Writing a professional job advert

There is nothing worse than seeing daily an unprofessional job advert hanging around on the internet, shop windows, newspaper or on a leaflet just to mention a few, posted by companies/establishments who are looking for someone reliable, hard worker and to understand them. 

I am asking everyone, how can I know if a job is that what I am looking for, if I don't know the required working hours, days, the contract type, what is that they are looking for in me as their employee, and if I don't know how much the salary is etc.? There is no way of knowing it. Most of the time we just guess and hope it will turn out as it should be, but what if it's more likely they look for someone more experienced or qualified or for someone who has knowledge in using certain softwares and the company doesn't wish to train the new comer etc.? Yes, there is no way that an applicant will know these, unless it is stated.  It can be very frustrating, specially if you advertise on a page that charges you and also reaches a very broad band of job seekers (plenty of them who want to work and interpret things mainly on their own way ;) ). It can be time consuming for you as a hirer and for the job seeker as well. So let's make things simple and write a great ad:

1. What should your job advert contain?

• Who are you? Write shortly about you company, but please don't use copy+paste... Write.  ex. Since when are you on the market? Which industry/ sector (s) is your main speciality? What are you aims? Who are you looking for and what's the purpose of that role within your establishment? 
• Job title:  It is to show and reflect the seriousness of a role and responsibilities that come with it. If unsure about the title, do a little research and then try to match it as much as possible to the position. It is very important! Ex. if someone is dealing with  Accounts Management don't give them Sales Assistant title; Titles are meant to show what people mainly do/ take the responsibility for and not just to give them something to sound nice or make the environment believe how serious we are here... Of course at smaller places more roles can be/ are filled by one person, but even then the most matching title should be found. 
• Contract type: Do you want to fill a temporary or a permanent role? Is it a full time or a part time job? How many hours a week, which days? How are breaks counted? If it is a zero hour contract mention that, but as well the incentives that come with it later on. If it is a temp to perm role define what can assure the applicant that you really are serious about it. Ex.: after a certain period you'll have a chat whether you'll keep the person or not. In my opinion two months are more than enough to decide whether you really want someone on board or not. 
• Job description: What do you want the person to do whilst working for you? What are the duties and responsibilities?
• The candidate: Don't just write here that you want someone friendly and fun, say that you need an experienced person in which industry, who for example knows how to use Java, Oracle or Adobe Photoshop, etc. because you might use those programs the most, or you want someone who has a driving license. State in this section what you are looking for in the job seeker, as a professional. If you offer training then state that too. You are looking eventually for someone who will help you improve, move your business forward and not for a play pal. 
• Salary: Base salary + commission if applies. Please don't hide what you have on offer, every company has a budget and as you worked it out in your plan already you too. If you aren't sure about an exact amount then write a scale there with minimum and maximum amount from which everyone can negotiate. 
• Additional bonuses you offer? Why is it worth working for you? Here you can mention positive things even about your friendly working environment, but don't overreact it, stay cool and "sweet". 

2. What should our job advert NOT contain?
Why this? Because usually people tend to listen more when you say "don't to this/ that!" and is more likely that it sticks in their head and makes the brain work.

• Gender, age, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, marital status as these are discriminative and against the law . It is not fair on people and believe me it shouldn't be an issue at all who you hire until they are able and happy to do the job. Ex. Once funnily I was about to apply for a job with a brilliant new establishment, who were looking for an administrator/ marketinger and in their application form they stated they aren't discriminating anyone and treat equally every applicant. Reaching almost the end of my application form there was a two page long statement. I was required to write down which religion do I practice, which church I am going to, who is my priest and what are their contact details for future references? I went like: "What?! :O ". I am applying for a job, get it, why is that important which church I am going to? What if I don't go to church? I guess I won't get the job :) so that's shortly... Please do avoid these kind of actions.
• 3 sentence of the work, a job title and nothing else. Ok people get the point you have a role available but do you know how many people will apply for it? Let me tell you, a lot (or worst case non...), but let me tell you also I bet at least 50% of the applicants won't be suitable for you... (People who really care and want to work with true professionals they will look for true professional job adverts and ignore silly non sense ones. Desperate &/ or people looking to gain more experience in the industry will apply for everything that has even the slightest thing to do with their interest or is related to the role they are looking for.). I learnt that plenty of agencies do this in order to raise the volume of their data base, which I find very sad but on the other hand there are plenty of companies also who post these kind of ads, so they need to learn and master the process of writing a professional job advert. 

In the followings I'll write an example to a job advert and cases I had/ met in the past. I believe these really are things we can argue and should think about seriously. 

