“Are you the next member of the family”, “we are currently looking for”, “to be successful”, “we hold office drinks on a Thursday”, “we are unique in our domains”, oh and don’t you know that “we are specialist too”? Blah blah blah blah……
There are 364,000 jobs for recruiters on LinkedIn and the competition for this talent has never been fiercer. So why are businesses struggling to attract talented recruiters? Did we lose two generations of recruiters joining the industry during COVID? Have some furloughed recruiters never returned to the industry? Has ongoing uncertainty over COVID during the winter period held some people back from moving jobs?
Food for thought or are these actually impacting recruiter recruitment? Is it that we focus on actually promoting our brand and business and not really engaging and influencing the people we want to come and work for us?
Which brings me neatly to the vital first few lines of the job advert and here are some examples that I have seen this week:
DOES THIS REALLY INSPIRE YOU TO READ MORE? DO THESE FIRST FEW LINES GRAB YOU, DO THEY STAND OUT AND SHOUT COME AND WORK FOR US?
Sadly, it is a no from me.
If I was a recruiter and open to moving agencies I wouldn’t care much about the size of your business and nor would I want, you to tell me this was an exciting and excellent opportunity. I would want you to cajole me into coming to that conclusion myself. It’s about what I am looking for, what’s in it for me and if you match that with what you offer.
So, what does that offer typically look like in organisationally led adverts?
This isn’t really about what I want though is it? Neither does this content engage with me, in fact it completely turns me off.
Conversely, let’s look to the handful of organisations and agencies who have really nailed this and focused their content on what the candidate wants:
It’s a long list, so how do you cover all that? The video job advert is a fundamental feature and still under utilised. CV-Library claim that almost 80% of candidates would be more likely to apply for a job that contained a video in the job description. Just 50 seconds of content enables recruiters to assess their fit and decide if they want to continue to watch. It’s the easiest and best way to grab people’s attention and promote your brand from the get-go by making the “why” of your business come to life.
Stop and think. Drafting that ad? Forget your blah blah blah, focus on the candidate and make that really come alive with your video advert, after all, we are in a people-focused industry.