As an employer, attracting, hiring and retaining the right people for your business can have a huge positive impact on your day-to-day operations and ongoing success.
However, in Queensland, businesses tell us that retaining and recruiting suitably qualified employees is one of the biggest constraints on business growth. In fact, more than half of Queensland businesses we surveyed identified skills shortages and a lack of skilled workers as having a high or critical impact on their growth over the past five years.
Attracting new talent to your business starts with a great job advertisement, but with so many employers competing for the same talent pool, it can be challenging to make yours stand out. Crafting the right message, clearly communicating the skills you need and creating a more inclusive hiring process can ensure you find the talent you’re looking for.
Here are 7 simple tips to help you build an engaging job ad to secure your next hire:
1. Clearly define your role requirements as ‘nice to have’ or necessary.
While this seems like an obvious starting point for any job description, it’s something that can have a big impact on which jobseekers choose to apply. Many people will only send in their resume if they meet 100% of the criteria listed in an ad, regardless of whether they have the right skills for the job.
When writing a job ad, it’s important to consider whether certain qualifications are absolutely necessary, or if they’re just ‘nice to have’. For example, a jobseeker applying for a role as a Software Developer might not have a degree in Computer Science but has years of experience with coding learnt through bootcamps and contributing to open-source projects. The skills are the same, but this jobseeker might choose not to apply because they don’t feel they meet the criteria.
Clearly stating important prior experience and defining the key capabilities for the role can be a more effective alternative to relying on specific qualifications, especially if they’re not essential to the role.
While this seems like an obvious starting point for any job description, it’s something that can have a big impact on which jobseekers choose to apply. Many people will only send in their resume if they meet 100% of the criteria listed in an ad, regardless of whether they have the right skills for the job.
2. Describe a day in the role.
In addition to listing role requirements, describing what an average day or week looks like in your business can help jobseekers more easily determine if they should apply. With additional information on core daily duties, the purpose behind different aspects of the role, and details on how they will spend their time, jobseekers can identify which of their skills will be required, as well as what relevant experience they have from past roles. This is also an important chance to highlight any additional development opportunities available in the role such as projects, or development pathways which could appeal to jobseekers looking for progression or to grow their skill set.
3. Focus on skills over experience and if training is provided, tell people.
If your role requires no prior industry experience or qualifications, and on-the-job training will be offered, be sure to let jobseekers know. Long lists of job role requirements that specify qualifications instead of skills can be a significant barrier for highly capable jobseekers who would make great employees. Removing this barrier encourages people who are new to an industry to apply, and welcomes determined people with transferrable skills, and those eager to learn new skills.
4. Clearly define your employee value proposition (EVP).
Your employee value proposition or EVP is the unique set of benefits and values that your business offers employees in exchange for their skills and experience. This will include practical aspects of the role such as salary, benefits and working environment, but should also cover what is special about your workplace. Maybe it’s your business’s brand or mission which aligns profit with purpose, or it could be a recognition program that rewards employee contributions and achievements. Whatever your business’s unique value is should be clearly communicated to capture jobseekers’ interest.
5. Create a Careers page for your website and include a link to it.
A Careers page the ideal place to include additional information about your business and what it’s like to work there without making your job ad too long or distracting. Jobseekers who visit your Careers page are likely looking for deeper insight or ‘social proof’ from others to understand more about your business. A Careers page is the perfect place to show your EVP in action, highlighting any professional development opportunities, rewards programs and benefits, as well as testimonials from current employees.
6. Signpost flexibility.
Jobseekers with children or carer commitments will likely be looking for indications of a flexible workplace but may be hesitant to ask what flexibility is available for fear of being overlooked. If you are able to offer some flexibility with work hours such as start and finish times, compressed hours, or averaged hours, these options are important details to include in the ad. Consider also using local occupation or industry data to understand preferences for part-time employment and determine if you can offer this through job sharing, for example.
Being upfront and openly sharing this information as part of your job ad or careers page can remove this barrier for applicants and help you build a more inclusive workplace.
7. If you want to cultivate a diverse workforce, let people know.
Embracing diversity in your workforce can be a great way to expand your business’s talent pool. If you’re eager to hire people from diverse cultural, social and working backgrounds, be sure to include this in your job ad as it will encourage a wider variety of people to apply.
A simple way to include this is with a short statement on all your job ads and your careers page specifying that your business values and considers applications from all candidates and welcomes diversity. If you are particularly looking to attract one cohort, such as international talent, you could consider a more tailored statement to generate interest such as ‘Applicants from diverse cultural backgrounds and language groups, including migrant workers, those with overseas qualifications, and visa holders are encouraged to apply’.
