Your job ad has been up for weeks and you haven’t gotten any viable applicants yet. The clock is ticking. The longer this position sits open, the more money your company bleeds due to lost productivity. You can’t figure out why nobody’s biting. Where have all the good candidates gone? The good news is that you’re looking in the right place. Believe it or not, candidates are probably circling around your job ad but sometimes it’s not enticing enough to apply or doesn’t make sense to them, leaving your position unfilled and your company spending more money on hiring than it has to. Job hunting shouldn’t be a headache.
What Do You Want?
If you were a third party looking at your job description, would it make sense? Are you using a lot of industry jargon that takes time to learn? If so, you might need to ease up and be realistic. So many bright candidates hop from industry to industry and assimilate quickly, making valuable additions to any team, but if they can’t understand your job ad, they will most definitely move on to more accessible job postings.
Compare your specs to similar jobs on the market. Are you asking similar things of your foreman that your competitors are? Are you offering less money for a more strenuous job? A skimpy salary or employee benefits program can make applicants run for the hills. It might be time to re-evaluate your position and salary offered. Nobody likes spending more money, but if the salary of a position hasn’t changed in ten years, it’s probably due for an update.
Extreme Makeover: Job Ad Edition
Check your language on the job ad. If it’s written in a cold, unfriendly tone, it may drive people away, especially if it focuses solely on the essential requirements. Remember to tell candidates why you want to work here. Job seekers can feel burnt out just by reading the job requirements and expected tasks, so make sure you take a paragraph to touch on the culture and why other employees stick around. Also make sure to use gender neutral language to include women in male-dominated industries.
People might not remember the application process if it works, but they WILL remember if it’s really, really terrible. Also have an employee go through your application process on both a desktop computer and a mobile device. If the application process is clunky or time-consuming, you need to clean it up until the application process runs quickly and smoothly on all platforms. This will keep applicants engaged until they submit their application and will also make them more responsive when you start calling for interviews.
Start With the Man in the Mirror
One of the biggest flaws in a company’s hiring strategy is that they miss out on awesome candidates that are right under their noses. Hiring internally is a fantastic option for the company. Your employees are already aware of the company’s culture and values and have a general idea of how the open position fits in the greater structure of the company. They are more likely to adapt quickly to their new role and become highly productive members of your team.
Internal hiring gives your employee engagement a huge boost as well. If you choose to post job openings internally first, you send the message to existing employees that you value their career development and want them to have a career path within your company. Before you click “post” on that job ad, send out a quick email to employees and wait a few days to see if anyone internally is interested. It may be one extra step but in the long run, it will save significant time and money.
Your ideal candidate is already out there on job boards or within your company. By seeking out opportunities to improve your presence on job sites and making positions available for internal hiring, you can secure the best candidate for every position quickly.
The BirdDogHR applicant tracking system is integrated with hundreds of job boards for wide job distribution with a single click, giving you a leg up against the competition. Contact us to schedule a demo today.
