In a recent article on Weddles.com (the website provides resources for employment, personal development and career success) titled The First Four Lines, the author discusses the importance of catching the candidates’ attention in ads. In their own survey Weddles has found most visitors to the online job boards are now spending more time on the online sites than in the past.
They do provide some stats in the article, but unfortunately they do not provide a frame of reference as in per day, per week or per month or how much this has changed from past surveys. The article does give some great tips on attracting the passive candidates:
Passive job seekers aren’t job seekers at all. More often than not, they are already employed; to be recruited, therefore, they must be persuaded to move from their current employer to another. No one seeks the disruption such a change will cause, however, so passive prospects put it off by holding job postings to a very high standard.
Now they also go on to say that the passive job seeker represents the top talent that organizations hope to recruit. I would agree with this statement in that if your ads are only attracting the unemployed in an economy with a 4.7% unemployment rate (3.6% on our turf – Minnesota), then you are missing a huge pool from which to recruit. The article gives some great examples to use in trying to attract candidates who would be classified as passive job seekers. Passive candidates set their filter higher so they will not spend as much time reading your ad unless it grabs them in the first four lines.
They give 4 points to remember in writing your ad. I must say this is a lot to fit into 4 lines of an ad. It will take some creative writing to pull it off, but they do provide some great tips.
- A powerful, compelling statement about why the opening is a dream job. Passive prospects are willing to make a change in employers, but only if they believe they will get to do interesting work and interact with talented peers.
- An equally powerful and compelling statement about why your organization is a dream employer. Passive prospects don’t look for a job; they seek opportunities with employers that will encourage and support their best work and advance their careers.
- A statement regarding the compensation the opening provides. A salary range is sufficient, but such terms as competitive and commensurate with experience are not. Most passive prospects don’t work for the money; they work for the intrinsic satisfaction they derive from doing interesting work for a supportive employer. In our culture, however, money is a measure of how much that work is valued, so they will not make a move unless they know there is a financial advantage to doing so.
- A statement that underscores your employer’s commitment to protecting candidate confidentiality. Since most passive prospects are employed, they are risk averse in the job market. They can only be engaged if they are convinced that their identity will not be revealed at any point to anyone outside your organization.
They also provide tips on how to get all this information into the ad, like using short statements, talking in the second person and not using inside jargon. But the best tip they provide is:
Telling them up front what’s in it for them, that is the way you transform them from passive prospects to active-ready job seekers.
I would like to just chime in with a couple of additional tips for you in attracting these passive candidates and helping you tell them what is in it for them.
- Describe the things they need to do to be successful in the role and the skills they need to possess. They should easily recognize themselves in the ad.
- Most online job boards provide specific areas for listing salary, bonuses and commissions. Use those areas so you don’t need to mention those items within the ad. Instead, use the space to describe how the organization rewards employees in this specific position. Employee retention relies upon matching a job’s rewards to the employee’s rewards. For example, if the candidate is rewarded by material possessions, they are looking for positions that provide bonuses of cash, trips and other tangible items. If they are rewarded by self improvement, they are looking for continuing education opportunities, company training and career pathing.