Update job titles and job descriptions to stay competitive. Use these best practices to audit and refine content for stronger results in today’s competitive labor market
In recent years, many factors have transformed how employers and recruiters craft and present job posts. These include the rise of technology and digitization, changing sensibilities within talent pools, a changing workforce, and the prevailing culture.
This article explores how recruitment marketing professionals can optimize job titles and postings for today’s hiring landscape. It also highlights best practices to help audit and improve job content.
Job Title Best Practices
In most cases, the job title is the job seeker’s first exposure to an employer, and that first impression matters. Job seekers typically make assumptions and draw subtle conclusions about the employer from those few words. Additionally, search engines prioritize the jobs they show job seekers based on algorithms that include the job title.
Since so many job searches start on a search engine like Google, recruitment marketers must build out job titles to align with the search terms or keywords that job seekers commonly use to find specific positions. Keeping in step with SEO best practices ensures that recruiters will get their jobs to show up when people search for positions.
Like a news headline, job titles should capture the candidate’s attention and trigger engagement. Thus, strong job titles are critical to the success of job postings and key to optimizing recruitment marketing ROI.
Here are recommended best practices for writing optimized job titles:
- Use relevant job titles. They should help job seekers find open positions that align with their talent and experience. Researching the industry and job titles that are being used is a great way to avoid reinventing the wheel (and making mistakes along the way).
- Keep it short and sweet. Job titles that are brief, authentic, and focused on what matters most to job seekers—using clear, widely understood language—are more effective than long, wordy titles that may cause confusion.
- Avoid internal titles or jargon. Titles that are company or industry-specific may not foster engagement in a candidate who hasn’t worked for the company or in that industry. Stick to common job titles for which candidates will be searching.
- Avoid spammy language. Many words and phrases can trigger spam filters. A good litmus test is to ask if the job title sounds anxiety-inducing, trashy, or creates a sense of urgency.
- Avoid special characters. Excluding special characters makes job titles easier to read and makes the posting more likely to match search queries.
- Be specific and clear. Use relevant job titles that job seekers are searching for.
- Include relevant keywords. Choose keywords that are most easily associated with the position.
- Identify the level of the job. Including the level in the job title (e.g., Manager, Director, VP) provides clarity and prevents over-or under-qualified applicants from applying.
- Maintain consistency of roles, titles, and alignment. Even though the language of a job posting may change across different social media platforms, information pertaining to roles, titles, and alignment should be the same to avoid confusion.
Tip: Avoid trendy buzzwords like “ninja” or “wizard.” These terms lack clarity and can run afoul of search engine algorithms, causing job seekers to have difficulty finding the posting.
Job Post Best Practices
After the job title, the description of the role is the chief focus of the prospective employee. Job posts should list key responsibilities and promote the company’s values and the benefits of working there. Careful consideration will facilitate writing compelling job posts that convey the necessary information while managing candidate expectations.
The job post shouldn’t be a list of requirements, but rather a sales pitch to the ideal candidate. This approach “flips the script” entirely – from a passive to an active recruitment. Pitching positions to prospective candidates within the job post allows the recruitment professional to list the features and benefits of the job, as one might when pitching a product to a customer.
The description must be well-written and transparent, detailing roles as much as brevity allows, and in the language candidates use. As such, it is also important to review job postings and keep an eye out for any gender-biased keywords, as this is a cultural component that remains in constant flux. According to LinkedIn, after viewing a job, men apply 13% more often than women, “and the language used is often the culprit.”
Today’s job seekers, particularly Gen X and Gen Z, are more discerning in how they vet potential employers. Follow these best practices when updating the job post:
- Keep it current. The workplace landscape and culture change quickly and language and terminology change with it. Audit job posts regularly to ensure that the content is up-to-date.
- Differentiate. The description of the job should be used to identify the specific things that separate the employer from the competition.
- Paint a picture. Think of reading the job description as a sensory experience for the job seeker that fires their imagination. Paint a clear picture of what it is like to work at the company, highlighting benefits and culture in particular.
- Prioritize from top to bottom. When candidates search for jobs, they first want to see pay and other benefit. Here, salary transparency is particularly important, and whether the job is remote or onsite. Then, opportunities for bonuses, tuition reimbursement, PTO, growth opportunities, remote work, etc. Finally, high-level information about the company and the role.
- Attention to detail. In the description, outline the core responsibilities and highlight day-to-day activities accurately. This level of detail will help job seekers determine if the role and company are a good fit. It will also further embellish the picture of the position that’s been painted. Always review descriptions for spelling, grammar, and flow. Errors result in response drop-off.
- Keep assets current. Fine-tuning recruitment marketing campaigns and keeping assets up-to-date increases employee retention rates by keeping the employer transparent about the role and the company.
- Avoid generalities. Similar to avoiding trendy catchphrases, avoid verbiage that is too general (e.g., “work with great people,” “reward follows performance”). The description of the job should impart information about the company and what it takes for the employee to succeed. Eliminating non-critical requirements considerably opens the talent pool without compromising the applicants' quality.
Job titles are clicked twice as much in the 10 to 20 character range as those over 60 characters, and the post itself should be 300-800 words. Audit and review job content every few months to ensure it’s up-to-date and optimized for quality talent.
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If your company needs to re-evaluate its job titles and job descriptions, don’t hesitate to reach out to us!
