You don't have to be a whiz to hire great people or find a great job. This site is about recruiting made simple. Find who you are looking for with tips from a whiz!
Job postings should not be the same as job descriptions.
Job postings should prompt a call to action in a jobseeker. They should inspire someone to pack up a tent and set up camp outside your office building like a Black Friday Target sale. Okay, maybe that’s a little over-eager. But they should make someone excited about working for your company and interested in quickly taking the steps necessary to land a job with you.
Use job postings to convey your culture, highlight specific needs for the job, and explain what kind of person is likely to be successful doing it! This will be far more interesting to applicants than “other duties as assigned.” Job descriptions are better suited as documentation used within the company to describe the intricate details of a job someone already holds.
As a recruiter, I don’t rely heavily on applicants, but I do use job postings to convey necessary details about a job to a candidate in a written format. In that usage, I want to inspire my candidates to be excited about the next step in the interview process, develop some strong follow-up questions, and prepare for likely upcoming questions as we proceed. For more technical positions, it is handy if a client company can provide a job description later in the interview process to give additional detail.
If you’re looking for employees who are active and energized, start with making sure your job postings encourage that attitude!
This blog has undergone a full-day makeover. A new look and lots of new features!
- Now you can search my blog posts depending on your situation – Hiring Manager, HR Team, Jobseeker, Recruiter.
- Curious about what jobs I am actively networking and/or recruiting for on behalf of our clients? Check out the Jobs page!
- I also added pages about my employment background and my current employer. I think it’s important that you know my previous experience and what I can do for you now.
I am really looking forward to adding new content and being a resource for you as a recruiter. Please let me know if there’s anything additional you would like to see!
I recently had a rather unpleasant conversation with a bank’s call center representative. About three weeks ago, they called me to alert me that I had made an error. I asked the rep how I could remedy the problem so that it wouldn’t happen again, she gave me several tips, and I applied them immediately to my standard practice. Today, I received another call from the bank, saying that I had not fixed the problem. I explained that after speaking to the last rep I was assured that my actions would correct the error. The new rep responded that I must not “get it” because there was still an error.
Telling your customer they don’t “get it” isn’t going to promote friendly dialogue. In reality, I did understand the issue, the problem was that the first representative had simply given me incorrect information. I simply wanted the second rep to acknowledge the misinformation by another representative of his company and apologize for the mistake. After several instances of him saying that I didn’t “get it” and re-explaining what I needed to do, I simply hung up. (I know, real mature, right?)
At the company where I work, we would apologize immediately for incorrect information given to clients or candidates by ourselves OR any other individual in our company. We consider it accountability, ownership and service. First, we would apologize, then we would offer assistance in fixing the problem. In the case of my phone call (if I were the rep), I would’ve delivered an apology, issued a credit for the fee and then confirmed that we both understood each other and were happy with the resolution.
After my call, I took the necessary steps to resolve the issue immediately on my side, but the company’s representative had already missed their opportunity. I am already reviewing options for transferring and/or closing my accounts. This is unfortunate.
How do you and your company manage miscommunication or errors? Are you listening for ways you may have contributed to missteps along the way? Perhaps this is an opportunity for process improvement! Do you look for ways to be proactive in turning unhappy customers into happy customers? Some companies are using social media sites like Twitter to look for and respond quickly to customer complaints! I think most people would consider this above-and-beyond their typical expectations, but it does show their commitment to service and on-going, proactive dialogue with their customers.
Last night, I sent a mental thank-you note to Air Canada for the free eye-mask I’d received during a flight to London last year. It was one of those nights where I’d been running so crazy all day that I literally needed to block out all input to my eyes and just shut down.
I’m a huge fan of new technology and get absorbed for hours in clicking through links along the path of new and interesting information. I’m absolutely guilty of checking my Blackberry at 2AM, after waking up to help the baby settle down again. My info-seeking muscle is loving these days! I’m getting text messages, voicemails, emails, tweets, Facebook updates/messages/invites, LinkedIn invites/messages/groups, etc at all hours of the day! I have the added bonus that my kids will provide second-tier alerts if I miss the buzz or ding of my Blackberry. “MOMMY! Your phone is ringing!” or “MOMMY! Your phone went ‘Bzzzzzzzz….’” IT. IS. AWESOME.
On the downside, I’m going to need a clone or figure out how to do without sleep if I don’t learn to disconnect. I’ve been thinking about how to refocus and was suggested an article called “Two Lists You Should Look at Every Morning” by Peter Bregman. He offers a great suggestion on how to “pause, prioritize and focus” by creating a Focus List and an Ignore List for each day. He talks about a study on car accidents revealed that drivers in 80% of car accidents were distracted in the 3 seconds before crashing. It’s ironic that in our constant quest for that little bit of info that might get us ahead, we miss moments of great importance happening right in front of us. CRASH.
The idea of creating a Focus List seems pretty straight-forward. It’s what I need to pay attention to today. These are the things that I don’t want to miss because they make me happy and make me feel successful at the end of the day. My family is tops on this list, followed by friends, my work and personal goals. I know what I need to get done today.
I find the Ignore List much trickier to create. What am I willing to ignore today? For me, I suppose I’d designate these to be things that aren’t time-sensitive. Clearly, reviewing my friends’ Facebook statuses can wait until the end of the day, if I have time after everything else or between other things. I’ve created separate personal email accounts that help me filter necessary vs low-priority messages so I don’t feel so over-burdened by a huge Inbox needing review. This list still requires some work for me.
What is on your Focus List today? What is on your Ignore List today? How can you adapt tools on yesterday’s Ignore List so it provides useful, focused info for tomorrow? Have you found any useful tools to streamline your Focus List so you can add more items? Would love to get your thoughts and feedback in comments.
I am EXCITED about the jobs, candidates and company cultures that are growing in our economy today!
We’re seeing more clients who are getting ahead of the curve by asking us to reach out to passive candidates (employed people who would consider a new job but aren’t actively looking). When I call a potential candidate they usually say that they’d be interested in hearing about new jobs and are willing to transition. Companies like Zappos are masters at engaging with customers in new ways through social media like Twitter and Facebook.
This is an exciting time for recruiting and hiring and finding a new job! People seem less fearful of bad things happening and more interested participating in making good things happen. Competition is fierce, but creativity is high and it is an exciting time to be working.
What steps have you or your company taken to move your business forward? What are you doing to attract top talent that is now willing to transition to forward-thinking organizations?
Hi! I'm Jessica. I believe that recruiting (when done correctly) is about creativity, minimizing limitations and applying new methods to make the whole hiring & job search process a little more efficient for everyone. In this blog, I will focus on recruiting and how HR, jobseekers and recruiters can make the hiring process a little smoother – and maybe a little more fun!
