HR Mavericks

Eddy’s HR Mavericks Encyclopedia

Job Post
A job post, or job posting, is an external advertisement that provides an overview of a position you’re hiring for. Job posts are used to recruit qualified applicants and a well-written job description can help reduce time and money spent on recruiting.

Continue reading to learn what a job post is, the importance of having a good job post, how to write a job post and where to list job postings.

What Is a Job Post?

A job post is the overview of an open role that is used to recruit qualified applicants. Job postings appear on online job boards, company websites, social media and in print publications like newspapers and magazines.

Job Description Versus Job Post

Job descriptions and job posts are very similar, though there is a small difference between the two. A job description is an internal document that provides an overview of the position for human resources and hiring managers. Job posts are external documents used to recruit prospective employees.

The Importance of Having a Good Job Post

A well-written job posting is important to accurately describe the responsibilities and minimum requirements for an open position. Crafting a clear job post is also important to help you:
  • Attract qualified candidates. By clearly outlining the demands of the position and the minimum qualifications, you’re more likely to identify and attract high-quality candidates for the position.
  • Reduce recruiting expenses. A strong job post can help reduce the amount of time and money you spend on your recruiting process by identifying the best candidates early on. If you have a highly marketable job posting, it can do some of the legwork for you by getting itself seen by applicants without you having to spend more. A poorly optimized posting can cost you a lot of time and money.
  • Leverage your existing workforce. With a well-written job posting, you can ask current employees for any references within their network that may be qualified for the position. This can help expedite the process and reduce the number of platforms that you need to post the job to.

What to Include in a Job Post

Now that you understand the importance of a well-written job post, here’s the key information to include.

Title of the Position

The job title is one of the most important factors in the performance of your posting. A poor title can drastically reduce impressions and clicks, and it can also have a significant impact on the time to hire and spend of your job posting. Internal job titles do not always translate into the real world. For example, you might have a very technical job title related to one aspect of development that outsiders may not have. Adjusting your posting title can be key to bringing in the right candidates. Knowing how terminology varies depending on location is also important when considering a title. For example, certain areas may find better luck with the title “Diesel Mechanic” while other locations see much more success with “Diesel Technician.”

Summary of the Position

Open your job posting with a brief paragraph that summarizes the purpose of the job and includes a high-level overview of the job responsibilities. You can also include bits of information about the results that candidates should hope to achieve in the role and what level of supervision the position is under.

Outline Your Ideal Candidate

Describe your ideal candidate to build excitement for the role. Hiring for an accounting position? Let them know you are looking for a numbers-driven individual by describing the ideal qualities, skills, and traits of your ideal candidate. For example, you could start a “Who are you?” section by saying “You are a passionate and numbers-driven individual. Getting every entry correct down to the penny excites you!”

Outline of Essential Functions

After providing a high-level overview of the position, dive into the specific tasks, duties and responsibilities. List these in order from most important to least important so candidates have an idea of what abilities are most crucial to succeed in the position. In this section, mention that other duties may be assigned to allow for flexibility. When converting your job description into a posting, you will likely not be able to get all bullets listed. Confirm the essential points with the hiring manager.

Description of Working Conditions

Include a concise description of working conditions so applicants understand the environment in which the job takes place. If there are any unpleasant or dangerous conditions, applicants need to be made aware of them before considering the position.

Minimum Qualifications

To ensure that applicants are clear about the requirements, list the minimum qualifications necessary to be considered for the position. This can include education, professional experience, certifications, knowledge, skills and abilities. When choosing qualifications, it is important to choose only the necessary items—and don't include more than a few. Oversaturating your qualifications section can deter otherwise qualified applicants from applying. To further differentiate minimum qualifications from skills, break them into separate categories.

Information About Organizational Values and Culture

An applicant may meet all of the requirements and minimum qualifications but not align with your company’s values and culture. Provide a brief overview of the company culture, enough for a prospective applicant to have a clear understanding of what to expect should they apply to the position.

