Hiring People_ Recruit and Keep the Brightest Stars - Kathy Shwiff [7]
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The length of time that listings remain posted varies from site to site, so ask how long your ad will be up. The longer the better. There are also some sites that will let you test-drive their database—offering you one free perusal, or giving you limited access for a set price. Also, you need to know if companies that pay a premium get preferential placement. In that case, your ad might fall to the bottom of the list—meaning fewer people will see your listing.
The cost of Internet listings varies widely, depending on your specific needs. Although some Web sites have introduced pay-for-performance pricing, similar to Google’s practice of charging advertisers a certain amount for each person who clicks on their ads, that method usually doesn’t work with recruitment ads—the best job candidates are not necessarily those clicking on your ad, so you shouldn’t have to pay for those random hits.
For print ads, either in newspapers or trade magazines, you usually pay by the word or by the line. Larger display ads, or those with special attention-getting design elements typically cost more. On the other hand, your local weekly newspaper or shopper can often be a bargain if you don’t mind restricting your candidate pool to people in your local area.
Writing Your Ad
The quality of your ad makes a big difference to how much response it will generate. Before you sit down to write, however, survey other listings for similar jobs in the sites or publications in which you plan to advertise. This will give you an idea of what other companies are doing to attract people with the same skills and how much they are paying in wages and benefits.
Your ad needs to be livelier than the competition’s. Grab the attention not just of serious job seekers, the people who are aggressively searching for a new position, but also of people who may not be completely happy with their current job and are browsing the classifieds to see what’s out there.
Think about what kind of person you’re seeking, and anticipate what might interest that individual in your company. Determine what’s outstanding about this particular job? Where does its appeal lie? The pay? The benefits? Its fast pace? Opportunity for advancement? It’s a good idea to succinctly state the most appealing aspects of the job up front. Then add the basic details of the job description described in the section above: title, qualifications and experience, salary or pay range, a note about any benefits that you offer, such as a 401(k), medical, or dental plans, and your contact information.
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Outside the Box
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HOW TO CHOOSE
When trying to fill a position, companies tend to look for a candidate whose last job, or next-to-last job, was an exact copy of the one they’re trying to fill. However, some of the best minds in American business today don’t agree with this method. Instead, they advise focusing not on a candidate’s past job experience but on their qualities and skills. Ask yourself, does the job call for a great deal of problem solving? Will the employee have lots of autonomy? Are the things your people learn on the job more important than the things they bring to the job? Must they be able to learn and adapt quickly? When the answer to all these questions is “yes,” the authors of It’s Not the Big That Eat the Small… advise managers to concentrate on hiring someone with the right attitude—whether or not that individual has the matching experience. “Proven initiative” is what they are after—people with ingenuity and resilience, as well as a track record of overcoming hardships.
SOURCE: It’s Not the Big That Eat the Small…It’s the Fast That Eat the Slow by Jason Jennings and Laurence Haughton (HarperBusiness, 2002).
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If you have also listed the job online, give the URL in the print ad, and if you have a job ID or ad codes, note them as well. Because you are not paying by the word or line, online ads can afford to be more discursive. Instead of having to describe the job succinctly,