Do you find it difficult to recruit the right talent into your organisation? One of the most effective tools you have at your disposal is also the simplest, and it’s free. We’re talking about words. Here’s how to write incredible HR copy that will entice the right recruit to your business.
Attracting the Right Talent to Your Business with Words
Whether you use a recruitment agency, jobs board, your website or a printed newspaper to attract candidates when your company has a vacancy, one of the most important and attractive parts of the process is the words you use to describe the role and grab the attention of talented candidates that you’ve been looking for.
A job description tells the story of who you are as a business, and is a powerful tool in both attracting top candidates to your company, and explaining the exact requirements of the role. In today’s world, job-hunting is a complex process, but having clear and well written documentation to help streamline your recruitment process can ensure consistency from start to finish when hiring new staff. Developing the right job description internally is a central part of the recruitment process, so here’s a guide on how to assemble the right ideas, and generate a perfectly tailored job description every time.
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GET YOUR COPY ifp.ClickDetails"Assemble Your Team
When you start thinking about recruiting, you ought to be thinking long-term. Consider this a permanent and long-lasting appointment, and as such, you’ll want to invest time into getting exactly the right fit for your business.
Start by assembling the team who represent the best qualities of the people who hold a similar position within your business, their line manager, and any other Senior HR stakeholders. As a group, develop a job description that outlines the responsibilities, KPI’s and outputs of that role. Then, separately define the types of behavior your ideal candidate will need to have. After this, you will want your team to list between five to ten key responsibilities that can then be used to narrow down a shortlist of CVs.
This may sound like a lot of effort but by assembling the right group of people before you advertise, you can be clear about what the role entails and also use this vital information to ensure you hire the perfect fit for your business.
Add a Tagline
Start with a tagline, to add to your job title. So instead of ‘Assembly Manager,’ why not, ‘Assembly Manager – Overseeing the daily flow of our business.’ A simple caption, lifted from the findings of your team, can add a sense of purpose and ownership to an otherwise empty title. This can be used as a tagline across all the platforms you promote the vacancy and should go a long way towards hooking in the right applicants.
Create a Story
You probably now have a clear list of responsibilities and characteristics needed for the job, but you don’t yet have an attractive advertisement. You now need to spin the bullet points into something far more interesting to read – a story. Studies show that stories have a far more powerful effect on the reader, and attracting the right candidate should be easier if you communicate something more powerful about who you are as a business, and what the person you need should be like.
Just as you should be trying to tell a story about who the person in the role should be, and adding a sense of purpose to the title itself, so you want the part of the advert about your company and brand to be more than a generic employer’s description. Candidates want to read about your company’s successes, about the challenges you overcame as a team, and about the bigger journey that you’re on. Try to avoid overly jargon-heavy language, and instead speak plainly, and in a conversational tone, about the people behind the brand.
Hone the Tone
Before you send your description to the agency, website or publication, think one last time about the tone of voice of the description. So far, you’ve taken time to consult the right people to find out the exact requirements of this type of role. You’ve also carefully constructed a catchy tagline, a personal specification that has an element of ‘storytelling’ through it, and a company description that focuses on your successes. Already, your job description will be great. But you need it to be better than great. In today’s digital world, attracting exceptional candidates requires exceptional effort.
People remember companies who approach things a little differently. And what do most of us crave in the corporate world? Simple. The human touch. So this final part of your process is also the most important.
The tone you use will communicate who you truly are as a brand. Look over your website, think about how your CEO actually talks and, if you have them available, read over the brand guidelines your marketing team have provided. Your brand will effect more than just Marketing, as Employer Branding plays a large part in attracting the right talent. Read the words out loud; do they make sense? Using shorter sentences, plain language and a friendly tone will always get a more positive reception than a description which is unclear or overly corporate.
Overall, remember that a wonderfully written, carefully considered job description will attract wonderful, careful and considerably talented individuals. And that after all, is what your business deserves.
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