To attract your future skilled and productive employees, make your first impression count. No matter who you hire, you’ll be investing resources, training, time, and money, so sourcing skilled candidates is the first step to getting a solid employee ROI.

Solid candidates looking for a progressive organization, and meaningful work experiences, will overlook opportunities if you’ve failed to provide them with important information-qualitative information about who you are as an organization, your culture, values, offerings, and how you treat employees.  People are looking for more than ‘just a job’.

Generic ads do suffer. A basic old style ad that just describes the position, responsibilities and education requirements may give a potential applicant the impression that ‘things haven’t changed in your organization’.  There’s  no evidence you’re a reputable employer and there’s room for assumptions that your organization is not yet on board with the best people practices that value contributions, support employee development, and ensure a progressive healthy working environment.  Time to refresh how you are selling your organization to potential employees

Welcome to the new “basics” of a vacancy ad:

• Employer branding is the new norm.  You may not have the resources for a full branding initiative, but you already have enough information to share.  That includes: your vision; your goals; what you value; your attitudes toward employees; and what you have to offer.  People need to have a sense of the employee experience and what’s great about working in your organization.  And, culture fit is often more important than skill fit. 
• The position and reporting structure, primary focus and key responsibilities.  Articulate the highlights so people will know if their strengths align with the position.
• The experience, credentials and education requirements for your ‘ideal candidate’.  Many skills are transferable across positions, so be clear, but keep an open view to where candidates have gained experiences.
• Make it easy for candidates to submit resumes.  People may be deterred by a cumbersome process.  If your process is complex, your competitors may benefit.

Try this:

Checkout the national and provincial lists of ‘top employers’, then look to their career sites.  Or, review through any career listing and you’ll see how the new ad basics do impress.  Then proudly share what you offer.