Hiring a new employee is often one of the most difficult decisions to make as a hiring manager. It can be time-consuming, stressful, and —if you make the wrong decision—costly. But before you even bring in potential employees for an interview, or even figuring where to post a job listing, you face the task of creating an enticing job description.
Bringing in quality applicants can help streamline the hiring process and end up saving you time and money. To do this, you need to focus on the first point of contact you have with your potential employees, which is the job description. EBI put together 15 science backed tips to help you write job descriptions.
Here are some of the main takeaways:
Title
Since this is the first time a potential applicant will see the job, you should make it count. Make sure your title is 50-60 characters. Be specific to the industry for which you are posting. For example, if a hospital is trying to hire a certified nursing assistant, they have better luck getting applicants if they use the term “CNA”. This seems like the industry is more familiar with the term CNA.
Description
The true meat of the job posting is going to be the description. The ideal length for the description is 4,000 – 5,000. Remember the age range of the target applicant as well. People over 35 are more likely to want a job that is longer term. People 16-24 just want jobs that pay the bills.
Overall Notes
One thing you’ll also need to keep in mind is the time it takes a user to complete your overall application. If it takes more than 15 minutes to complete, there is almost a 370% decrease in the submissions. One way to do this is by making the text in the description scannable using bullets and shorter paragraphs. Users tend to skim the job description, looking for key terms.
You can see the full list here:
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