1. My first job advert from a long time ago (Fictive case with updated dates):

Fasterthanothers Ltd. is a company dealing with transport organizing on local and international (EU) markets for more than 5 years. What shows the best that our company is expanding rapidly is the fact that we require an other person to join us on board and fill an other new position just within a year. We are looking for a Transport Planner to start by the 13th of January 2014. 
Our colleague's duties & responsibilities are following:
-The planning of freight forwarding
- Constant liaising with clients and drivers
- Ensure cost effective routing and that deadlines are met
- Keep track, report and inform relevant people of frights organized by him/ her
- E-mailing/ faxing documents related to freight responsible for
- Filing documents (ex. copy of invoices sent) 
- Work together with colleagues to optimize ride numbers/ coverage 
We are looking for someone with following attributes: 
- Fluent English (Good grammar written and verbal as well), German and any other European language is a bonus
- Excellent IT skills and the ability to learn new programs easily
- Min. 3 months experience in a Transport organizer/ Logistic role (non experienced welcome as well but looking for someone with strong logical and analytical way of thinking)
- Minimum A level educated
- Self motivated, confident person with excellent and effective communication skills 

We provide two weeks of intensive "Work while you learn", paid training for the successful applicant with on the go support. We offer a starting salary of £18000 - £22000/ year, depending on experience and qualification. 37.5 hours work per week/ Monday - Saturday + commission after each freight organized. We provide company mobile, gym membership and a 30 days paid holiday/ year (including bank holidays). Performance and base salary will be evaluated every 6 month. Industry related training provided whilst working with us, followed by a nationally recognized certificate if exams successfully taken. The role is permanent with two months of probation period. 

If this sounds like something you are interested in please get in touch by sending us your CV and motivation letter in which you tell us why do you think this is the right role for you and what can you bring to our company. 
Applications' closing date is the 14th of December 2013. noon. Every successful applicant who is invited for a first stage interview will be notified by the 17th of December to arrange a date suitable. Applicants invited will be asked to provide references. Thank you for your time, we look forward to hearing from you and don't forget: Be Faster Than Others! 

2. Not this, please...  

I was walking up the road the other day and I saw a job advert stuck to a well known shop's window. I read it and was thinking to ask more information about it. It was stating only that's a temporary role, the job title and in 4 lines what the responsibilities are and 6 line what they are looking for. 

When I saw the store manager I said I am interested in the role. First thing she replied: Do you have your CV with? I said to her, I don't and it is not clear for me what they want exactly. She seemed surprised. I told her my situation how I am free to work and asked her if the position is full time or part time. She then replied that I don't suit their needs because they offer a 0 hour contract and want someone who is ready to work when they want it. After I asked how much do they offer? She said an amount below minimum wage and I was like: What???? :O. 

Basically where I want to get out, is this:  if you want someone on board for your like, then mention that in your advert this way you save time for yourself and the applicants as well. This position wasn't just clearly undefined availability wise but as well underpaid. If you want someone who is good (reliable, hard working) and when you wish, then pay for the service they provide otherwise keep on looking. You need to pay attention of what you write in your ad, you need to know what you are looking for and you need to be able to communicate clearly. If needed please train your staff about this, half an hour of your time for them and you saved hours if not days or weeks of hassle from your business' life. You can do it and do take the effort you won't regret it. 

3. How professionals (fed up job seekers) get a job

I remember once talking to a friend of mine - who works in the Financial sector-, he told me that he got his job following way: He urgently needed to work and as he got fed up with non sense ads where he just couldn't figure it out what the company wants or whether it is worth applying there or not, one day he decided to just send everyone his CV who ever had any word, sentence, job title relevant to what he was looking for and kept hoping for the best. He reached a limit of sending out daily a 100 times his application. Now this is waoo... Imagine, average 80 applications from him for a day that is 560/ week from which one phoned him up and invited him for an interview. He eventually got that job, but imagine on the other hand he applied for jobs where his application might not be relevant at all to the recruiter (whether company or agency) so how many people bothered unnecessary? At least 500 I bet just within one week and by one person. This was the best I heard till now but don't think he was the only friend of mine who did this :)). We have a say back home: The way you plant will define the way you harvest. So if your ads are not good you can get lots of applications but not all of them are what you are looking for.  

So yes, with these few example above I am trying to explain that there are thousands of job seekers out there and we shouldn't be wondering/ surprised at all if such a wire hits us and for one role we get within a day 100 application from which maybe 10 is roughly that what we are looking for, or in worst case we don't receive anything. 

To avoid this we need to know what we want from that position. I wrote previously also that we need to specify this in our recruitment plan, and when done, we can write the ad that hits.

