Finding the right talent requires you to be specific with what you want in an employee. The quality of your job posting can make or break your chances of finding the perfect candidate for your position.
This is even more critical in a highly competitive job market where job seekers have many companies to choose from.
When writing a job description, keep these tips in mind to ensure your job postings are effective.
How To Write Effective Job Postings
1. Include a Quick Overview
Start out any job listing with a high-level overview of the position. This should be clear, concise and easy for readers to scan. You’ll be going into specifics later in your post, so you don’t need to cover all of the key tasks, required experience, and other detailed information.
Keep it high-level: what’s the name of the position, a simplified version of duties, location and hours?
2. Include Salary and Benefit Information
This section is often left out of job postings but it’s always better to include this because more and more job descriptions include this information. With the abundance of job postings online, your potential candidates might skip over your listing entirely if you leave out this information – but your competitors don’t. Salary ranges are acceptable in lieu of a specific salary.
If you provide benefits with the position, be sure to add any and all of them in the job description. Health benefits like medical, dental, and vision coverage are all favorable for potential candidates.
We also recommend putting this information near the top of your job posting. Location, salary, and benefits are typically the most important information for candidates.
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3. Use Clear, Concise Language to Describe Job Responsibilities
It always helps to be clear with your intentions. Clearly defining the roles and responsibilities required for the position will help the candidate envision what they’re going to be doing on a daily basis. Utilize formatting features like bulleted lists to keep the layout clean and easy to read.
Keep in mind that you should be using gender-neutral terms, to keep the application pool open to a wider variety of candidates. Avoid any confusion by keeping your terms specific for any task that may seem optional or open to interpretation.
In general, we recommend avoiding adjectives in this section – some hiring managers will want to “jazz up” the responsibilities section but this isn’t the area to do that. You want it to be clear what exactly the job entails and avoid language that creates doubt or confusion.
4. Clearly Define Essential Duties
The American Disabilities Act (ADA) requires that job descriptions clearly define which functions are essential. This allows those with disabilities an equal opportunity for positions that they are able to perform.
As defined by the ADA, essential functions “are the functions of an individual who holds or desires the position must be able to perform unaided or with the assistance of reasonable accommodation.”
Separate the essential job functions from the functions that are ideal but not required.
5. Include Timing
It’s important to be upfront about when you plan on filling this position. For example, “immediate hiring” versus “intended start date of X.” You can include this information right at the start of your job posting, or even in the title itself.
The hiring process starts with a job posting. To ensure a smooth and efficient application and hiring process, follow these tips.
Looking to fill contract, temp, or ready-to-hire positions? Strom Minnesota can help. Using our database of thousands of skilled workers, we can match ideal employees for you – with 0 work on your end.
Strom Minnesota is an engineering and technical recruitment agency that specializes in high-skilled job candidates for highly technical positions. We facilitate contract employment, project staffing, temp-to-perm and direct hire opportunities. Industries served include IT, engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, and manufacturing. We are affiliated with Strom Engineering, a national staffing and recruitment agency.
