Most all HR professionals and recruiters know that they should take the time to make the job descriptions they post better. I included this advice in my Top 10 Recruiting and Retention Tips for Washington, DC Area employers and I truly believe that a good job description can be a great recruiting tool. It’s important for company branding purposes and a detailed job description can help attract more relevant candidates. But knowing the importance of good job descriptions and making the commitment to consistently create them are two entirely different things.
I came across the following blog post Recruit like a Marketer and thought it was an interesting idea. Then I wondered, what recruiter/HR generalist/hiring manager has the time to test 2 variations of the same job opening to see which one works better? I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not always the best when it comes to spending the extra few minutes to make an OK job description as good as it could be. Work comes across my desk that seems more urgent at the time. If a hiring manager is anxious to extend an offer to a candidate, guess what? The offer is going to take priority and that boilerplate job description that was sent over to me may end up getting posted.
Wouldn’t the process be much easier if there was a good template to use? Most corporate and/or applicant tracking system requisition templates are pretty boring stuff. Has anyone used or developed a requisition template that could guide a recruiter or better yet, a hiring manager, through the process of writing a catchy job description? If so, would you be willing to share? Think of the good you could help bring through the hiring universe!
From the candidate perspective, it would be interesting to hear some anecdotes regarding when someone ended up applying (and getting the job) largely due to a catchy/descriptive/unique job description.
Tim Gummer is a Principal and occasional blogger at Recruiting Associates. Give us a call or drop us a note using the contact form at the bottom of the page. Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.