This guide is intended to help recruiters and entrepreneurs know how to write a recruitment post. Following these guidelines will result in a quicker job post and better internal and external candidates. It will tell you how to write a catchy job posting that will help attract ideal candidates.

Write a Vacancy Announcement Checklist:

Understand what a great hire looks like
Write a clear and concise job description that sells to candidates
Clarify Hard and soft skills
Determine which attributes are required and which are preferred
Understand the interview process and have a written interview/assessment plan
Review for SEO
Release the job announcement post following the operating procedure at your company.

The Ideal candidate

Recruiter Responsibilities

Recruiters need to know how to write job ads. Before doing a new job post they need to understand the job role, job responsibilities and job functions.

A strategic hiring process is an often overlooked but critical element of high-performing organizations. Strategic hiring begins with a job analysis prior to any job advertisement.

Job Analysis, Job Description and Job Specification

Job Analysis - Defining a “great hire”

TA Job analysis is the process of collecting and analyzing information about a job. The purpose of a job analysis is partly creating a job description and specification. It is more than that though, it is about defining a “great hire”, as it isn’t just about the job, but about the person who can do the job well.

At iBCScorp™, analysis of a company, department, and reporting relationship are also done. These are important for a full job profile.

Our objective is not to come up with a job duties list so much as it is to define what a great hire looks like and also to be able to articulate to the candidate why this is a great job for a person with the right fit. Before we even post a job we require an understanding of why job seekers would want this job.

To know if the person is a good fit, we look at the 5 C’s to create an ideal candidate profile.(/learn/hiring/ideal-candidate-profile) Not defining what a “great hire” looks like for an organization could decrease hiring success by 56%.

Job Description and Job Specification

A job description describes the job, while a specification states what requirements there are for the person in the job. It may be more accurate to say job description and person specification. Most hiring posts are heavy on the specification - telling what is required by the candidate, but light on description - what the candidate will be doing and why they would want the job.

Job Description

Writing the content of a Job description involves describing the what of the job. What will the employee do in the job?

Create a Selling Job Description

Most JD (Job Descriptions) that we receive from clients at iBCScorp™ are completely missing most of the description, and have completely overlooked the concept of an ideal candidate profile and have little or no selling points. Part of our job is to translate the job description into a marketable asset. Think about what candidates that fit this profile are looking for in a job and address their concerns.

A Good Job Description Includes:

Company overview
Department information if known
Tangible and Intangible benefits of working for the company
Job Title
Job Location
Reporting relationships
Key areas of responsibility
Terms of employment
Job duties
Working conditions

When writing a job description for hiring ads, think about it from the candidates perspective and include enough information that they may understand what will be required of them at the job.

Job Specifications

Job specifications include hard skills and soft skills, as well as preferred and required attributes:

Hard skills:

Hard skills are quantifiable trained attributes related to a profession such as being able to type 60 words per minute.
Hard skills include things such as

Educational Qualifications
Experience Required
Training
Skills

Soft Skills

Soft skills are a bigger predictor of success than hard skills and yet are completely overlooked in most job descriptions. Soft skills are things like emotional intelligence, communication, teamwork and respect, flexibility and creativity, problem solving and critical thinking, leadership, time management and organization, motivation, and work ethic.

Soft skills can be learned, but it is always better for the client and applicant if we find the right fit from the beginning.

Required specifications

Required specifications are things that a potential candidate must have. They are deal breakers. These should include Hard skills, Soft Skills as well as character, calling, competence, chemistry and contribution. See the 5 C’s article.

Preferred specifications

Preferred specifications are characteristics which would be nice to have, and which would give someone a preference for the job. Be careful to specify they are preferred but not required. The reasons for this is that collectively all of the required and all of the preferred could exclude qualified candidates.

Job Post Examples

Look at examples of other posts on ibcscorp.com/learn/job-post/examples to get an idea of hard skills and soft skills for a particular job.

Assessment Plan

Understand the interview process and have a written interview and assessment plan ibcscorp.com/learn/hiring/written-assessment-plan

SEO Evaluation

Reviewing a job post for SEO can be complicated. If your company has a digital marketing team, reach out to them for help, if not we have a simple tutorial: ibcscorp.com/learn/digital-marketing/seo-101

Announcing your new job

Release the job announcement post following the operating procedure at your company.