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Getting the best from your advert
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There are certain guidelines,
techniques and legal
requirements you need to observe when you put together
your job vacancy advert.
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You obviously want to attract the very
best candidates, so spend a few minutes reading our guide
to successful job advertising on BHjobs.com.
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General guidelines.
It really is worth spending the extra time to make sure your advert is more appealing
than any of the others on the site. How you present the information about the position
can be just as important as what you have to offer.
The first rule to observe is that the best adverts are always short and
punchy.
Successful adverts also tend to include the following four motivators
that people look for when applying for a job.
i). What salary and other fringe benefits are you offering?
ii). What training and personal development opportunities
do you provide?
iii). What are the promotional prospects?
iv). What level of job satisfaction comes with the position?
Techniques
Using your own word processor, type in the text of your advert
first. As soon as you are satisfied with the body text, go online
and copy (Ctrl+C) and paste (Ctrl+V) the text directly into
our advert template. Remember you can return to our system as
many times as it takes to get it right.
Be concise and break your advert's body text down into short
paragraphs of one or two sentences. The advert template we provide
will achieve this effect if you fill in the relevant paragraphs.
Always personalise the advert message. Instead of "The
company offers candidates the opportunity to travel abroad"
try "Acme Ltd offers you the opportunity
to travel abroad".
Always stress the benefits of the job on offer, not just the
features. The previous example contained the feature, "the
opportunity to travel abroad". A benefit-led statement
would indicate why the candidate would personally benefit from
this feature - "You will gain valuable
overseas work experience with Acme Ltd".
A professional copy writer will often produce a first draft,
and will only be satisfied after they have cut it down to a
quarter of the original size, and converted all the features
to benefits. So should you.
Always have somebody else proof read your advert to weed out
all those silly spelling mistakes!
Legal Compliance
When writing your advert, you must be careful not to breach
any of the current discrimination laws that govern how you can
advertise a job position.
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- You must not discriminate on the grounds of race,
sex or marital status.
- You must not discriminate against disabled people.
- The legal position on age and sexual orientation
discrimination is under review, so exercise your discretion
on these issues.
- The content of the advert must not be misleading.
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Common sense should be your guide on legal compliance.
It is possible to advertise a post that would otherwise breach
the discrimination regulations, when there are genuine occupational
reasons for doing so. For example, the job needs to be held
by either a man or woman to preserve privacy and decency.
We also remind you that as the employer, you are legally responsible
for ensuring that the successful applicant is entitled to work
in Great Britain.
Should the worker be unable to supply you with their National
Insurance number, then you should ask to see other documentary
evidence such as a UK work permit, or European Passport. You
can always contact the Inland Revenue office that deals with
your payroll for further advice if you have any remaining doubts.
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