Tips for advertising a job vacancy

The right job advert could be the difference between finding another valuable team member when you need them – or prolonging the search.

In this blog we’ll cover what to include when advertising a role, where to advertise and tips to help your job description work for you in recruiting the best candidates.

What should a job advert include?

Job descriptions have three main purposes: to attract candidates, define roles and for management reference (according to management advice by Michael Page).

The job advert itself

You might want to think about including the following in your vacancy description:

• The job’s title
• Where the role sits within your team/department/organisation
• Qualifications, training and/or experience you want the candidate to have
• Any ‘nice-to-have’ experience or qualifications
• The person (or position) the successful candidate would report into
• Location – is your company office-based? Will the role be working remotely, or do you offer a hybrid working model?
• Remuneration range and any company benefits you offer

For more tips on how to write a good job description, Indeed offer helpful advice.

Talk about your culture

Let your culture shine through your job advert. You want to attract the best people for the role that will make a valuable addition to your organisation – and those that will settle in well to your team.

Are you proud of the benefits you offer your employees? You could list a few in the job advert to let applicants know what you can offer them.

If you think your culture could do with a boost, why not join Breathe’s Culture Pledge for free?

Show off your organisation

Think about how you’re describing the role and your business within your job advert – does it accurately represent your company? Bear in mind most applicants may not know anything about your organisation (unless they’ve had a peek at your website). Would you want to apply for this job?

Use engaging, concise wording that shows off what a great place your business is to work.

The legal bit

• Be mindful of protected characteristics – and what you can and can’t include within a job advert without potentially being discriminatory.

• Be aware of the type of language you’re using – for example, stating that the job would be suitable for recent graduates could easily be seen as ageist. Ensure your job adverts are gender-neutral. 

Find out more about how to avoid discrimination in recruitment in our blog.

• Think about the information you need from applicants – for example, do you require a certain number of references? Will your applicants need to have the right to work in the UK to apply? Will they need to undergo any health screenings as part of the role requirements?

ACAS provide further information and points to consider.

Where should you advertise a job?

There are many channels that you can advertise a new job position in. It’s helpful to utilise different avenues to reach a wide range of people.

This not only increases your candidate pool, but ensures you improve accessibility by not solely advertising the job in channels that some people don’t have access to and can’t view the information.

Job boards

Listing on job boards like Indeed and Totaljobs are a great way to get your vacancy details under as many noses as possible and are always worth looking into.

Employee referral programme

Word of mouth and recommending someone for a job still holds unique value in the workplace today. Don’t underestimate the power of your own team’s connections – they could save you time and money finding the right candidate.

Read more about how employee referral schemes can benefit SMEs.

Social media

Promoting your vacancy via social media is a great way to increase the visibility of your vacancy, with one obvious benefit – it’s usually free (or a very small charge if you want to host more than one job at a time on your company LinkedIn page, for example.)

Try to create an engaging, concise post that quickly highlights the benefits of joining your organisation and use images (or even emojis if that’s your style) to make the post eye-catching.

If your team share the post to reach as wide an audience as possible, you never know who might be scrolling past – it could even be your ideal candidate.

If you want to think outside the box, what about creating a short video that advertises your latest vacancy?

Recruitment agency

If you’re listing a specialist vacancy or have had your job listing open for a while and still haven’t found the right candidate, perhaps the expertise of a recruitment agency could help.

An agency that can understand what type of person you need to fill your available job role can be extremely valuable.

Seamless recruitment for your business

Tired of sifting through CVs in folders and trying to keep on top of who’s coming in for the next interview?

Why not see how Breathe’s applicant tracking tool can make life easier for your business by trialling for free.