How can job ads be written to attract top talent?

According to the Labour Market Outlook – Spring 2024 report by Cockett, J. (2024), published by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development in London, one in five employers (20%) foresee significant challenges filling vacancies over the next six months. Holding a position while the right person is found is costly. If you’re finding it difficult to recruit in Q4, revisiting your job ads could be crucial. You need to make the most of your job advertisement to attract top talent. But how do you write a job advert to attract top talent? 

Here is the secret to writing a great job advert to attract top candidates.

Consider your candidates

If your company is looking to fill entry-level positions, you may want to consider what Gen Z looks for in roles and job ads. Or, if the company needs more chartered accountants, what do they look for in job ads?

Avoid the to-do-list

Getting the right candidates to apply for your job openings is a challenge. But there are steps you can take when writing your job advert. Candidates don’t want to sift through job descriptions that read like to-do lists filled with internal jargon and acronyms. As a recruiter, it’s important to create jobs that are clear, engaging, and free of complexity. This approach attracts more applicants and helps them understand the role better.

Get the basics right

When writing your job description, include the simple details. Does your job title match the role you want to fill, or should you tweak it? Should they email a cover letter and CV, or is there an application form?

Be approachable

Nowadays, candidates look for employers that match their values– how does your organisation stand out from industry competitors? In your advert, include what you do, your company's USP, and what you stand for. This introduction needs to strike the right tone for your company and give candidates a good idea of the business they’re applying to. With Glassdoor the Tripadvisor of the job-seeking world, ensure you have a strong employer brand.

Be open

Writing competitive next to the salary or a listing of industry-leading benefits. Candidates, especially experienced or passive candidates, want to know if it is worth their time applying.  If you can’t disclose a salary, a salary bracket could suffice. This shows the level of seniority and deters candidates with unsuitable experience from applying.

Be clear with what you want and need

Be clear about the requirements in your job ads and give a concise view of the role. Skills-based hiring is now a popular recruitment strategy. The job description (JD) is the place to show what skills are essential, and what level of experience you need. Do you need someone with Excel skills, computer languages, or a team player? Potential candidates need to see if their skills and personality match the role and company.

Flexible working

Be honest here. If the role is truly hybrid, say so. If employees are expected in five days a week, say so. If it is open to negotiation, list it as flexible. This makes it clearer further down the line and can help with candidate retention.

Writing style - talk to the audience

Use the job advert to help them envisage what they’d bring to the role, and to understand how they’d fit into your company. When addressing your audience, use  “you’ll be”, “you,” and “you’re” – this enables the candidate to imagine themselves in your role. Candidates want to know what their days would look like, their responsibilities, and the projects they’ll be taking on. There is a saying in business, “Dress for the job you want.” In recruitment, it is more a case of writing so the candidate feels they already have the job. Or at least they can envisage what working in the role, or for the company will entail.

Instead of: The main duties and responsibilities include, but are not limited to contributing to the achievement of our strategy by ensuring that the organisation has robust systems.

Consider: You’ll be helping (company name) achieve our strategy by ensuring our systems are robust.

It’s important to show that the person taking the role will be valued by the company, and not just in terms of salary. Show the impact that this role can have towards business goals and KPIs.

Keep your language gender-neutral to appeal to the widest base of candidates. Remove any bias from your job ads. For example, words like ‘competitive’ tend to attract men, without providing helpful details about the position.  Gender Decoder can analyse whether the language used in a job advert skews towards a masculine or feminine audience.

Benefits matter

Don’t forget to let candidates know the exciting opportunities your company can offer. Employees expect a lot from company benefits, so think beyond free fruit, free parking, or listing only company pension, and annual leave days.

ChatGPT: the problem with writing job ads

In 2024, there are time-saving tools, such as generative AI. If a recruiter doesn’t like writing or is pressed for time, turning to ChatGPT, Claude, or similar can seem appealing.

This is problematic. In a Develop Diverse study that looked at 1,439 job ads, GPT-4 generated job adverts were 29% more biased than human-written ones. AI has made little strides in generating coherent job descriptions, and it still lags behind humans in creating inclusive content.

With Dyslexia Awareness Week and ADHD Awareness Month taking place in October, the categories with the biggest bias in GPT-4 are neurodivergent (26%), disabled (25%), and older candidates (23%). GPT-4 fails to generate inclusive language for these groups. This is a barrier towards creating a neurodivergent workplace.

Certain words and phrases are popping up everywhere. Terms such as “fostering” and “navigate the landscape” have replaced the “proactive self-starter” and “hit the ground running” of former job ads. Savvy and intelligent candidates see this. Candidates want a human-written ad as much as a recruiter wants a human-written job application.

The overuse of phrases leads to writing losing its personal touch. It becomes harder to distinguish individual voices, and recruitment takes on a robotic undertone. And HR and recruitment are all about people.  AI should not be used for writing job ads. Human expertise remains vital in ensuring inclusivity. It simply doesn't fit under the best practice of writing inclusive job ads.

Boost your recruitment

A well-written and catchy description increases applications. Articulate ads also save hours on resource-heavy interview processes.  These tips aim to improve your ad writing skills as a recruiter and help you attract top candidates. You’ll be pairing employees up with their careers in no time. Still need a human hand? Contact Merakit Talent.