Why your job postings aren’t getting much attention lately

The struggle is real right now when it comes to landing top talent. Low unemployment rates and high competition has put candidates today in the driver's seat.

And it’s taking more than ever to attract them.

We’re hearing from an increasing number of staffing firms who are struggling to increase applications and clicks on their job postings. If you’re in the same boat, it probably doesn’t give you much solace to know that you’re not alone in your struggle.

Today’s candidates are different. The situation is different. In fact, in many ways it’s like an entirely different ballgame. Have your job descriptions caught up to the times?

Do your job postings attract or repel talent?

Cross check your job postings against this list. If there’s a disconnect, it may be time to refresh your job post strategy.

1. You’re not including salary data.

This is one of those “rules” from a bygone era. Talent today prioritizes many different things in addition to salary; however, that doesn’t mean salary is unimportant. If your job posting lacks a salary or salary range, you’re facing an uphill battle for applications. This isn’t a hunch; the data backs it up. A study from Glassdoor found that 2 out of 3 candidates are searching for salary data. It’s important, and a lack of this information could be hurting your candidate database.

Many employers and staffing firms still go with the standby, “Competitive salary and benefits.” To be blunt on this one, that statement is extremely hollow, and is essentially meaningless to candidates. Have you ever seen a job posting that touted, “Average benefits and below-market salary?” Everyone claims their salaries are competitive!

If you’re offering a good salary, share that information. If you’re not, take a step back to see how you can get the salary up to market, or what other benefits you offer that will make your posting attractive. Then, highlight them (but still be transparent about salary).

2. You’re not selling your opportunity and company.

When it comes to effective job descriptions, think about effective resumes. What types of resumes get your attention? The ones that sell a candidate and his or her skills!

Your job descriptions should be doing the same thing. Talent has little interest in a bulleted list of tasks and duties. Instead, they want to know why your company is amazing. What it’s like to work for you, and most importantly….

Why working for you will help them achieve their goals/do better/earn more/[INSERT POSITIVE HERE].

If you’ve been writing boilerplate job descriptions for too long, don’t be embarrassed. You’re not alone! But, to take your job descriptions to the next level, try talking to someone in your marketing department. Ask that person for advice on how to sell top talent on your opening. You’ll definitely learn a thing or two (or three), and are sure to start pumping out better, more successful job descriptions.

3. You’re including too many details.

We use our smartphones for everything. We check them constantly, and spend more time on our phones than our computers each day. It’s not surprising, then, that we’re also using our phones to search for and apply to jobs.

If you’re overloading your job postings with every possible detail, you’re making it incredibly difficult for candidates to read or apply to your jobs.

Think about what you watch, read or send on your smartphone. Short texts. Short emails. You may scroll through social feeds or blog posts, but in those cases, you’re scanning for highlights.

If you’re including too much detail in your job postings, you increase the likelihood candidates will “scroll and scan” instead of reading and engaging. With every job description, you have to think about mobile.

Optimizing your job postings for mobile devices can increase the number of applicants by nearly 12%. So pare down those postings. Keep it to the essentials, and the information that’s best going to sell your company and your job.

Is your ATS helping you land more, better talent?

At BrightMove, we built our ATS from the ground up for staffing firms. We make it easy to maximize your time and effort to land top talent -- and to know what’s working. To learn more about ATS and how we’re helping staffing firms across the globe, check out this resource.