Having a clear and easy to understand job posting can really help you find qualified and interested candidates. And if a job posting has been there for a while, it may be time for a little (and quick) refresh to get more eyes on the job and more candidates to apply.

A clear job posting can help you attract talent to your position (and your business) and also make it easy for those who aren’t good fits to know that earlier in the process. 

Why spend time auditing and reworking your job posting to be more robust and comprehensive? To some, that seems extremely daunting and time-consuming. But taking the time now saves you time and resources in the long run.

An enticing job title, outlined requirements, and an explanation of job functions is great…. But what else can a business do to “beef up” their job posting in a way that helps attract top talent and gives all of the necessary information about the job, company, and culture?

Make sure you include your company bio.

This is a great place to not only brag about your accomplishments as a business, but also really sell why your company is a great fit for the right candidate.

Great work you have done in the community, giving back, partnerships, and awards are great things to put in a job posting. 

If you have a wonderful and engaging company culture page, link to it. If your social media is where you put all of your business happenings, make sure to direct potential employees to that platform. Things like this are a great way to allow someone to understand the culture and decide if that business is one they want to be a part of. 

Just make sure you don’t make this part exceptionally long – too long of a bio is going to be hard to read and great employees may not even make it to the job posting portion of the job ad!

Be clear on the required skills (hard and soft!) of the ideal candidate.

Make sure to outline all of the required skills that your ideal candidate would possess. This is where you can summarize the profile of the person you are looking for – and this helps attract those that are good fits and weeds out those that are not.

Hard skills, or measurable skills, required to do the job gives you and the job seeker a “checklist” to go through so that the most qualified candidates are getting through and those that aren’t a good fit are not. 

Don’t forget to also include the soft skills you would like the ideal candidate to have as well. 

If you are having trouble with this, take a look at your current and past employees that executed their positions well. What kind of background did they have? What were their marketable hard skills? What soft skills did they possess that made them great at their job? Just make sure you are realistic here – while everyone would like their candidates to have all of the great hard and soft skills out there, pair your list down to your non-negotiable ones and start there. 

Consider accepting equivalent work experience instead of degrees. 

Just because someone doesn’t have a degree in the field you require shouldn’t disqualify them in most situations. Sure, technical skills required to do so jobs are a non-negotiable, but consider hiring someone with a long history of doing jobs that develop similar skills needed to successfully do a job.

While degrees show motivation, a desire to achieve, preparation, and helps develop theoretical understanding of topics, having experience shows first-hand understanding of skills needed to perform a certain job. And years of experience show a person has crafted their skills and really understands how to perform the job well. 

It’s also important to consider the degree versus experience discussion when considering expanding the degree requirements to not just the directly related field, but to other fields that have a tangential relationship. Are there certain degrees and education that aligns with some of the skills and learnings you require but may not be something you considered before? 

Having a more objective way to look at someone’s history, experience, and education can open the door for both new candidates and also new places to recruit these types of candidates. 

Spell out benefits. 

If you have a great benefit package that really sets you above your competition, make sure you shout your own praises! 

Benefits are important to employees – 55% of employees are likely to accept a job with lower pay if the compensation package is robust and competitive. 

While salary is important to employees, benefits are just as important. 

Make sure you spell out (as much as you can) the benefits you offer to your employees. This also includes more than just your standard insurance benefits. Do you offer gym memberships? Do you have wellness benefits for employees? Do you offer flexible work arrangements, work-from-home opportunities, do you have a great 401K program,…… the list goes on. 

Each business and job are different but stating all the facts up front for job seekers increases your chances of connecting with the perfect person for your open job and your organization.

Make sure you let prospective employees know why working at your organization is so great and help nudge them toward applying for your open jobs.

Outline the hiring and interview process. 

Put information in your job posting and description about the hiring and interview process. If you have hard deadlines, state that. Briefly outlining the timetable you adhere to when recruiting and doing the first rounds of interviews can help keep candidates in the loop and understanding how the process works. If you have a standard 4-week interview process, make sure to make that clear. 

Job seekers should have the most transparent facts about the length of time it takes to interview and receive follow up from your organization. On average, it takes about a month to find the right candidate and hire them into an organization but make sure job seekers know how long it takes to be interviewed and hired at your organization.

Let the experts help.

GTR has been helping clients for over 17 years, and we know a thing or two about recruiting and hiring in the manufacturing industry. 

GTR can save you time by being a partner in the recruiting and hiring process. We practice a holistic approach to recruiting and hiring because to us it isn’t just about “filling the job”. It’s about finding the right talent for you so you can Build A Workforce That Works. Contact us today to get started.