In our industry, there is no bigger elephant in the room than the Job Description. Yes, they are poorly written, but that’s just the start. Even the most well written job description will not solve the problem.
To understand why, you must take a step back and look at the big picture.
What is a Job Description? In short, it is an advertisement. In fact, it is the primary instrument used by organizations to advertise their job opportunities. Yet, for no reason other than tradition, job descriptions are not treated like other advertisements.
Creating a Job Description Advertisement
To create a Job Advertisement, you need to treat your unique job opportunity like a product. As with product advertising, steps include:
Every job opportunity has a compelling story. No matter the title, it is the right job for someone. You need to identify your target audience and understand what benefits that audience will find compelling. Why will this job make someone happy?
Having identified your target audience and compelling story, you are now ready to send your message to the masses.
Advertising Success = Reach x Frequency x Impact
It is always nice to simplify a complex operation into a little formula. Of course, it’s easier said than done. To understand the formula, we will start with definitions:
Measuring Reach and Impact
If you have a LinkedIn Recruiter account, you should take advantage of the “Job Analytics” tool to help measure the reach and impact of your job postings. It will give you statistics across all of your job postings and on an individual job basis.
To access the tool, select menu item “Reports” and then “Job Analytics”. To measure “Reach”, select one of your jobs. On the right side of the screen, you will see the Activity Summary section.
In this example, we first posted the job on March 9th and it has been viewed by 658 people. That is our “Reach” number. It is interesting to note the gradual decline in views since it was first posted. We can look at how many people responded to the “call-to-action” (apply here…) by clicking on the “Applies” tab. With 80 people having applied to the job, we can calculate that our “Impact” is 12%.
The Job Analytics tool has many other features. If you don’t currently use it, spending time to learn will return great dividends.
More on the Subject
To learn more about the subject of Job Descriptions Advertising and Business to Talent (“B2T”) Marketing, see our white paper, “Tips from the Mad Men”. You can access our white papers here:
http://www.allegisgroupservices.com/thought-leadership/white-papers.aspx
Parting Question
We will reveal the final piece of the puzzle in a future blog posting. Until then, we ask this question and invite your comments.
What is the difference between a real advertisement and a traditional job advertisement?
How do you attract the ever growing number of Contingent Workers to your organization? Creating a definitive employer brand to attract temp / contract staff to supplement your permanent workforce is key in today’s market. Join CMO Bruce Morton, at SIG's Toronto Innovation Forum, January 26th, as he explains ways you can create an innovative and captivating brand that will help you engage with this increasingly important cohort. He'll also look at eays to define how contractors can find out what the current needs and open assignments are, and tips on how to stay connected with resources after they have completed an assignment. Finally, through proper branding, Bruce will explain how to demonstate “what is in it for them” and contingent staff will gain by spending time within your company.
3 Learning Points:
Toronto Innovation ForumJanuary 269am to 5:30pmTELUS Building25 York Street, 3rd floorToronto, Canada M5J 2V5
This is an actual post that we pulled off of Facebook. How can you avoid this kind of discussion about your company? What does this say about the treatment of candidates and the importance of employer brand?
You have heard the reasons for and against using social media in all aspects of your business. I am fortunate to be part of an organization that embraces innovation and emerging technology but, in the world of social media implementation, this is not always the case. Companies are often hindered by a cumbersome approval process, a “keeping up with the Joneses” marketing approach or an inability to push proper initiatives through the decision process.
After garnering inspiration from Sean Nicholson’s outstanding post, 10 Surefire Reasons NOT to Start a Corporate or Product Blog, I decided address the social media naysayers. Here are 10 reasons why “HR professionals and recruiters should avoid social media.” In the comments below, share more reasons for and against the use of social media in our space.
As an organization’s global footprint increases so does its need to effectively communicate and maintain its unique corporate culture. Deloitte Consulting has created D-Street. D-Street is the company’s intranet which functions like a customized melding of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Employees maintain strong lines of communication through creating personal interest groups and sharing business-related news. Deloitte’s intranet runs on a supped up version of Sharepoint. Any HR representative can find an inexpensive platform with similar functionality. I recommend Yammer, Tgthr, Chatter or, a personal favorite of mine for smaller teams, Posterous Spaces which is free.
