I was supposed to post something different today. I was supposed to post about Candidate Personas – what they are, why they are essential to a best-in-class recruiting process, and how you can implement them in your own recruiting efforts.
But that’s not happening right now.
Right now I’m going to exercise whatever modicum of executive privilege is available to me and turn this week’s column into a rant that has been a long time coming.
Your job ads suck!
Do me a favor. Pretend you’re looking for a job. Pretend you’re stressed out because your boss is a jerk or you’re not getting paid what you’re worth. Imagine you’re trapped in a boring, soulless, dead-end position and you’ve finally decided to do something about it. Imagine that you’re a little anxious, a little scared. Imagine that you’ve read fifty job ads today and uploaded your resume to automated application systems all week long. You’ve received one call-back and it turns out it was just an MLM scam. You’ve got a little savings. Not a lot. Just enough that you can afford to take a couple days off for interviews if you find something really great. This is a big deal for you.
Now read your job ad.
- How many times does your job ad speak directly to the candidate?
- Is your ad written for the specific position listed or is it a copy/paste generic ad?
- Does your ad speak exclusively of what you need from candidates or does it tell them how they will benefit from working with you?
- Do you have a generic list of perks and benefits that may be included? Or do you tell them specifically what comes with the position?
- Does your ad mention your company more than it mentions your candidates?
- Is there a paragraph in your job ad about the history of your company, despite the fact that this is neither compelling nor relevant to your candidates?
- Read your job ad aloud. Does it make your company sound like a friendly, welcoming, rewarding place to work? Or do you sound like every other job ad out there?
Why does someone want to work for you? If your job ad doesn’t answer that question (and let’s be honest 95% of job ads don’t) then it isn’t working to attract the quality candidates you’re looking for.
Next week if you’re lucky, you savages, I’ll share with you some of Purple Tree’s best-in-class job ad strategies that generate a 60% response rate from passive candidates. Can’t wait? Shoot me an email at: lmccrain@ptrnow.com and I’ll be happy to chat.
Do your job ads pass the test? If you’ve got an ad that kicks the competition’s butt, share a link in the comments section. I’ll share some examples of kick-ass job ads in the coming weeks.
