Job posting: how to create appealing job ad­ver­tise­ments

The search for new employees is often more difficult than an­tic­i­pat­ed. Market com­pe­ti­tion is fierce and, after all, you don’t just want a competent employee, you also want the chemistry between the new employee and the company to be right. To complete the search suc­cess­ful­ly and quickly, you should write a job ad­ver­tise­ment that is as accurate as possible and describes not just the field of activity, but also your company profile. Just like ad­ver­tise­ments, you also have to attract the attention and interest of the target group when looking for employees. However, what in­for­ma­tion actually belongs in a job posting? And what for­mal­i­ties should one pay attention to when creating and designing a job posting?

A job posting or job ad­ver­tise­ment is a personnel man­age­ment letter that informs can­di­dates about the job available. A job ad­ver­tise­ment might offer one job in a specific location, or advertise several jobs available within a company, or offer a job that requires a regular change of location.

Job ad­ver­tise­ments are the start of the re­cruit­ment process – they are intended to provide potential ap­pli­cants with both in­for­ma­tion and in­cen­tives. Whether it is a private law contract or a public service post, it is common practice to prepare a vacancy notice for it. However, there is no legal oblig­a­tion to advertise a vacancy, as is the case for some civil servant jobs, when it comes to em­ploy­ment re­la­tion­ships governed by private law. There are only a few in­di­vid­ual re­quire­ments – like the oblig­a­tion to formally advertise pro­fes­sor­ships at sci­en­tif­ic uni­ver­si­ties.

The be-all and end-all of a good job ad­ver­tise­ment is content. Before you get into the design and dis­tri­b­u­tion aspects, you need to clarify what in­for­ma­tion must be included in the ad. It is also important to give the content an ap­pro­pri­ate structure and length so that potential ap­pli­cants are ready to deal with the ad. It is also important to filter out in­for­ma­tion that isn’t relevant to the achieve­ment of the objective (readers who match the ad­ver­tise­ment profile apply according to the desired ap­pli­ca­tion in­for­ma­tion).

In principle, you have a lot of freedom when designing a job ad­ver­tise­ment. Nev­er­the­less, be sure to take the areas presented in the following sections into account when you create a job posting.

Before you talk about the job itself in your job ad­ver­tise­ment, you should use the first few lines to introduce your company to potential new employees. To stop the company pre­sen­ta­tion getting out of hand and taking up more space than the job de­scrip­tion, you should carefully consider how you can highlight aspects like business and location. A compact, exciting briefing that outlines your business area and high­lights the corporate values and ad­van­tages of the location is perfectly suf­fi­cient for at­tract­ing readers’ attention. Typically, the current number of employees is also mentioned. Some of the features that should be high­light­ed are:

• Company history (for tra­di­tion­al companies)
• Con­nec­tions to schools, uni­ver­si­ties etc.
• Suprare­gion­al ac­tiv­i­ties
• Part­ner­ships and co­op­er­a­tions
• Awards

After you have in­tro­duced your company, describe the vacancy that needs to be filled. It is your job to inform potential employees as thor­ough­ly as possible about what they can expect in your company. So, name the available position on the one hand, and explain which ac­tiv­i­ties and goals are linked to it on the other. Depending on the job, ap­pli­cants may also be in­ter­est­ed in who or which de­part­ments they will work with. It is also important to know whether the job is full-time or part-time and where the applicant would be working.

The re­quire­ment profile is extremely important for companies and potential employees alike. It gives them the op­por­tu­ni­ty to make concrete spec­i­fi­ca­tions about the training or education required for the position, which in turn shows the candidate whether or not they have the necessary qual­i­fi­ca­tions for the job. You also need to indicate whether you have any special re­quire­ments regarding foreign language or IT skills. If it is relevant to the job, also specify whether or not a driver’s license is required or ad­van­ta­geous.

The re­quire­ment profile often also contains a list of social skills that future employees should bring with them. However, you should not resort to vague de­scrip­tions like “can­di­dates must be flexible and able to work under pressure.” With these phrases, the applicant can only guess what qualities you are actually looking for, and in the worst case, may even cause them to forego an ap­pli­ca­tion. If you are “looking for an employee who can come up with creative solutions to problems and keeps a cool head during critical sit­u­a­tions,” state your wishes clearly.

In the previous section of the job posting, you have already made it clear what you expect from your potential future employee. Now, they want to know what you can offer them in return. This is less about the “at­trac­tive salary” you pay, because no doubt your com­peti­tors will offer the same. Consider which ad­di­tion­al con­di­tions and achieve­ments you can impress ap­pli­cants with, since in this regard you can stand out from other companies. Here are some services you can offer to make your company stand out from the com­pe­ti­tion:

• Flexible working times
• Good career op­por­tu­ni­ties
• Training and further education op­por­tu­ni­ties
• Voluntary benefits
• Health­care expenses
• Canteen or food subsidies
• Re­lo­ca­tion costs
• Company cars, bicycles, etc.

