5 Tips to improve your job advert and attract the best candidates

There are some simple tips you can use to improve your job adverts and ensure that you’re attracting the best candidates out there. Taking the time to perfect your job advert from the start can be hugely beneficial and boost your application rates.

We provide 5 quick tips you can use to do this instantly! 

1. Personalise the advert

When it comes to posting your job advert, you want to ensure that it is personalised. Think about the people that you’re wanting to attract, start by looking into those that do a similar job to the one you’re about to advertise.

With that person in mind: 

• What do they want from a new job?
• What is their technical language? 
• What questions and statements will appeal directly to them? 

When it comes to length, although there isn’t an exact science, studies have found that job adverts with 150 words or less receive more applications. 

2. Mention the company culture

It’s probably no surprise that company culture is a high priority when it comes to job searching. Including information on your company culture is a great way to attract potential employers and ensure that their values align with that of the company. 

For example, if your firm was more formal, you could write, “When you join us, you’ll be living up to the highest standards of professionalism. Only jobseekers with superior skills and a great attitude will make the grade.”

If your business was less formal, you could write, “We love innovative, talented, and fast-acting people who love getting stuck into hard work.”

Use this section to show how you’re different and why someone would want to work for the company.

3. Avoid using buzzwords

While it might seem like a good idea to include several buzzwords throughout your job advert, as you may think this will come across as knowledgeable, the candidate reading your job advert is unlikely to understand. The description within your advert must be clear and concise.

When it comes to your job title, you should also use standard industry language so it can easily be searched for. Avoid long, fancy, or overly creative job titles as these won’t generate you any more views or applications.

4. Always state the salary 

A salary range must be included in your job advert as you could run the risk of eliminating potential candidates. According to Reed, salary averages out as the highest priority for those looking for a new role.

On Simply Law Jobs, job postings that include salary information receive 32% more applications.

Jobseekers will often seek a new position for a higher paid salary, so your job advert needs to be attractive for them to consider applying. By posting a salary range, you will also be safe in the knowledge that each applicant’s salary expectations have already been met.

Your hiring process starts with your job advert, if you don’t get it right you will struggle to find the best people for your role and company.

5. Separate required and desired skills

It is important to ensure the skills that are required for the role are in a different section to the desirable skills you’d like for the role. Not doing this means you could risk eliminating candidates that may be qualified for the job.

Should a candidate not believe they have the skills needed to do a job, then they are less likely to apply for the role even though they may have had the skills to apply.  

It also saves you from receiving applications from candidates who do not have the skills that are required for your job role and the candidate applying for a job which they will not be accepted for.

How Simply Law is helping you with better job adverts

Here are the changes we’ve made to our job adverts to make the process easier and help you to attract the best candidates: 

• We have redesigned the job posting process from scratch to make it more user-friendly
• Added a guided job advert builder, providing you with helpful tips at each stage to help you craft a quality advert that is more likely to attract applicants
• Added a job preview panel so that you can see how your job advert will look as you’re building it, avoiding any surprises once you have published your advert

Discover more of the changes we have made here