What Do Job Applicants Like To See In Your Job Posts?

Picky, picky, picky. That’s what jobseekers are today.  Despite the job market being more competitive than ever, job applicants are even more meticulous about job posts and descriptions. If they don’t like something in the fine print, they’ll keep looking. When searching for jobs, they come in with a pre-determined set of standards and requirements that a job must potentially fulfill.

There’s negotiating room there but you’ll hook them in if your job post checks out. You might be thinking, “But we’re the company with the job. Who choose them, they need us more than we need them,” which is true to an extent—the whole point of putting up a job post is because you have a vacant position and so you need them too.  Take a look at some of the things on jobseekers’ checklists and see if your job posts check out.

Salary

This is a clear one. Companies would prefer to disclose this when an actual job offer is in sight but this is a big determining factor for many jobseekers especially those who aren’t new to the job hunt. They want a preview as to where they would stand financially if they were to work for you. Even if young people today value culture/learning/impact more than they do salary, that doesn’t mean it isn’t still important.

Clearer benefits

Most job posts list down benefits like “fun culture,” “flexible hours,” “free snacks,” and what have you. There’s nothing wrong with having those things but your pull would be much more attractive if you put a little more effort in describing these benefits. What makes your culture fun? How flexible is ‘flexible’ exactly? Define free snacks. These are small things but they might just tip the scale for many jobseekers.

Work schedule/time

Whether or not you offer flexible hours, jobseekers want to know how much of their day they will be spending at work. Sure, the usual 8 hours is the default assumption but what if that’s not what your company is asking for? When applying for work, jobseekers try to envision their daily lives should they be employed with you and knowing Philippine traffic, work schedules weigh heavily.

Job descriptions they can understand

Especially if the job or company is new, it will be difficult to present jobseekers with a clear cut description of what the job will entail. You don’t have to list down, item by item, what the tasks of the job will be (although they would appreciate that) but communicate some of the specific tasks of the job. Sometimes you wont be able to avoid vague statements but “working with talented group of engineers” is a little too vague.

Culture

This one is tricker to convey. Anyone would agree that it’s easier to understand a culture once you’ve been immersed in it but this ranks high on the jobseekers’ checklist. Beyond how much they will be paid or how long their daily wait in traffic will be, culture gives them an idea of what daily life will be like in the office. Many companies assume that a ‘fun culture’ is the way to go but there is a portion of the prospective workforce that prefer a more strict and structured culture.

Timeline & straightforward process

While each applicant might require a different amount of time to assess and process, giving jobseekers a rough timeline and flow of the application process will clear more gray clouds than you know. The job search often entails multiple applications at the same time so jobseeker’s schedules is dependent on the companies’ application timelines. If they don’t have at least a rough idea of that, they don’t know their next appointment.

A reliable response time

There are job matching sites that indicate the recruiter’s activity, presence, or frequency on the site, this makes jobseekers go crazy. If you are going to indicate a response time for applicants, stick to it. When you miss the response window, they assume the worst and small things like adhering to that fine print can go a long way with your potential new hires. Jobseekers often take the job posts literally because it’s really all they have to go on sometimes. They work hard to make their resumes appeal to you, it’s a good idea to return the favor with your job posts. You need them too. If you want to spice up your job posts, you may contact our Quality Assurance Officer through the Kalibrr website, and he’ll make sure your posts are a-okay!

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