidates for every role, so don’t be slack when it comes to your advertising.
The best candidates apply to the best job ads, so let’s make sure yours are set for success.
1. Will candidates see your vacancy?
It all starts with the job advert and contrary to popular belief, just because your advert is on a job board doesn’t mean every relevant job seeker will see it.
Understanding how to ensure your advert comes up is the first step.
- Budget:
- Paying for a premium listing or putting cash against a sponsored advert is a smart move. How much you need will depend on your job and how many other employers are advertising for the same role. For example, ‘Receptionist’ or ‘Sales Representative’ will often return hundreds of options to job seekers, particularly in big cities. Take advice from an expert or the website’s guidance.
- Be aware that free adverts will be at the bottom of the list and there’s no guarantee that they are shown. So, if you have a free advert and no candidates after 3 days, do a check yourself as a job seeker to see where you sit. If your advert isn’t showing or is coming up on page 10, odds are that you will need to splash some cash.
- Media Choice:
- ‘Active’ job seekers, may be on the job boards but there’s a huge group of ‘open to opportunity’ workers who are not set up for alerts or scrolling the job boards every day. To reach them, using posts or adverts that can be shared on social media can be a good option.Finding candidates where they are could mean a mainstream job board, social media, specialist industry websites or a combination of all.
2. Will a candidate apply for your role or a competitor’s?
It’s worth reviewing a couple of competitors’ adverts before you write yours. See what you will be competing against in the search results. What are they offering? How are they promoting their role?
Every day we see hundreds of adverts in the same category and our response varies from ‘WOW’ to ‘OMG, I would never apply for that’. We have written a lot of blogs on how to write a great employment advert, or we can write a terrific ad for you for just $90 +GST.
Remember the fundamental principle: Candidates want to know What’s In It For Them. Some people will apply to everything but the most talented candidates can afford to be picky and get snapped up fast so they only apply to job ads that appeal. Is that going to be yours?
If you are adding to your team this year, good luck and feel free to reach out if we can help.