Top 5 tips for writing an online job advert

Recruitment has squarely moved online. The key to good advertising is making your job advert as attractive as possible for job seekers. Here are our top 5 tips for writing an effective job advert, based on what we’ve learned from publishing more than 3,500 jobs and running market research with more than 400 prospective job seekers.

1. Job Title & Content

Choose a job title that is common within the industry you operate in. Once this has been determined dedicate time to ensure that the advert text is of top quality.  Explaining the job is important however, include a single paragraph that gives 3 to 5 reasons of what applicants will find most exciting about the job and why they should apply. Sounds pretty intuitive yet we still find that some employers add a basic list of responsibilities or requirements expected from the job seekers.

2. Salary

Research run by jobsinmalta.com shows that more than 50% of candidates are attracted by the remuneration offered by the job. Maltese employers are usually reluctant to display a salary range, which does not help in attracting job applicants.

3. Applying should be effortless

Migrating old habits to the online world does not work. Filling out long and complicated forms is so 1990s.  Candidates should be able to apply effortlessly. Around 50% of Maltese job seekers browse jobs via their phone. Non-responsive sites, website that are not optimised for different devices or screen sizes, tend to have high drop off rates.

4. Share Share Share

Today everyone is a broadcaster and prospective applicants are spread over the internet. Gone are the days that a single print advert attracts hundreds of applicants. You need to work to ensure your advert is on multiple social media sites. Getting your team to share it, comment and like it, is critical for it to work.

5. Speed is everything

After all this effort you need to make sure that you actually make an offer and fill that role.

Hiding behind applicant tracking software or email addresses does not cut it. Job applicants expect prompt feedback and your HR team should be there to provide it. Our experience dictates that a job seeker spends an average of two (short) weeks searching for a job. Decide whether you’d like to call in the applicant for an interview, and act fast… in all probability job seekers tend to have more interviews lined up with other employers.

jobsinmalta.com is a job board with a strong network of partners including Malta’s most popular news sites and most important educational institutions. With over 30,000 monthly users and 40,000 social media followers.