Tips for Writing a Job Post That Attracts High-Quality Applicants

A job post can have all the necessary information but still not be very effective. You can give your post the finishing touches by thinking about how potential applicants will respond to it. Here are some tips for crafting high-quality job posts that will catch the eye of the people you most want at your company.

Tip 1: Make the Job Post Easy to Read

Before you even write a word, you should consider the overall appearance and readability of the job post you’re sending out into the world. Here are a few formatting details to consider:
  • Spacing. White space makes text easier to read. Breaking the text into short, succinct paragraphs reduces mental strain and makes the reading experience less exhausting. Having a “wall of text” is never a good idea.
  • Section headers. Just as you shouldn’t create a wall of text, you shouldn’t make it difficult for the reader to find what they’re looking for. The best job posts use headers that break the post into small sections. While headers do need to accurately describe each section, you can get creative. “Responsibilities” can become “What you will be doing” and “Qualifications” can become “What your background looks like.”
  • Bullet points. Once you’ve broken your job post into sections, you’ll want to continue to focus on making your post as easy to read as possible. One great step here is utilizing bullet points in a few of your sections. Bullet points make information more digestible and easy to read quickly.
  • Narrative sections. While bullets assist in clearly identifying what we are listing, narrative sections also make the job posting more conversational. Having a good balance between narrative and bulleted sections will drive applicants to apply. Good examples of narrative sections are descriptions of the applicant, about the company, descriptions of the culture, etc.

Tip 2: Optimize It

According to Indeed, the best length for a job description is only about 700-2,000 characters. You don’t have much space, so use it wisely. Optimize your listing to appear when relevant searches are made.If SEO (search engine optimization) isn’t your thing, go to some job sites and try to find a job similar to the one you’re posting. Make a list of search terms they include, and include them in your listing. To get a visual aid for what skills, terms, and keywords others are using, you can create a word cloud. A word cloud is a visual representation of the number of times a word is used. To create a word cloud, find a word cloud generator, copy and paste many related job descriptions from other companies, generate the word cloud, and you will be presented with a visual of terms that the industry is using.

Tip 3: Be Original

One cardinal sin of creating a job post is copying and pasting information from another company’s job post. The job you’re asking candidates to apply for is unique to your company. Although it might have the same title as a job in a different company, it is inherently different. Do not ask applicants to apply to a job that has a description stolen from a different business. You may find yourself hiring for a position that your company has never hired for before. There’s nothing wrong with searching the internet to learn more about the position and what should be expected, but you cross a line when you copy and paste directly from another job post. Take the time to really brainstorm what you want that person to do for your company. If you don’t know how to write the job description for a certain position, then get help from someone inside the company who does.

Tip 4: Keep It Brief

In early 2019, LinkedIn published some interesting statistics about the job posts being published on their platform. One of the most insightful takeaways from the study was that shorter job posts get more applications than long ones.In fact, according to LinkedIn, job posts that contained around 300 words outperformed posts that contained 600-1,000 words. The shorter job posts saw an 8.4% increase in applications. The takeaway? Say what you need to say, but don’t add any extra words, fluff, or unnecessary requirements.

Tip 5: Be Honest

When describing your company, your goal should be to promote it in the most appealing way possible. However, this does not give you permission to fabricate stories or awards that don’t exist. Rather than pretend to be something you’re not, promote the things that you are. If you are dishonest, you’ll immediately lose trust. What you might gain through subtle deception will never be worth what you lose in credibility.Put special effort into making sure that the company benefits section is accurate. This section is important to potential new hires because they’re concerned about how this new job might affect their personal or family life.

Tip 6: Professional Beats Casual

LinkedIn’s study on job descriptions found that job seekers had a much more negative opinion of an employer who used a casual tone in their job post. These “casual” posts also saw fewer applicants when compared to posts that were described as “generic” or “professional.”Now, you can definitely sprinkle some personality throughout your job posts. But if you want to attract professionals, you’ll need to strike a professional tone. Ultimately, people are looking for a career, not a party. Stay on brand, be creative, write in a way that’s enjoyable to read, but make sure you’re conveying the right message.

