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How to Create an Effective Job Advert

Your job advert is the first interaction a candidate has with you as an employer. It’s your first opportunity to wow your candidate with an exciting overview of the role, ...

How to Create an Effective Job Advert

Your job advert is the first interaction a candidate has with you as an employer. It’s your first opportunity to wow your candidate with an exciting overview of the role, a glimpse of your company’s journey and your employer value proposition. But with so much information to communicate, knowing where to start can be tricky.

We’ve got you covered. Here is ELMO’s simple guide to creating an effective job advert.

1. Use a clear, concise job title

The language of your job advert can be fun and should bring your employer brand to life. But when it comes to the job title, this should really ‘do what it says on the tin’. After all, your candidates will be browsing the job boards using the search term ‘Data Analyst’ over ‘Data Ninja’. Keep the fun stuff for the main job description and company overview and keep the job title functional.

2. Begin with an engaging summary of the company and role

Rather than make your candidate trawl through masses of text about the company’s history, start with a quick, compelling overview of the organisation and how this role fits into its journey. For example, you could begin by talking about the huge growth journey the company is on, its award-winning status, and the transformative role the Data Analyst position will play in this growth journey – together with the help of the fantastic team the candidate will be joining. Aim to provide a sense of the organisation’s mission, values and a one or two-line summary of the role in this section. You can always go into more detail about your company later, but use this intro as a hook.

Your job advert intro should provide:

  • A short overview of your company with recent growth milestones/near-future ambitions
  • An engaging two-line job description
  • A picture of your organisation’s mission and how this role fits into that

3. Outline requirements

Place ‘requirements’ ahead of ‘responsibilities’, so that a candidate can quickly see if they’re eligible to apply and to save them wasting any time reading the full ad if special qualifications are required that they don’t hold. Be sure to be specific here around any technical competencies/software experience required to perform the role.

Essentials to include:

  • Technical competencies required
  • Years of experience required
  • Softer skills required, e.g. team player mentality, ability to juggle several tasks at one time

4. List responsibilities

Outline the key charges of the role. In addition to listing responsibilities, try and paint a picture of what a ‘typical day in the life’ of this role looks like.

For example:

  • What will this role be managing?
  • Are there any people management responsibilities?
  • Are there any ‘over and above’ charges associated with this role
  • What does ‘a day in the life’ look like for this role?

5. Paint a picture of your culture

A strong culture is a drawcard for many candidates. While a candidate might be a perfect professional fit for a role, this is meaningless if they aren’t a suitable culture fit. Being a strong culture fit means sharing the same values and aligning with the organisation’s vision.

When we consider that 73% of professionals have left a role that wasn’t a good cultural fit[1], it’s clear that being transparent on culture from the beginning is essential.

6. Plug company benefits

You want to leave your candidate on a high – so now is the time to plug the exciting nice-to-haves your company offers. Don’t have a huge budget for perks such as gym memberships or free coffees? That’s fine. Perhaps you can talk about the scope for progression, learning & development opportunities, or a positive work/life balance. Many companies prefer not to advertise the salary in a job advert – so plugging a ‘competitive salary’ in the company benefits area is sufficient.

7. Add a final call to action

Finish with a snappy call to action urging your candidate to apply. Something that neatly reinforces the nature of the desired candidate and a reminder that your organisation is going places, e.g. “If you’re looking to bring your data wizardry and excellent analytical skills to help a high growth organisation go even further, we want to hear from you!” Add a link to your website so they can read more about you or view employee videos about what it’s like to work there.

How can ELMO help?

ELMO’s Recruitment and Onboarding solutions can help you win the war for talent. From attracting top talent to your organisation to making them feel at home, providing a personalised candidate experience has never been easier.

Through ELMO’s Recruitment and Onboarding modules, talent acquisition specialists can:

  • Build candidate sourcing capability
  • Refine recruitment workflows, screening questions and interview processes
  • Reduce the time to hire
  • Offer a seamless, personalised candidate and new hire experience

ELMO’s Recruitment and Onboarding modules fully integrates with the entire ELMO Software suite.

ELMO Software  is a cloud-based solution that helps thousands of organisations across Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom to effectively manage their people, process and pay. ELMO solutions span the entire employee lifecycle from ‘hire to retire’. They can be used together or stand-alone, and are configurable according to an organisation’s unique processes and workflows. Automate and streamline your operations to reduce costs, increase efficiency and bolster productivity. For further information, contact us.

[1] “How to write the perfect job advertisement”, SmartCompany, 2019