Are your job adverts showing off the personality and culture of your organisation? Talking about what you can offer to candidates? Are you selling the role? If you’re wondering how to write an effective job advert, start by considering these questions.
The job advert is very different from the job description. If you’re wondering how to write an effective job advert, remember that the job description will detail the role’s nature, responsibilities, and skills needed. The job advert will go into more detail about your school or trust. Potential candidates will want to know about your culture and whether you can offer any additional benefits. Remember, you are trying to market your school or trust to potential candidates. Give them a reason to apply, so first impressions are essential!
When posting a job at MyNewTerm, there is the ability to search for advert text. This allows you to view adverts that other schools and trust have posted. It’s a great way of benchmarking against other employers and learning how to write an effective job advert.
Here are 5 top tips to help make your job adverts more appealing.
Culture
Make sure to explain a bit about the culture of your school or trust to give candidates an insight into what it is like to work there. It is always a good idea to encourage candidates to visit before applying. This way, they can get a feel for your establishment and see if they would be a good fit. This can also give you a good idea of whether they are someone you wish to interview once the job closes.
Benefits
Detail any benefits that you can offer to candidates, whether this is free on-site parking, a cycle-to-work scheme, or healthcare benefits. With the current recruitment challenges, it is becoming increasingly important to offer something a little bit more. Learning how to write an effective job advert includes considering these benefits.
Role Criteria
Include the essential criteria of the role but not the full job description. The job description and person specification should be added to the advert as attachments. The advert text itself should only cover the highlights of what you are looking for. Think about writing a summary headline to capture the candidate’s interest and encourage them to read on. Knowing how to write an effective job advert involves highlighting these key aspects.
Keywords
Include keywords that can help the advert come up in more searches. Think about what a candidate may be filtering by when searching for a job. Ensure the job title isn’t too wordy and makes it clear what the role is. When posting an advert at MyNewTerm, you have the option to select the establishment type, job category, and stage/subject. Make sure you select anything relevant to the role. This will help your job come up in more searches and help you learn how to write an effective job advert.
Career Page
All schools and trusts have a career page on MyNewTerm. This is a great opportunity to show off the personality of your establishment. Ensure the cover photo on your careers page is up to date and shows the personality of your school. This image also pulls through to all job adverts, so it is really important to choose the right one! This is also a great place to detail those benefits again. Add any extra photos you’d like to share, and a video if you have one. Job adverts link to this page so prospective candidates can go on to find out a little bit more.
In summary, focus more on culture and benefits and less on roles and responsibilities. Let the personality of your school or trust shine and you should see an increase in the number/quality of applicants.
To learn more about the applicant tracking system of choice for the education sector, get in touch here with the MyNewTerm team today.
