Don’t be surpised if you are about to receive the same cover letter, differentiated only by the candidate name and your company name (or even your competitors’ in error!) over and over in the coming weeks.  Just like the news/magazine ads you have copy and pasted from a previous one, they are doing the same. So, if you are looking to recruit online, it has come to a finally time to develop a good online ad.

If you want to attract candidates that are keen to work for you (or your client), it is time to rethink your approach. Your ads must shake things up; they must inspire, they must pre-select and they must find you the right people not just a group of desperates.
 
You are entering the war for talent as soon as your job ad appears on the web and not just at the negotiation stages. So why should the best candidates click on your ad instead of your competitors’ ? Because we are going through a financial crisis and they are desperate? Come on you’re not that slow.  You need the best. So how do we improve the click rates and pull in really good candidate applications?

You have to impress upon people’s minds immediately, don’t wait for the interview process to begin.  So here are a few tips:

A compelling title is the least you can do
Remember you are trying to interest a customer. He/she wants to live a great experience, giving him/her the money they deserve and to make a difference to their career by working in a challenging job or for a well known company.  So you need some good lines to catch their attention. May be something like:
- You like oysters? Good thing we’re seeking rare pearls!
- Tired of kissing frogs? Come to the prince’s kingdom!
- Earning less than €35K with 5 years experience? Correct this injustice!

Ok, so you get the general idea.

Create interest in just 3 lines
This is basic direct marketing. You must capture the attention of your target in a few seconds. It is even less time than he/she has at their disposal to convince you to read their application. This is especially true if the candidate uses an RSS feed where only the first lines appear. It may be useful to begin with three lines of description that titillates curiosity.

Talk about the benefits of the position, not its characteristics. First rule of a good sale! Talk to candidates about what they are really interested in, the job and the advantages, not the facts and figures that will send them to sleep (do they need to know that a train measures 237,590m for a weight of 444 tons in order to work?!). You are a market leader and you have a dynamic team, ok very good, but what else? What about opportunities for development, the working atmosphere, the kind of management style, flexibility in working hours, package potential?? In short, what affects them directly? How about:

‘You will get to work with the best professionals in your field and we already know that in two years our competitors will try to poach you but we know that you’ll want to hang out with us for a while anyway’

Minimise qualifications
Ok we give you that this is not the easiest thing to do. This won’t go unnoticed if all of a sudden you are interested in what the candidates want to do and not just what they think they can do or are qualified to do. But you need to recruit with real passion and itt  is sometimes useful to widen the criteria in order to create interest from talented people. For example:

‘We are creating a team of recruitment ‘Heroes’ to save the world of employment. You have already conducted and won battles. Come help us and make a difference and find the best warriors. You need at least 250 contacts in your LinkedIn or Facebook and 3 recommendations and we’ll hire you so you can tell us what to do, not the other way around’….. sexier than ‘after completing your MA in Human Resources and 5 years in a resourcing or shared services role…’. Ok we’re sure you can come up with something a bit more exciting.

Use humour.. and I am deadly serious
Who decided that a job ad has to be as boring as a job search? Don’t you think a little humour can help you show your culture and give a better picture of the organistion?

Go for the essentials
Do not oversell or over promise, just be attractive. The rest will follow by itself. A short inspiring ad will always inspire more than a job description ad. Have a ‘Recruitment Idol’ contest, do something exciting.  You can open the doors to more candidates but set a challenge that only the best will rise to.

 
Finally
Don’t forget to make your assessment process interesting and fun too!

What other thoughts or tips are out there right now – how will you juggle making your jobs exciting and interesting yet be able to handpick only the best from all the desperate applications?