AGS encourages our recruiters to use Twitter (see the #TeamAGS and #TeamISW hashtags). Pete Sweeney, who at that point had just started, interacted with AGS CMO, Bruce Morton. Bruce and Pete shared a few tweets on emerging industry trends. This got our new hire some great visibility with leadership! Furthermore, social media is an efficient way to keep in close contact with applicants before, during and after the application process. Also, it keeps you top of mind as a quality employer in the eyes of the candidate pool.
Proper use of social media creates a dialogue between your company and candidates. Social media allows employers to broadcast their unique employer branding message across various channels. NBC, whose employer brand proposition is “A Universe of Opportunity,” has a consistent look and feel to all of their communications. For employment opportunities, they have a dedicated website, Facebook page, Twitter handle and LinkedIn account. NBC incorporates their consumer brands into their Twitter communications to enhance and strengthen the value of their messaging. If your company has a strong consumer presence, this can be leveraged. For additional resources and insights on employer branding, check out Renegade HR’s blog.
If you are part of a large organization, chances are that there is already chatter on social media about your employer brand, products or services. If you currently do not have any “listening station” set up, you will more than likely be surprised by the results. Rule number 1 of branding is that your brand is not what you say it is, it is what the market says it is. Social media, for the first time, allows you the opportunity to see what people are saying about your employer brand, products and services and use this information to inform your strategies moving forward.
Our company’s president was surprised that, at our first meeting, I inquired about his gardening hobby. How did I know that? I researched him using social media. Do you think that top talent isn’t researching your company’s staff? Think again! Tools such as Glassdoor make this extremely easy. Further, LinkedIn is a living list of your company’s staff. Changing positions is an emotional decision. Knowing who you may potentially be working with can be a mammoth factor in determining your next career move.
The development of one’s personal brand is becoming of increasing importance. Top talent has already discovered that one of the best ways to promote your personal brand is through the use of social media. HR representatives and recruiters can use tools such as Rapportive to research this wealth of information to determine if potential candidates are a fit with the culture of the organization for which they are recruiting. Michael Haberman, on his outstanding blog Omega HR Solutions, writes about how HR leaders are crowdsourcing social media to help write new job descriptions.
7. You Don’t Care to Learn About Other Emerging Technologies That Can Help You Streamline Your Business and Save You Time and Money.
New technologies that can streamline every aspect of what you do are constantly being developed. It is almost a full time job to keep track of them. Recently, I was looking for a new calendar tool that would help my team with communications. I posted in the Social Media Success Summit LinkedIn Group, and, among other helpful responses, Greg Bardwell chimed in and suggested DivyHQ, a stand out calendar tool that my team is currently investigating.
We hope not! An astonishing 91-percent of recruiters are using social media to screen applicants. Mashable reports that 89-percent of companies use social media for sourcing candidates. Arguably, the most popular social media platform with recruiters is LinkedIn. Regardless, there are a host of other very powerful social media tools and platforms that recruiters can leverage. These tools help recruiters to shrink the top of the funnel and deliver top-quality candidates with increasing speed.
According to Content is Marketing Currency, an e-book by Marketing Interactions’ CEO Adrath Albee, 90 percent of B2B buyers prefer to consume information online. Producing compelling and relevant thought leadership is essential to differentiating your company from your competitors and gaining visibility with potential clients. Social media is a necessary piece to effectively deliver this content to your target audience.
10. Search Engine Optimization is for the Birds.
Last year, both Google and Bing confirmed that links shared on social media factor into search engine results. Exactly how much, some SEO professionals are still debating. However, given the fact that Google+ shows up in search rankings can be a tell tale sign of how Google will be drawing upon the social space to weigh in on their results. Furthermore, using social media, in general, exponentially grows your online footprint. If you are reaching your targeted audience with relevant content, you are more likely to enjoy the viral benefits of these technologies. For those of you who are just beginning to explore this space, click here for a great beginner’s resource.