What do jobseekers want to see in your advert?

With an ever-increasing number of job advertisements being posted online, it is now more critical than ever to ensure you include the right content.

But what should you include? How much information is enough, without being too much? What do job seekers really want to see?

To help you understand what job seekers want to see in your adverts, we recently contacted users of the Cambridge Jobs Board, and this is what they had to say.

Make it easy to read

Making sure your job advert is clear and easy to read is right at the top of the list. Quite often this is as simple as adding headers to separate out the different sections, i.e., company information, primary responsibilities, skills required, etc. According to job seekers, too many adverts are unstructured and just too hard to follow.

Being able to quickly understand what the job involves, and what an applicant needs to have to be successful in the position, was top of the list of priorities. Easy to read means more applications.

Don’t ‘cut and paste’

A cardinal sin, but one that most job adverts are based upon. You have a detailed ‘internal’ job spec and want to post it online. You don’t have time to edit it, so you just cut and paste the full document into the website and hit save. Right? Wrong!

This is so off-putting to job seekers and is, more often than not, a complete waste of time. In the modern age of really creative and well-written online content, job seekers want to see more than just a job spec.

So take time to craft an advert that is more inspiring to the reader and not just a statement of fact. A little bit more time spent at this stage will make a significant difference to your application rate.

Make your advert stand out

Any decent job board should allow you to brand your advert and, if they don’t, they probably aren’t worth using!

As well as adding the standard company logo, try adding images and videos to the advert, to give job seekers a real flavor of what it is like to work with you.

Images of social events or recent product releases are great. Lots of ‘smiling faces’ and people having fun at work always reflect well upon the employer.

Employee ‘vlogs’ or a video showcasing the company’s culture or social activities will have much more impact on the reader than just stating what benefits you offer.

Make it simple for job seekers to apply

More and more employers are using ‘online recruitment software’ to help manage their talent acquisition process. This makes sense, as it often reduces the amount of time needed to post jobs, manage applications and, ultimately, employ the right people.

However, whether you are using third party software or your own bespoke system, you need to make sure it is as simple as possible for job seekers to apply.

See the advert; click on the apply button; send your application. That is what job seekers want.

If your system requires sign-up/login (a huge no-no!), uploading of multiple documents or completion of an application/information form, the chances are you will get less (and in some cases a lot less) applicants for your jobs. It’s just human nature. Most people will give up if things are too complicated or long-winded. So make it as short and easy to apply as you can.

In summary, be more original!

What was clear from the job seekers we contacted was originality is critical. While listing ‘basic’ details like the job title, location, salary, etc. are still very important, it was an employer’s ability to be different, or original, which made their advert stand out.

So, next time you are preparing an online advert, take a little more time to think about the content and try to craft something that has the job seeker very much in mind.