Candidate centricity in job advertisements

Social media, word of mouth and skills shortages aside, anyone looking for a job will almost always end up with a job advertisement - even on Linkedin. And anyone looking for employees will place job advertisements, even if they are specifically intended for social media or the network is supposed to spread them like word of mouth.

That's why a job ad must be so well done that it attracts the desired candidates in any case - and on all devices. Because: 94% of users look at job ads on their smartphone. So in between, on the go, often without concentration. This reduces the time you have to attract attention to around 2 seconds.

What makes a good job advertisement

A job advertisement is nothing more than advertising for a company, a job. The AIDA principle(Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) has been working in marketing/sales for over 120 years - and can be wonderfully applied to the design of a job advertisement.

Header and job title

We start with A for Attention: A video or image as a header on approx. 1/4 of the space, with a clearly visible logo at the top left and immediately below, with the job title large and clearly visible is a must. Just like authentic photos. Preferably of real employees at work. No one wants to see stock photos, that lowers the credibility of the company.

Below this is the job title, which must not only be as appropriate and "catchy" as possible, but also easy to find. The title doesn't have to sound particularly cool or important, but must be particularly common: write here what people would enter if they were looking for such a job. To make it work, go from general to specific.

Are you looking for a nurse? That's the most important thing, that comes first. But you don't want him or her to be a beginner, but to lead the ward team? That's the second filter. Finally, you specify which ward you are looking for the person for. Result:
Nurse as team leader - children's ward

This also works for other professions:
Marketing Manager/Tourism/Outbound (m/f/d)
Installateur:in Kältetechnik im Außendienst
Betriebswirt:in als Ressortleitung Verwaltung

That would have bagged us "Attention".

Job advertisement text

Now to the text. The introductory text is your company's calling card. It is therefore the only part of the job advertisement that can be used again and again, no matter what position you are looking to fill. As the attention span is very short, this text must also be very short and very precise (3-5 sentences). Short sentences with only one piece of information at a time are the best way to maintain attention and avoid confusion: Main points need main sentences. The introductory text shows the applicant whether he or she is right for you, whether "the chemistry is right". It should therefore be concise and attractive:

• what the company does or produces,
• the mission (IMPORTANT: don't drift off into empty blah-blah here!) and
• What the corporate culture is like (relaxed or formal, you or you, start-up or established, is further training practiced?)

After the introduction: prose text is an attention killer for people who read on their cell phone "between doors", bullet points are much more effective: in the job profile, followed by benefits and requirements.

These three points cover "interest" and "desire": Interest, because the candidate sees that the position is exactly right for him or her, and Desire, because your benefits are hopefully so attractive that they trigger this.  

In all points, avoid repetition, Anglicisms, nominal style, marketing blah-blah, abstract expressions, buzzwords and boredom. Words with -keit or -ung sound like the dreaded officialese and will put off even the most interested candidate. Who wants the: "securing funding" and "organizing project implementation"? An active formulation such as "You are responsible for the project budget and lead the project team" sounds much more attractive, doesn't it?
Also, keep the bullet points short enough so that you can easily read, understand and remember them on the streetcar on the way home without missing your stop:

"Degree in business administration with a focus on finance" instead of "Ideally, you have successfully completed a university degree in business administration with a focus on finance".
And: Gender-neutral language is a must today, because candidates react, albeit unconsciously, to stereotypical language. This not only means :in or (m/f/d), but also refers to adjectives that we often unconsciously attribute more to men or more to women.
While assertive, analytical or ambitious, etc. tend to have a male connotation, we tend to think of empathic, reliable and committed when we think of women.

Make it as easy as possible for the candidates so that there is "action" afterwards. Nobody wants to click around or search or do any "homework".

This means: A specific contact person including telephone number (direct extension, nobody likes call centers or switchboards!) and e-mail address is half the battle. The company's postal address and website should also be clearly visible, but are less important than the contact person.

