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How to write a job description to get high-quality applicants

Filling your talent pipeline with high-quality candidates isn’t easy – especially in such a crowded job market. In fact, research finds that it takes Australian companies an average of 68 days and $5,000 to fill a vacant position.

But there are ways to make your company stand out from the crowd. One way is by crafting a top-notch job description. In this post, we’ll explain how to write a job description that attracts great candidates to your company. 

How to write a job description that attracts high-quality applicants

While it’s easy to slap together a job description and blast it across multiple job sites, attracting high-quality applicants requires a more thoughtful approach. Here are five of our best recommendations when it comes to writing a quality job description. 

1. Conduct a job analysis

A job analysis is a process of collecting information about the specific role you’re hiring for. The purpose of conducting a job analysis is to ensure you’re representing the skills, knowledge, and background needed for the role as accurately as possible for applicants. While there are many ways to gather this data, here are a few ways to start:

  • Look at the job descriptions of competitors hiring for similar roles
  • Interview or observe employees who are in the same or similar role at your organisation
  • Review sites like Glassdoor to get a sense of the required skills, responsibilities, and salary of the role

2. Collect input from other employees

Another way to ensure your job description is as thorough as possible is to consult the employees within your own organisation. If you’re hiring for a Marketing Coordinator, for example, you may want to speak with other members on the marketing team – especially the manager that will be overseeing the new hire. 

If you want to take this strategy a step further, have conversations with people from other teams who are likely to work closely with the new hire. So if your Marketing Coordinator is going to work alongside your sales team, interview a few of your Account Executives to understand their expectations and perspectives.

After you put the initial draft of the job description together, you may want to have these same people review it to ensure you’ve captured all their feedback accurately. 

3. Provide all the key information up-front

Now that you have all this information collected, how do you write the official job description? The most important thing to keep in mind is that it’s better to share more details, rather than less. To help you format and prioritise all of your information, below are the basic sections you should include in the job description:

  • A description of the job and job title
  • A summary of the location, role responsibilities, and preferred qualifications
  • An overview of the company culture and benefits
  • The expected salary range
  • The company’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) statement
  • Any additional information about potential travel requirements, work hours, etc.

The more information you provide up-front, the more likely it is that the applicant will be a good match for your organisation. When you don’t share key information, such as the salary range, you may end up wasting everyone’s time when it turns out that the compensation doesn’t align with the applicant’s expectations. 

4. Review the job description for biases

Before hitting ‘publish’ on your job description, have a third party review your job description for any biases or non-inclusive language. It’s easy to let minor mistakes slip through without realising or intending to, which is why it’s helpful to have fresh eyes on your work! 

Whoever reviews your job description should look for things like non-gender neutral pronouns or gender-coded words, internal jargon that might alienate applicants, or any other signs of implicit bias. 

5. Identify the right channels to post your job description

Finally, you want to make sure you’re publishing your job description on high-quality job sites. While it might seem like the best strategy is to spam as many of them as possible, this will only end up wasting your valuable time and money. 

Instead, we encourage HR teams to take a more targeted approach and select job sites that are known for attracting high-quality candidates. Below are a few of the websites, which are a mix of local and global, that we recommend starting with: 

A thoughtful and well-written job description is the first step to bringing more high-quality candidates into your talent pipeline. Use our recommendations to get started on the right foot. Flare HR also provides free onboarding software that can help you onboard new employees and give them the best first days and the best onboarding experience. To learn more, please request a demo.

5 ways to tell if someone is the right fit for the job

Hiring new talent is a critical step in growing a business. But, as all HR leaders are aware, it’s not easy to do. Research shows that it takes an average of 68 days and $5,000 to fill a vacant position in Australia. Given the amount of investment required for every candidate, you want to make sure that you’re hiring the right person.

While there’s no way to guarantee you’ll pick the perfect candidate every time, there are steps you can take to ensure your chances are much higher. In this article, we’ll explore five ways to determine whether or not someone is the right fit for the job.

5 ways to determine if a candidate is the right fit for the job 

At Flare, we have a thorough recruitment process to ensure the candidates we hire are the right fit for the role, the team, and the company. We share some of our most successful strategies below. 

1. Start with the right job description 

Even before you speak to a candidate, there’s a way to filter for individuals who are the right fit for your company. Your job description presents one of the best opportunities to share exactly what you’re looking for in a candidate, and what they can expect if they decide to join your team. Specifically, your job description should include: 

  • Your company values, mission, and an overview of the culture
  • Your diversity statement
  • Your employee benefits offering
  • A list of preferred skills for the role (both negotiable and non-negotiable)
  • An overview of the responsibilities of the position

It’s important to write a job description that’s personalised specifically to what you’re looking for instead of copying and pasting a template. While it’s a bit more work, it’ll save your hiring managers a ton of time and energy down the road. 

2. Understand their motivations 

When engaging with a candidate, take the time to understand their motivations. In other words, why are they interested in this role? What drives them to be successful at their job? These types of questions can help you understand what that person needs to be successful at your company and whether that aligns with what you’re realistically able to provide. 

For example, let’s say a candidate has historically worked at large corporations with competitive cultures. They prefer to work alone and are motivated by the idea of climbing the career ladder as quickly as possible. Your company, on the other hand, is built on a culture of collaboration and wellbeing and doesn’t offer as many opportunities for quick promotions. This may indicate that the candidate isn’t the best fit for your organisation.

3. Learn about their experience and way of thinking 

Of course, you also want to make sure candidates are going to produce high-quality work in their roles. This is especially true for more technical positions, such as engineers or IT specialists. One way you can get a better sense of their scope of knowledge is to administer a technical challenge – like a coding test. 

This type of assessment helps remove bias from the hiring decision and allows the team to observe how candidates approach the challenge. Do they perform well under pressure? Do they approach problems creatively? Do they ask for clarification when they don’t understand something? This test can also give candidates a solid understanding of the types of challenges they can expect to face in the role.

4. Look for cultural alignment 

Even though a candidate might look perfect on paper, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll be a good match in person. That’s why it’s important to assess their personality, values, and general attitude to see if it aligns with your company culture. Otherwise, you risk hiring someone who will butt heads with the other employees. 

One important note: without the proper bias training, hiring managers may not be able to distinguish between actual cultural fit and their own personal preferences. To ensure this doesn’t happen, make sure to educate your team about the various biases that can emerge during interviews and how to mitigate them during the process. 

5. Explore mutual fit

Don’t forget that interviewing is a two-way street. The last thing you want is to hire an awesome candidate who isn’t that excited about the work you’re doing. So use the interviewing process as a time to explore mutual fit. There are a few ways to accomplish this. 

First, encourage candidates to ask as many questions as they want – and be honest when you answer them. Also, ask them if there’s anyone at the company that they want to speak to but haven’t had an opportunity to during the hiring process. For instance, maybe someone interviewing for a Product Marketing Manager role wants to chat with your Head of Engineering because their job will require them to work closely with that individual. Give candidates the chance to interact with as many people as possible so they can feel confident when accepting an offer from your company.

Want to make sure your new hires are set up for success? Flare offers a free onboarding software that can help you onboard new employees and give them the best onboarding experience and first days at your organisation. To learn more, please request a demo.

Hiring new talent is a critical step in growing a business. But, as all HR leaders are aware, it’s not easy to do. Research shows that it takes an average of 68 days and $5,000 to fill a vacant position in Australia. Given the amount of investment required for every candidate, you want to make sure that you’re hiring […]