Job candidates today are tech savvy but have shorter attention spans than a generation ago.
In fact, active job seekers spend only 11 hours per week job hunting, according to a 2016 Career Builder survey. Without up-to-date tech tools, you may be missing out on some good talent.
To effectively reach the most qualified candidates, recruiters must grab the attention of potential good talent fast and efficiently across all devices, especially mobile. Gone are the days of long-winded job descriptions on hard-to-find websites.
Make your website and application process mobile-friendly
One in 10 millennials wouldn’t consider applying at a company that didn’t offer mobile capabilities on its website and in the job application process, according to the Career Builder study.
One way to address this is to start creating interactive mobile-friendly ads instead of lengthy, written job descriptions.
What should you include in an interactive job ad? Career Builder’s survey ranked the top details good talent hope appears in job descriptions.
Use this as your road map:
- Salary – 74%
- Total benefits package – 61%
- Employee ratings – 46%
- Contact info of hiring manager – 40%
- Work from home options – 39%
- How the company provides work-life balance – 35%
- Photos/videos of the work environment – 31%
- Team structure and hierarchy of the role – 27%
- How many people applied – 25%
A Glassdoor U.S. Site Survey in January 2016 also suggests you include basic company information, what makes employees want to work at your company and explain your company’s mission statement.
Johnson & Johnson is one example of a company that has started using mobile-friendly, interactive ads on its career site. If you aren’t sure how to create one of these ads, check out some of their job listings.
Words and phrases used in job descriptions matter
Loaded, biased and overused words can turn off potential job candidates. To create highly effective job listings, you can use augmented writing platforms, such as Textio.
Just upload your job description and the software will tell you how effective your job listing is based on the words you chose. It also will give you advice on how to change specific words or phrases to improve your messaging to good talent.
The score is a percentage based on job listings in your region, so you can see how your job posting stacks up to your local competition.
Johnson & Johnson just started using Textio for its job descriptions and it has provided some profound insights.
“We found that many of our job descriptions skewed masculine, but when we started editing the descriptions with Textio in the pilot program, we saw a 9% increase in female applicants,” Chuck Fuges, Global Head of Sourcing, Johnson & Johnson, said in a company article.
Listen to job applicant feedback like they are customers
Create honest, open communication with your job applicants. Send them anonymous surveys to gauge their satisfaction level throughout your job application process.
Johnson & Johnson sends surveys at the beginning and end of its process, for example, to gauge how applicants feel when it starts and when it finishes and if their feelings change.
Some example questions for a survey could be:
- Would you recommend our company to family and friends?
- Did we make you feel valued and respected during our interview process?
- How do you feel about the workplace environment presented to you?
The answers to these questions will provide you with actionable insights to help you improve your recruitment strategy to attract good talent.
