Creating a good posting involves more than simply listing down the job’s requirements. It has to give applicants a clear idea of what to expect and what you expect in return. By taking a few minutes to craft a more meaningful and well-targeted job posting, you can potentially save hours screening people who shouldn’t even have applied and spend more time choosing candidates who are a better fit for your team.
In the Phillippines jobs listings with a competitive salary are always bound to get a decent number of applications and inquiries. However, they won’t always come from the types of applicants you want to attract. Ideally, you want to make sure that most of the time you spend on the hiring process is used productively, and not just for screening out applicants who shouldn’t even have applied in the first place.
Thankfully, the way you construct your job listing can help you get more of the kinds of applicants you want, and fewer of the ones you don’t. Here are some tips Filipino employers can use to attract more of the right people to the job:
1.) Include an honest salary range
You can save everyone’s time by simply posting the salary range you can afford for the position. A lot of businesses do the annoying practice of omitting salaries in the hope that they can snag an employee that’s willing to be underpaid.
While that might have worked in the pre-internet era, these days experienced applicants who are worth hiring tend to know what salaries they should be getting. Avoid wasting your time as well as that of your applicants by posting a salary range that you are truly willing to deliver on.
2.) Include benefits
If your company offers benefits such as great medical insurance, work-from-home arrangements, allowances, zero-interest loans, and other similar perks, these things may be a bigger draw to some applicants than just the salary. If you know you can’t pay as much as your competitors, including these perks can be a great way to pique the interest of more qualified applicants who wouldn’t have considered the position based on salary alone.
3.) Requirements and desired qualities should be clearly separated
Another recurring issue with many local job postings is that requirements and “good-to-have but not necessary” qualities are not always clearly delineated. For instance, many companies that say they require college graduates but in reality, they’re willing to hire undergrad applicants who demonstrate sufficient experience and competence. This means that they are unnecessarily narrowing down their selection pool for no real benefit. By delineating which things are requirements and which are merely desired qualities, you can avoid overlooking otherwise qualified candidates.
4.) The job title should be accurate and to the point
Some businesses think they’re being clever by saying that they’re looking for an “advertising rock star” or a “sanitation specialist”. But if they’re simply looking for a copywriter or a janitor, that “cleverness” will just go over most people’s heads, needlessly reducing the number of qualified applicants that make inquiries. And if they do understand the joke, they will probably just see your business as being corny or disingenuous, which can affect the type of applicants you attract.
5.) Location
Generally speaking, you only want to be reaching applicants who know where you’re located and don’t have issues with the commute. Commuting is often more stressful than the actual job, especially in the context of megacities like Metro Manila and Cebu. A qualified candidate that cannot commit due to distance is no good to you unless you’re willing to shoulder their relocation (see #2). Still, don’t make too many assumptions as some people do enjoy long commutes. Let the applicants decide if your location is too far or too difficult to get to.
6.) Tell applicants how and where to apply
Some job listings are woefully lacking in detail, often omitting where readers should send their applications. This isn’t a problem with better job sites, but it can be an issue on print or social media page listings. Always include an active email address or a link where the applicant can check out your application process in depth. If you only do personal interviews, be sure to include a physical address and business phone number as well.
7.) Make sure the post is engaging and on-brand
At their core, job postings are advertisements. How a post is presented can reflect directly on a brand and how people respond to it. Unfortunately, the people who write these postings, usually HR professionals who have a lot of other things to worry about, don’t always have these things in mind.
Knowing this, there are two clear problems with many local job posts out there. First, most of them are dry and lack any emotional resonance. Second, most don’t consider the business’s branding. While the lack of either branding or emotional pull won’t stop a post from attracting qualified applicants, it can have a direct effect on how applicants and other readers perceive the business.
When possible, job posting content should be created and vetted by professional writers and editors before it is sent to be printed or posted online. This will go a long way into ensuring that a lot less time is wasted screening applicants who aren’t a good fit.
