A few tips from my 20+ years of writing job descriptions: Note: If you’re lazy like me, a lot of the principles below are built into software such as these: The Top 6 Augmented Writing Tools for Job Descriptions. For more tips on writing job descriptions, check out How to Write a Job Description — Best Practices & Examples. Put First… Read more »
Top HR and Recruiting Conferences in 2018
Here’s a list of top upcoming Human Resources, Talent Acquisition and Recruiting conferences, events and expos of 2018. We’ll update this as new conferences and dates are announced. Social Recruiting Strategies Conference (Jan. 31-Feb. 2 in San Francisco, CA) Future of recruiting with AI Cool and new tools for recruiting in 2018 Driving… Read more »
8 Ways Applicant Tracking Systems Help Employers
Selecting a new applicant tracking system is a major investment (see ATS Pricing). You need to be crystal clear about the main benefits of an ATS and any cost and time savings they provide. We asked Sara Pollock, head of Marketing at ClearCompany (Talent Management Software) to share her thoughts on all this. She believes that… Read more »
Awesome Interview with “Employment Brand Boundary Breaker”
Wow, I just listened to this podcast interview of the self-proclaimed “Employment Brand Boundary Breaker” Audra Knight (her real title is Recruitment Operations Manager for Tenable Network Security). And a shout-out to TA/Innovation consultant Matt Alder of the Recruiting Future Podcast who interviewed her — I enjoyed your interview style and am now checking out your other… Read more »
CDM Smith’s Simple Yet Powerful Example of Employer Branding
We see lots of employer branding examples out there but this one seems simple, cheap and super-effective. It comes courtesy of engineering and construction leader CDM Smith. It’s a simple employee photo contest: They asked employees to submit their best photos related to “what we do.” Employees sent in 300+ entries They added a select… Read more »
Do You Have this Massive “Drop-Off” From Career Site to Job Descriptions?
Do you have this problem? You’ve got a solid-looking company career site page like this: The “Hotel Lobby Theory” …yet your job description pages look something more like this JD below. My friend Eric Osterman (Recruitment Marketing Manager at CenturyLink calls it the “Hotel Lobby Theory” — the lobby needs to look pretty but if… Read more »
Your Company Career Site Job Search is Dead
How would you like 70%+ more quality candidates surfing around your career site? If yes, you’re going to want to read on! On Oct. 12th, As I strode over from the old-fashioned MGM Grand hotel (where I was staying) to the tony Venetian Resort on the Vegas Strip, I was more than a bit nervous…. Read more »
3 Tips from U.S. Acute Care’s Branded Job Descriptions
You can see 3 nice job description features below from new hospital organization U.S. Acute Solutions: 1. A picture of every office (hospital) This is an easy feature that every hospital group should consider since candidates want to picture where they work (and most hospitals have a quality picture of their location). The same applies… Read more »
17 “Touches” for Recruiting Passive Candidates
Some candidates are worth the time. A Talent Acquisition leader at a Fortune 500 company told me the other day that their team has to make 17 touches to recruit passive candidates. What a great stat to track! By “touches” she is referring to 17 outreach activities (she was excluding screening calls and interviews) it takes to… Read more »
7 Reasons You Should Care About Google’s New ATS
Editorial Update: In 2020, Google sunsetted/canceled its Google Hire ATS. Google recently released a new ATS and when Google releases anything new, it’s worth a close look. Afterall, they arguably have the most software engineering horsepower of any company on the planet — and the cash reserves to keep at it. Before we dive into why… Read more »
Engaging “Overlays” For iCIMS ATS Job Pages [2020 Update]
iCIMS is a top 10 applicant tracking system in market share for employers. If you are an iCIMS ATS client (like Microsoft, General Mills, Foot Locker) you’ll need to customize your iCIMS career/job pages to really make them awesome. So let’s talk about iCIMS job page overlays. What is Job Page/CSS Overlay for iCIMS? A job… Read more »
3 Common Formatting Mistakes to Avoid On Your Job Descriptions
Formatting is a top priority in job description writing because formatting affects readability which impacts the candidate experience. Making a job description easier to read exponentially increases the probability of a job seeker reading the entire job description — and that increases the chance of an apply. Note: Check out our free Job Descriptions Guide — it… Read more »
7 Mistakes to Avoid When Writing a Job Description
Words matter…especially in job descriptions. Update: Since writing this article, our team here at Ongig launched a new version of our Text Analyzer software for writing job descriptions. For more tips on writing job descriptions, check out How to Write a Job Description — Best Practices & Examples. Here are 7 mistakes to avoid when writing YOUR job description: 1)… Read more »
5 Companies that Use Employer of Choice Awards on their Job Descriptions
If you’ve won an employer of choice award, that is a clear example of “social proof” to your candidates. We recommend you use it on every one of your job description pages. Note: Social Proof is one of the 6 proven principles of influence/persuasion from one of my favorite business books Influence by Robert Cialdini,… Read more »
Top Job Search Channels: The Disconnect Between Employers and Job Seekers
There’s a big disconnect between what candidates and employers think is important, according to the Hinge Research Institute’s Employer Branding Study, a survey of 800+ professionals. They split up the audience into 2 camps: Talent-Evaluators (aka Employers): Professionals involved in their firm’s recruiting and hiring process. This group responded to questions about how they search for and… Read more »