The application itself should be quick and easy to complete by clicking on an online form. Generation Z and younger people in particular often find the application process by email (even with attachments!) lengthy and complicated. An explicit call-to-action should not be missing: "Apply now" (or "Apply now"). Or "Apply - it only takes two minutes", with a link to the form.

So far, so good - but beware: one-size-fits-all doesn't work for job advertisements any more than it does for clothing. Even within a group such as trainees or process engineers, not everyone "ticks" in the same way.
However, companies want to reach and hire those who "tick" exactly like the company (and therefore the rest of the workforce), i.e. who fit in with the corporate culture. Only then will a successful approach and onboarding lead to a successful long-term collaboration.

So what makes a good job advertisement? Apart from the general tips mentioned above, as with art, it is in the eye of the beholder. For HR people, this means that they need to look at their own job advertisements with the eye of the beholder and not create one template for all, but target group-specific job advertisements for each individual position.

At first, this sounds like extra work, as many applicant management systems are rigid and leave little room for design. On the other hand, recruiters are not designers and find little time to deal with target group-specific design. But those who do this work will be rewarded with perfectly matched candidates who are genuinely interested.

And: It is also, but not only, about the visual design. The same does not apply to content: "the benefits in the company are the same for everyone, so we put the same information everywhere". This may be true, but not all content is equally attractive to all candidate groups: prospective trainees still have little to no idea of what to expect in working life in general and in the job in particular. They therefore respond positively to concrete information about what they will spend their day doing when they do this or that apprenticeship. And: they are from a generation that prefers video content more than any other. A video in which a trainee talks about their day-to-day work and their motivators is therefore much more likely to be successful with them than a dull list of "What to expect/What we expect".
The situation is completely different for experienced skilled workers: While the sword of Damocles of automation and company migration often hangs over skilled workers in manufacturing, for example, and they are therefore very concerned about job security and good pay, for young IT specialists the job itself is much more important than the salary and should therefore be presented to them in more detail and with more vigor than for other groups.
Other benefits are also not equally attractive for everyone: those who commute 20 km do not need a job bike and those who have children are more interested in flexible working hours or vacation arrangements than in regular team events, etc.

As there are also very different personalities within the groups of trainees, skilled workers and young IT specialists (and all other groups too), and not all of them fit in with the company culture, there are two options:

• Address everyone (and no one) with a generic job ad and hope that someone sticks, applies, and fits.
• Use candidate personas to create the perfect job ad for exactly the right candidates you would like to have in your company.

How to reach the right talent with personas

Is the corporate culture more formal or more relaxed? Is it about international expansion or a social project? Are you looking for a skilled worker, an apprentice or someone to head up a department?

It may sound strange at first, but it doesn't just depend on whether you address people as you or they, but whether there should be many or few images, videos or not, amount of text, text formatting, even font and color scheme and much more. And not to forget: WHERE the job advertisement will be seen at all.

With a data-based candidate persona from the Persona Institute, you know exactly who your ideal candidates are. You know which media they consume, what motivates them to look for a job, what is important to them as a person, what stresses or bores them and which approach they prefer. In this way, you not only "fish" for the right people with a tailored job advertisement, but also get them excited about the work and the team, so that personal onboarding and getting to know each other turns into a long-term, good working relationship.

Once you've managed to capture a candidate's attention enough to get them to apply thanks to a data-based persona, it's time to look to others. And that means e-commerce. There it is common practice to receive a purchase confirmation, a delivery date, possibly a tracking function and a customer hotline. This is exactly how it should be with an application, especially if we want to appeal to people who have grown up with e-commerce and in times of skills shortages. After an application, they expect nothing less than: Thanks for the application, information on when to expect a response and a specific contact person. This doesn't just sound like sales methods, it actually is. Today, HR departments offer jobs like salespeople offer goods, and both have to find buyers for them. It is worth learning from each other. And buyer personas have long been a common method in sales. It's time for more data-based candidate personas.

If you would like to customize your job ads with Candidate Personas, we are here for you! Simply arrange a non-binding consultation appointment.