Good luck and use Google or communicate with others if unsure about procedures. :)

Let's recruit successfully

When a position becomes or is due to become free you need to look for new candidate to fill it and as everyone else you too want the best on board. How this can happen? Easily if you know what you want. Let's not forget that in the followings I am going to mention steps to in house recruiters  (Director, HR manager, HR Assistant or other Appointed person -can vary depending on company's structure and size) focusing mainly on small to medium companies but of course if anyone else is interested please feel free to use it. First and most of all make recruitment plan (draft) with deadlines that you can/are able to and will follow and should contain:

 1. Time* & budget for recruitment process (yes, needed because: you need to advertise one way or the other and on a multinational market almost everything costs money and specially if you involve outsiders; you need to give bonuses to your employees in case of successful referrals if that applies at your company; you have to deal with administrative costs such as printing and document filing - this isn't that relevant but still exists, etc.)

•  *Time required for the role begins as soon as you start working on the project - including this plan - and should be defined depending of the type of role (assistant or senior role), the ways** how you'll let prospective employees know about the opportunity to work for you and urgency of filling the position (if you need someone to start in two weeks time then you won't start advertising the role a week before start date - unfortunately this happens but hey, is never too late to learn). You need to calculate in the time process the interview (depending how many people you plan to interview and how many levels the interview is going to have will define the length of it), decision taking till the first day of work commences. 
• *As we know - if not we will learn now -  that as higher the position as harder to fill the role. Highly experienced professionals in most cases already work or they hardly bother themselves looking for work. Agents/companies mainly look for/get in touch with them and not vice versa. In case of those working for longer period in the same position/at same company a career/work place change can be done easier because they already have the relevant connections to swift. On the other hand the market on the supply side of assistants is packed. Demand for work is high, lots of young and old people as well are looking for work; lots of professionals at the early/late beginning of their career are looking for career change and consider assistant roles as the best possibility to start from. Of course in case of each industry and position there are factors such as need for that role generally, number/ possibility of qualified and experienced people, salary paid, company reputation, etc., that increases/decreases the desire/demand to fill the specific role. But as the recruiter knowing your market and company you should be able to easily filter these factors as well determine the rough/min. amount of potential applicants within certain period depending where/ how you advertise. 
• ** We can advertise a role in a lot of ways. Now which one we use will depend on which is most important to you: quality (finding the most experienced and qualified candidate), price ( keeping costs of recruitment process low, at this part mainly advertising costs, because that can be the highest) and time ( how fast you wish to fill the place). If you want to keep costs low you have the possibility to search for example websites, forums that offer the possibility to advertise free - advised to find and use as much as possible in the same time and don't forget to keep track of it <ex. just to mention a few: indeed, jobsafari, freeads, jobtube, bestjobsuk, freeindex>. These might not get you the most desired (quality) candidate but will keep your costs low also advertising on more pages gives you the possibility to reach more applicants, perhaps to find someone right + fast. Advertise on your own website which if you are a small company won't be so successful as maybe lots of people don't even know you exist but if used together with other options can boost your chances. You can advertise for free by letting your connections know on your social media pages <ex. the most common ones: linkedin, facebook, twitter etc.> you have the specified "position available and if interested or their friends are then get in touch" on contact details provided. Asking your colleagues to ask around doesn't harm nor does assure someone very experienced or qualified but still can be useful. If your colleagues don't have a long list of connections or aren't interested in helping you that will be tricky but if you really want to keep costs low use as much of the free options simultaneously as possible. Don't forget this can take up from your time by posting the ads but in the same time with more ads posted in more sites, more job seekers will be reached and bigger the chance to find someone suitable. If you desperately need someone really good then pay for your advertising. Will costs you but certainly will reach quickly your target audience. You can do this by posting ads in newspapers (always decide which is the most related to your role/ industry and/or reaches lots of possible jobseekers), well known websites with high number of readers (theguardian, metro, gumtree), or look for yourself in CV databases (always check the CV is up to date) very last involve agencies (I am certain your company can and is able to manage so challenge and teach yourself and just do it you won't regret it and you/ the appointed person dealing with the process can only learn, a lot, whilst the possibility that agencies get you the right person are as high as you doing it for yourself). 

2. Full description of position you want to fill. Define relevant job title, contract type (temp/ perm, part or full time work), probation period, responsibilities/ & duties (job description) - if you want an assistant then don't write the manager's responsibilities/ duties in the job spec; budget for the role (what is the salary you are going to pay and what are the bonuses? Check the market salary range if you aren't sure and then see what extras you will/ can offer such as phone, commission, training, paid traveling costs, money compensation for a task delivered, etc.), progression & development measurement policies, working days & hours.

