Through years of recruiting in the drinks industry and managing Liquid Careers (www.liquidcareers.com), a dedicated drinks industry job board, it’s clear that there are a number of key reasons why job adverts are not attracting the right quality and quantity of applicants.
Yes, a job board is there to promote and market your job advert to the relevant audience, but statistics show that this is not the only factor in getting the right applicant. There is a significant drop off between those who actually read the advert and then go on to apply. There are a number of reasons why job hunters don’t apply and some are outside the advertiser’s control, but many can be mitigated by improving the advert itself.
Analysis of job applications on Liquid Careers has demonstrated that those adverts with salary details get on average 30% more applicants.
The job climate
As employers and recruiters, there is a tendency to assume that there are many candidates for the job, they just haven’t heard of or seen your advert. Yes of course, to a certain extent this is true, but it is also far too assumptive. In our current social media age, where search tools are at our fingertips, it is actually easier to find a job now than it ever was.
There is also the assumption that simply describing what the job is will equal lots of applicants. This is not the case. Job hunters are more choosy and fickle than ever. We all know that grabbing someone’s attention in this busy online world and engaging them is harder than ever. This holds true for any form of advertising. Job adverts are still behind best practice online advertising.
Opportunity
With so many elements to consider when posting a job advert, employers and recruiters need to make sure that they are getting the key components right. Writing more engaging job adverts is an opportunity not to be missed.
To ensure a job advert will attract the right applicants, you need to think like a marketer and write the advert as if you are selling a product or service.
Improve your job advert using AIDA model
The Attention, Interest, Desire and Action model (AIDA) proposes that advertising needs to accomplish a number of tasks in order to move the consumer (job hunter) through a series of sequential steps from awareness (finding/viewing advert) through to action (job application). We use this model to outline the top ways to improve your advert.
Attention
The most important element to consider. There are lots of variables when it comes to attracting candidates to your job positions. Things to consider include:
Job Title – This is one of the most important things to get right so make sure the job title is clear and concise. Avoid ambiguous job titles and consider keywords that job seekers will use when searching for a job e.g. manager is very popular. “National Account Manager – Beer” is much better for SEO than “Regional Manager – Manchester”.
Salary – job seekers will quickly scan job adverts for key information. One of the most significant pieces of information that attracts applicants is salary. Job seekers will want to know that their salary expectations will be met before applying. Recent statistics have reported that adverts with salary details receive over 40% more applications. Simply stating ‘competitive’ or ‘attractive’ is not enough. These are very subjective words open to wide interpretation. Applicants want facts. Where everyone’s time is precious, applicants do not want to spend time applying for roles where they don’t even know if it will pay enough.
Location – Too many adverts state broad areas like, Northern England which, isn’t helpful as this covers a huge area. Be specific at least in the advert and name the town, city or county. Yes, sales roles can cover large territories, but still help inform the applicant as to where they should ideally be based. Vagueness equals doubt.
Advert layout – Lengthy, wordy adverts with blocks of text will put off your reader. You need an advert that can be quickly scanned, but key information assimilated.
- Use bulleted sections and short paragraphs
- Ensure that your advert includes important keywords to enable candidates to quickly view the advert and pick out key information. This is also good for SEO.
For now, let’s stop here as I’m sure your attention is already wavering, Part 2 will continue following the AIDA model for more tips and advice.
For the latest drinks industry jobs, see Liquid Careers.
To advertise on Liquid Careers, click HERE