When you create a job posting, you should try to gather as much feedback as possible. In order to get this feedback, the job ad­ver­tise­ment should also contain all relevant in­for­ma­tion for the ap­pli­ca­tion process. You should therefore always answer the following questions:

• Can I apply by post, e-mail, or both?
• What postal/e-mail address should the ap­pli­ca­tion be sent to?
• Which ap­pli­ca­tion documents are required (letter of ap­pli­ca­tion, resume, cer­tifi­cates, etc.)?
• What is the latest date that ap­pli­ca­tions can be submitted by?
• Who can I direct any questions to?

In the event that in­ter­est­ed can­di­dates can apply elec­tron­i­cal­ly, you should specify what the desired file formats are. Please indicate in the job ad­ver­tise­ment whether you would prefer to receive the documents in PDF format and the maximum size of the files submitted.

As pre­vi­ous­ly touched upon, it is important to make sure your ad­ver­tise­ment text has some life to it. Creative for­mu­la­tions are an important building block that can help you stand out from your com­peti­tors. Think about which target group you want to reach with your ad in order to find the right language and style. A teaser-like in­tro­duc­tion, rhetor­i­cal questions, or mental images, for example, will help you to involve the reader and loosen up the text. Also, a concrete request for action is often a good way to reach ap­pli­cants.

Despite any stylistic so­phis­ti­ca­tion, however, you should never lose sight of the leg­i­bil­i­ty or com­pre­hen­si­bil­i­ty of the ad­ver­tis­ing text. Avoid com­pli­cat­ed sentence struc­tures, abstract for­mu­la­tions, passive con­struc­tions, nominal style, and empty phrases. With clear language and a com­pre­hen­si­ble structure for your job posting, potential ap­pli­cants will be able to un­der­stand quicker which qual­i­fi­ca­tions are important to you and what dis­tin­guish­es your company. Also, use gender neutral language to appeal to both men and women.

Finally, you should visually highlight the text by giving the job posting the ap­pro­pri­ate layout. If you seam­less­ly arrange the different text blocks without any optical or topo­graph­i­cal high­lights, a large chunk of text might deter the reader despite the high quality of content and language. Therefore, just use as much text as is actually necessary and highlight important in­for­ma­tion – es­pe­cial­ly the name of the ad­ver­tised position – by using larger type or boldface. Sub­head­ings and para­graphs also make it easier to read the job ad.

The use of pictures – il­lus­tra­tions or photos – as eye-catchers and to loosen up the text, is also extremely important.

Apart from content and structure, there are some legal re­quire­ments you should bear in mind when creating your job posting. These include the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Equal Pay Act of 1963, the Pregnancy Dis­crim­i­na­tion Act of 1978 and the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, to name but a few (more in­for­ma­tion on anti-dis­crim­i­na­tion laws can be found here. Employers may not dis­crim­i­nate against can­di­dates for the following reasons, thanks to federal and state anti-dis­crim­i­na­tion leg­is­la­tion in the US:

• Race
• Ethnic origin
• Gender
• Religion
• Dis­abil­i­ty
• Age
• Sexual Identity

This law also applies to job ad­ver­tise­ments (as well as the entire ap­pli­ca­tion process). Con­se­quent­ly, you must ensure that your job ad­ver­tise­ment is free from this kind of dis­crim­i­na­tion. For example, if you include in your ad­ver­tise­ment that you’re looking for “young workers” or “young support for a committed team,” older people are unlikely to feel welcome to apply and may feel dis­crim­i­nat­ed against.

If you create a job posting taking into account the tips mentioned in this article, there is a good chance that the vacancy can be filled ap­pro­pri­ate­ly. Whether the newly recruited employee will be part of your company in the long term also depends to a certain extent on the job ad­ver­tise­ment. As the first point of contact with your company, the posting creates ex­pec­ta­tions for the position and for you as an employer. If they are dis­ap­point­ed, for example because the ac­tiv­i­ties do not match those described in the ad­ver­tise­ment, a long-term com­mit­ment of the new employee is unlikely. An over-or under-de­scrip­tion of the assigned tasks also often leads to the new employee quitting faster than you would like.

In order to prevent this kind of scenario, the content of the job ad­ver­tise­ment should be as realistic as possible while primarily being an ad­ver­tise­ment. The better the job ad­ver­tise­ment reflects your company and your ex­pec­ta­tions of the job to be filled, the greater the prob­a­bil­i­ty or finding not only the best candidate for the job, but also a satisfied employee for the long-term.

Click here for important legal dis­claimers.

Click here for important legal dis­claimers.