Attacting talent through job postings isn’t as easy as just posting your internal job description and hoping for the best.  This article posted by Nethire does a good job of going over some of the basics you should think about when trying to attract the right talent.  Below I’ve outlined the main five points in the article but keep in mind that our focus is on the engineering & manufacturing industry.

1) Know the difference between a job description and job advertisement

This is a great point and the article outlines why.  Here at JP Recruitment, the job posting on our website is not typically exactly what is sent to us by the client.  Sometimes it can be completely different.  We have 2-3 pages of notes from when we sat down with our client and that usually doesn’t reflect the job description.  We post what we think will attract the talent the client needs.

2) Do NOT use a unique job title that is only applicable to the company

This is simple and straight forward.  Nothing worse when you see a resume of a candidate that has really complicated job titles on it.  Why would it be different for attracting talent?

3) Do NOT forget to include vital information

Application instructions is probably the one that stands out the most to me when attracting talent.  Make this as straight forward and easy as pos  Companies may not want to include their name if it is on a job board but it also can certainly be a good attraction tool.  Things like job location can help the filtering of candidates that will not be interested and save you time.attracting talent

4) Avoid messy formatting

I will use the same example as above with regards to looking at a resume.  Nothing worse that seeing a
resume in some weird font or format.  To attract talent, keep to something easy like Arial with bullet points for Responsibilities & Qualifications.  You can check out some examples here.

5) Make sure your content is realistic

I think most companies in manufacturing are realistic when it comes to salary and attracting talent.  However, there is
still a reason why this topic is on the list.  This is where having a good relationship with an industry specific recruiter can help when it comes to advice.

One important item that isn’t on this list is getting your job description viewed.  It is all good to have a great job description that attracts amazing talent but it is no good if no one sees it!  Make sure that you are hitting all the social media platforms and getting word out that you are looking and that is just the start.

What are your thoughts?  What do you do to make your job description stand out?  Do you agree with the above?