Tip 7: Get Feedback Before Posting

Before putting a job post out into the world, try to get a second or third opinion. This will not only help you catch any spelling or grammatical errors you may have made, but it will help you gauge whether or not the post will relate to the target audience. After all, job posts are nothing more than advertisements. In the same way a car dealership displays an ad to get you to purchase a vehicle, you are sharing a job post to get someone to come and work for your company. If you are responsible for creating the job post but do not fall into the target audience, ask for help from someone who does. If you’re hiring for a software developer, have a few developers in your company review the job post. Ask them if they’d apply if they saw a post like the one you’re planning on sharing. Ask them if there’s anything you left out or anything you should add. If you want more people to relate (and therefore apply) to the job, you should get feedback directly from people who identify as the target audience.

A Job Post Template to Help You Get Started

You don’t have to create job posts from scratch. While it’s important to tailor every post to your company’s individual needs, starting with a template is a great way to save time. Copy and paste the template below, then customize it with information about your company and the role you're hiring for.About the companyThis section should be a brief introduction to your company. Struggling to get started? Try sharing some basic information about yourselves. How long have you been in business—are you a well-established company, an exciting new startup, or something in between? What do you do? Talk about your company’s product or service here. About the applicantThis section focuses on your ideal applicant. When applicants read this, you want them to feel excited, empowered, and motivated to apply. Build in traits that your ideal applicant will have. If you are hiring for an accounting position that requires collections, make sure to mention that they have rockstar communication skills. Take care when creating this section to use inclusive language that empowers and excites applicants.Responsibilities
  • This is where you focus on your job’s main responsibilities.
  • Focus on choosing the right bullets—you can leave out “other duties as assigned.” Remember, this is an advertisement, not a job description. After someone applies, it is the hiring team’s responsibility to share any further information.
  • The ideal number of bullets ranges from 5-7. Going over is okay if necessary.
  • If you have an internal description with many bullets, try combining similar ideas.
Skills
  • Seeking a candidate with communication skills second to none? Let them know.
  • Hiring for a technical role that requires high fluency in Java? This is the place to share it.
  • Looking for an accounting position that requires the ability to create macros in Excel? State that they need an expert level of fluency in Excel.
  • The ideal amount of bullets, similarly to the previous section, is 4-7. Listing too many skills, especially skills that are not required, can impact the number of people who apply.
Background
  • Needing someone who has a 4-year degree in accounting or a related field? This is the place to share that.
  • Seeking someone who has a CPA, but you don’t require it? Try something like “Active CPA preferred.”
  • Similarly to the skills section, it is important to avoid overwhelming the applicant with preferred qualifications that will make them feel unqualified.
Benefits
  • Benefits are an important aspect of overall compensation, and sharing these benefits can help bring in more applicants.
  • Does your company have an on-site gym? Let potential applicants know!
  • Offering a home office stipend? Brag about it!
Salary
  • This template is merely a guide. You should feel free to change it as you please. The section to be careful about adjusting is the salary section.
  • Certain states have strict legal requirements concerning salary posting.
  • Posting salary can also be significantly impacted by different job boards. Indeed, for example, has very strict guidelines for posting salaries. Posting starting pay, pay ranges, and exact pay all require different formatting.
  • Changing the title of this section could also make it less clear what you are referring to.
Notes about this template. This is merely a template and should be adjusted to your company’s needs and preferences. For example, you may choose to put the “About the company” section at the end to shift the focus to the applicant. Each section’s title can be adjusted. For example, “About the applicant” could be adjusted to “About you,” “Who are you?” etc. While companies have trended towards posting salaries, not every company is there. Lacking approval to post pay or posting a job you do not want pay listed on? Delete the “Salary” section. Remember, a template is a great place to get started, but you will need to focus on the content to stand out.

