The job advertisement is THE figurehead for companies and is intended to encourage top talents to submit their application. Often, however, job advertisements are so vaguely worded and not very tangible that suitable candidates do not even feel addressed. We have summarized what you should consider so that you can positively address self-identification and generate successful key figures.
Posting job advertisements: finding suitable job platforms
The number of job portals available on the Internet on which potential applicants move is constantly increasing. In addition to the large platforms such as StepStone, Monster or Indeed, there are also niche portals that specialize in certain professional groups. In 2020, Stepstone was in first place among the generalist job boards, as it had been in the previous nine years (Zukunft Personal Europe Virtual award ceremony). The potential of niche portals is often difficult for recruiters to assess: Without meaningful data on the job portals and suitable technology for evaluating key figures, an efficient use of the recruiting budget can hardly be estimated.
Strategic Partnership: StepStone & Umantis
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Whether you're a generalist or a niche candidate, submitting your application must be straightforward. Candidates nowadays prefer a quick way of applying. Many job seekers often abandon filling out a complicated online application after just a few minutes. This is shown by a joint study by the job platform StepStone and the Federal Association of Human Resources Managers (around 10,000 people were surveyed for this purpose). In order to make the application process as easy as possible for talents, StepStone and its certified partner Umantis are launching a strategic cooperation in March 2021.
The common interfaces for transferring advertisement data have been optimized so that the StepStone Quick-Apply solution can now be easily connected to the Applicant Management module from Umantis. This allows applicants registered with StepStone to complete applications with just one click, significantly improving the candidate experience . By shortening and simplifying the application process in this way, you can secure up to 20 percent more conversions.
Writing a job advertisement: Content and structure of a job advertisement
In order to create a successful job advertisement, several aspects are crucial for the content:
Start with a clear and descriptive job title. Make sure that the name of the advertised position is not too outlandish, even if an exotic job title may sound better. It's better to use common job titles – potential candidates will then be able to better assess whether they are suitable for the job.
The General Equal Treatment Act (AGG) prohibits discrimination in job advertisements and job advertisements. According to §§ 11, 7 AGG, the prohibitions of discrimination in § 1 AGG must be observed.
No one may be discriminated against on the basis of gender, age, ethnic origin, belief, religion, sexual identity or disability.
This means that such criteria may not be specified in the job advertisement under any circumstances. In both internal and external advertisements for vacancies, care must be taken to ensure that no wording is chosen that is related to the aforementioned criteria of discrimination. In general, make sure that the wording is AGG-compliant and write the abbreviations m/f/d (for: male/female/diverse) after the job title in order to include all genders.
Design your job advertisement in such a way that it is clear which target group it is aimed at. Describe the tasks in a practical and authentic way and concentrate on the essentials. As a rule, five focus tasks should suffice. Refrain from using nouns and actively address your applicants, naming only the requirements that are really necessary and describing the context in which they relate to the tasks. If the job has unpleasant aspects, you should not conceal them – this will save you from having to sift through unsuitable applications. Very important: Consider your job offer as an invitation to your future employees.
Company description: Describe what is relevant to the applicants, including hard facts such as company size and industry, as well as culture, values and sustainability strategy. Highlight what makes your company special and successful and why it is worthwhile to become part of it. Try to avoid standard phrases as much as possible. You can direct potential candidates directly to your website or social media presence through links embedded in the job advertisement so that they can obtain even more information.
Basic data about the position: Only one position should be advertised in an online job advertisement at a time. The type of employment (e.g. full-time/part-time, temporary/permanent, etc.), the desired starting date and the location at which the position is to be carried out are also important. In addition, it is quite interesting for potential candidates to read in the job description what further training opportunities and promotion opportunities are available. Also attractive is the transparency with regard to benefits: bonuses, childcare, 13th salary, etc.
Mobile-optimized online job advertisements are mandatory
If you don't optimize your application processes for mobile devices these days, you'll lose a lot of applicants. Every second search query on the Stepstone job board happens via mobile devices. In addition, job advertisements and career pages that are not optimized move to the bottom of the hit list in Google searches and are ultimately not found at all. In times when practically everyone uses a smartphone, the goal in recruiting should be to make all points of contact with the recruiting company accessible to candidates on their mobile devices. And all this without any loss of quality in terms of readability, graphics and functionality.
Measuring the success of online job advertisements
With regard to job advertisements, the following questions are relevant:
- How many times was the online job advertisement clicked?
- How many applications are received for the online job advertisement?
- What is the quality of the applications?
- How many candidates will be shortlisted?
- Is there actually a successful recruitment at the end of the application process?
- How long did the time-to-hire process take?
- How long did the process from tender to start of work (time-to-fill) take?
According to surveys by the Rhine-Main University of Applied Sciences, the average time-to-hire is 56.5 days. It takes an average of 88.5 days for the new employee to actually start work (time-to-fill).
