Star candidates understand that they can find a great job with just about any organization, so for you to land them you must convince them that they should want to work for you. And you can’t do that by just telling them about your needs and wants.

The posting that Michael cited discussed the industry, the organization, the culture, describes the position, describes the requirements, and sells the candidate on why they should want the job. The most desperate of candidates are willing to take a job because they need a paycheck. But those are not the candidates that most of us want to hire. Rather, we want to hire the stars that truly make a difference and provide us with competitive advantages over our competitors.

http://jobsearch.monster.com/getjob.asp?JobID=38682245&AVSDM=2006%2D01%2D20+10%3A04%3A58&Logo=1&sort=dt&pg=1&q=eisai&cy=us

I agree, most job advertisements are for internal use only. I’d like to see what a compelling job advertisement looks like. Does anyone have a job advertisement that they would like to share with the group?

I think too often we see ‘boiler plate’ type ads that don’t come close to reaching the seeker.

People will ask the question on how to stand out on a job board and I think there are several avenues:

1) look at the postings that you have and compare them to similar ads (start asking yourself questions)
*are my postings exactly the same as others?
*what buzz am I creating around my listings?
*see Steve’s points above……..you have the creative license to engage with the seeker and try to convert them into an interested candidate.
2) put yourself in the shoes of the seeker as you do this exercise
*would I be moved by the copy in my ad

Also, Michael…………I could not agree more, getting a candidate to sign on is sales………selling them on the opportunity, making sure there is a mutual fit, keeping reality and expectations in check (great follow up)

-Joe

Coming from a product/service marketing background, it seems obvious to me that a company should be doing all of these things to secure their most precious assets – their employees. After all, a company would spare no reasonable expense when it comes to ensuring their revenue streams.

But alas, this kind of thinking scares away many companies because they automatically associate a large amount of additional ‘cost’ with this kind of employment marketing. Whether hiring the personnel with the expertise to pull it off, spending for the new media channels, or taking time from their marketing personnel to learn the lessons – companies are resistant to the change for a variety of (mostly speculative) reasons.

My personal experience in developing and executing these messages for large and somewhat risk-adverse companies is that metrics really pave the way for acceptance.

Since my company plays mostly in Interactive media for client campaigns, we frequently test multiple creative massages against one another to ensure optimal results. The metrics we develop lend strong support for a more carefully crafted and engaging message.

In addition, the ability to track a client’s investment all the way from media exposure to converted hire really drives home the value of the advertising methods referenced in Mr. Adler’s article. This ability has profound implications for workforce planning. In addition to developing a low-cost serviceable talent pipeline, these measurements can give a historical basis for the amount of quality talent an organization can expect to attract to satisfy a staffing need in relation to a given investment.

When confronted with these real-life examples of how the proper messaging and distribution tactics can impact the age-old success measures of cost-per-hire and cycle time, we find that companies are more open to shifting their focus toward innovative recruitment marketing.

In the end, it is hard to argue with proven success!

1. No information that speaks to the needs and the wants of the candidate. All of the description and requirements speak only to the needs and the wants of the candidate. Great recruiters know that they need to be great sales people. They need to sell their organization and the specific opportunity to the candidate, for if they don’t then they will fail to generate applications from stars and be overwhelmed with applications from candidates who are barely or perhaps even under qualified. Stars know that they can be hired by just about any organization, so you need to convince them that it is your organization for which they want to work. Qualified hires do not drive successful organizations. Stars do.

2. Postings that contain virtually no information at all. I am always amazed to see postings that consist of one or two sentences. No information about the organization, department, work environment, culture, team members, responsibilities, requirements, etc. Basically just a re-stated job title. And then these organizations are amazed when people whose competencies, interests, and values diverge markedly from their pre-conceived notion of the ideal candidate. If they can figure out that their applicants diverge so markedly from the vision of their ideal candidate, then why can’t they write out a description of that ideal candidate and include that in the posting? And then be sure to include plenty of information about why that ideal candidate should want to work for you rather than the organization across the street which is competing for the same talent.

Steven Rothberg, President and Founder
CollegeRecruiter.com job board
http://www.CollegeRecruiter.com .

In fact, recruiters will become what I call ‘Talent Marketing Managers’, because, in a nutshell, that’s what recruiters do – market the company to top grade talent and then spend personal time ‘selling’ the company to that talent. TMM’s will ultimately report to the COO as operations is where your ‘sales’ end up supporting – not HR. I could be way off on this, but for those companies who do make the shift in realizing that they need to be selling to candidates, the reward will be having the best talent pool to help grow their respective organizations – and there will be a SEAT waiting for TMM’s at the TABLE!

The answer dear reader is your friendly RECRUITMENT AD AGENCY . I am amazed as to how many of our best clients rely on us to create dynamic print ads, brochures and collateral… yet still insist on posting their own boring online ads. What a shame!