Where Should You Post Your Job?

With a solid job post written, all that’s left to do is post it for potential applicants to find. Listed below are some of the best places to list your job postings. You can use software like Eddy to automatically post your job to all of them in one click.

Online Job Boards

Online job boards like Indeed, Glassdoor, ZipRecruiter and other sites are the most common places to list job postings. The specific steps to post your job will depend on the website you are using. You will have to create an account if you don’t have one already and look for the section of their site that allows you to create a new job.Posting to online job boards is a must for your organization, as applicants primarily search for open roles using their phones, computers or another type of device.When choosing a new job board, it’s important to do your research. Many job boards are designed for specific types of postings. While Indeed and ZipRecruiter are examples of universal job boards, other sites are designed for specific purposes. For example, websites such as FlexJobs are not intended for 100% on-site positions.

Job Board Location

Choosing the location of your job board posting can significantly contribute to the success (or failure) of your post. Posting in a small town 30 miles outside a major city? This can cost you big when it comes to applicants looking for jobs in their city within a 25-mile radius. Consider looking at the surrounding area and advertising in these areas as well. It is important, however, to maintain honesty. ATS systems like Eddy have a question feature; consider adding a question to your application that confirms that applicants are willing to commute to the actual location. Not interested in creating questions? Maintain transparency by posting your job’s location in the job posting itself.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn has its own job board function where you can create and post open positions. To post on LinkedIn, click on the “jobs” icon at the top of your homepage and then click the “post a job” button. From there, follow the directions and fill out all of the required fields.Listing your job posting on LinkedIn allows you to share the opening with your connections and actively recruit candidates through InMail messaging.

Social Media

You can promote your job postings on social media using company accounts. Platforms like Facebook have functions that allow you to create a posting directly on your page, while others such as Twitter do not have those capabilities.If you can’t create a job directly on the platform, you can copy a link of your job posting from your careers page or an online job board and post it for your followers to see.

Physical Advertising

Physical advertising can be an incredibly powerful tool. While it can be costly, it is worth exploring. You can find physical advertisements in the form of billboards and poster advertising. Hiring for a high-competition job? Try using a billboard located where your applicant might drive by on their way to work. Targeting a specific type of worker? Try finding a wall advertisement in an area they may shop or eat. Choosing where you advertise can be tricky and does require some creative thought. However, many ad agencies will assist you in choosing the right locations based on your ideal candidate.

Newspapers

It’s the digital age, but some people still peruse newspaper ads when they’re searching for a new job. You can still leverage technology to submit your job posting, as most newspapers have sections on their website dedicated to job posts.It’s not the most efficient way to promote job openings, but to cover a wider range of potential applicants it doesn’t hurt to utilize newspaper postings.

Industry-Specific Job Boards

Industry-specific job boards allow you to list job postings that are relevant to the respective industry. These job boards function similarly to general online job boards. You’ll likely have to create an account for each website and then follow their instructions to submit your job post.For highly specialized positions, posting to industry-specific job boards can increase your likelihood of receiving applications from qualified candidates.

Internal Memo or Email

Sometimes you don’t have to search far to find qualified candidates. If you send the job posting to current employees through an internal memo or email, they may have connections within their network who are qualified for the position. If you don’t already have an employee referral program, where employees refer potential candidates in return for some form of reward, you can start one. You might also consider posting your job internally on the company’s internal job board to allow current employees to even apply.
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Hunter Anglemyer

Hunter Anglemyer

Hunter is a Talent Acquisition Manager who loves his job. Learning & problem solving are his true passions. Working in talent acquisition allows him to utilize his psychology background, learn about others, & help people find careers they will love.
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Eddy

Eddy

Eddy is the all-in-one HR tool built with you in mind. The robust features and ease of use will benefit your company both inside and outside your HR team.
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Intake Meeting
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Job Description
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Minimum Qualifications
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Non-Essential Job Functions
Overhiring
Physical Job Requirements
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