3. Application and Interview process: 

• The most commonly used way of applying is when your request a Curriculum Vitae (I know there are people who don't tell the truth but you know your market, interview is there to screen, the option of asking for references was invented to filter again and not everyone is making up things; besides uncertain employers generated the uncertainty with poorly communicated desires) with or without motivation letter (motivation letters are great if yourself know what your purpose of it is <you want someone to show you how well spoken they are, or how good their grammar is, or you want to know what their motivation is applying for that role - trap of Ctrl+C & Ctrl+V, etc.>), some companies use CV style online formula with prescreening surveys (make sure if you use one like this just pay attention to which position you apply the survey too and is relevant) and other application formulas (google: types of application forms). Which one you'll use is entirely up to you but try to keep things short, to the point, "sweet" (friendly and professional) and relevant. Most commonly used interview stages are two, but big companies sometimes can have up to five. 
• At the first stage of interview what I think nowadays should be used and "brought in fashion" is online face-to-face interviewing. This can be useful because if you have more relevant applicants than you were expecting you can filter after an online interview who are the ones you actually want to see   in real. By this technique you can ensure you keep the timings, really get those for a personal interview you think are eventually more relevant and also you can help the jobseekers to save traveling costs & time. Phone interviews as a first stage interview are commonly used too but online face-to-face interviews can be much more effective as you can see peoples faces, their reactions to certain questions and ensure you really speak to the person who is applying for the role. This is the 21st century be innovative :). Second stage is face-to-face interview at your office's/ place on a prearranged date which can count as first stage if phone/ online interview isn't applied. In case you organize second stage which follows any of the previously mentioned ones (I would like to mention that it might be that more different senior staff at the company would like to repeat the first stage)  should serve the purpose to measure certain skills and abilities of an applicant (get to know them better) so organize it that way and let lucky applicants know about it and the process. Here at this stage you should discuss the job package as well to ensure there are no confusions and both parties agree or negotiate if required of terms. This stages can be mixed and matched as I said can depend on the seriousity of the role, the size of the company etc, can be longer or shorter which ever is most suitable just plan it in advance. When all is done good analyzing and common sense to pick the most suitable candidate. 

When your plan is ready to go it's time to build your professional ad that should stand out and to show how professional you are.

On the job market there is a theory floating round: "That employees won't spend more than 10 seconds on applicants CV". Stop following theories and start acting, unless you are a multinational company getting in 1000 of applications for one role in 2 days you don't need to follow this. Take your time and read the CVs, you have time and you want to know who you get on board. If you think that it is unnecessary then it means you don't have time for other things either so if I am a serious applicant and see this I will be very disappointed and won't take you seriously. I faced so many times this issue: I got to an interview and apart from my name the interviewer didn't have a clue of what's in my CV then when we start talking of the content  turned out that she/ he is astonished how many things I can actually bring to the company of what they are looking for and they didn't know and I was like :O? "It is in my CV... :/". 

What you need to bear in mind your recruitment plan should contain whether you are looking to fill a volunteer, intern, apprentice or a part/ full time employment on temporary/ permanent basis. According to that know what regulations are out there that you need to prepare for.

For ex.: if you wish to fill an internship position that you wish to run for a year but divided to 4 x 3 months periods don't tell applicants that you want to offer them a real job at the end of their internship because if someone doesn't perform and you keep them working for you for three months and then off you go that person might think you were unfair. The reason behind this is because people tend to focus only on good things that benefit/ motivate them and in this case is the job for which they should, will work hard to get. It might turn out that doesn't suit their skill set or they aren't actually performing that good as you hoped, but in the same time they think they are really good which can be the case comparing things to their past experiences so they make hopes too. And as quite few establishments are on it to still exploit, miss lead them to get someone who does the job for free if you have this case that is hmm... I know this sounds hard to say and the intern idea mentioned easy to accomplish and well ready to go but in long run it will harm big time your company/-reputation if you are irresponsible, don't plan and communicate well. Dear to be honest and fair there are people out there who will appreciate it, need your honesty and understand that. You have the power in your hand use it wisely ;).

Planning the recruitment process might seem hard but if you as the recruiter have good people, communication skills and real interest in the position you want to fill this shouldn't be hard at all in contrary.

Basically the best doesn't necessary mean a graduate from a top notch university, or the best sales man next door, or the most good looking guy/ girl who has the best connections on the whole world. It means getting someone on board that you see has the drive/ passion, has the relevant idea/ experience and is a person that you can mold while still leaving her/ him intact and see the opportunity in the person to be a great ambassador for your company and have that gut feeling about the whole situation and faith this will work out. 

My aim is to give ideas and point of views according to my knowledge and experiences for those who are interested and the above written are my ways of dealing with a recruitment process in this case if it matches anyone else's description that is pure coincident and well that proves the possibility that more people think the same way which is just brilliant :). Good luck to finding the best and keeping him/ her.