Job Descriptions I: Do They Suck
March 10, 2020
One of my greatest frustrations in recruiting… job descriptions.
EVERY time this comes up be it in a conference room with a client or an auditorium full of Recruiters and HR pros and I ask, “How many of you like your job descriptions?” the answer is 10% or less.
10%… what a freaking horrible number.
Now ask in a room of non-recruiters, the people you may be trying to recruit, something like “In the past 30 days how many of you have seen a cool job description?”
The response is somewhere between polite giggle and sarcastic laugh.
This, along with our career page, is what we use to recruit for a role and brand a company.
And we wonder why our conversion rates from career page to candidates suck so bad. Surely this is a “Top 3” reason.
A few questions for you to think about:
-
Who wrote them… hiring manager, HR, recruiter, legal or marketing?
-
Does it read more like a legal document or a marketing tool?
-
Does it have a bunch, a lot, of bullet points?
-
If you don’t like it, why haven’t you changed it?
-
How old is it… has it been updated in the past 12 months?
-
Do you think of people (potential candidates) as “customers” or “talent”?
I posted this at the end of Employer Branding I: Give Them What They Want:
Most people, you and me, just want to know what it is like to work there. They’re looking for authenticity. What is it really like.
They’re looking for the same stuff you did.
Give it to them.
If you are trying to attract people (potential candidates) to your company and role, if you think about them as customers… you’re likely going to need to rethink what you are putting out there.
Click Minnesota Headhunter for current blog posts, Work With Me if you are growing your team and Minneapolis Tech Jobs for Minnesota IT searches I am working on.
Stay in touch with me by clicking:
| Newsletter Sign Up |
Paul,
A couple of comments,
One of the questions I've always asked myself is how a talent acquisition professional can recruit for a company they know is dysfunctional, and do so with a clear conscience?
It's time to post salary ranges in job descriptions. IMHO, it's the only way to ensure gender equity in compensation, i.e. equal pay for equal work.
Posted by: Lonny Gulden | March 10, 2020 at 04:31 PM