Top Four Mistakes Recruiters Make When Posting a Job Opening

On average, recruiters spend 1.5 hours writing and posting each job posting, and another 27.5 hours reviewing and screening candidates for a non-executive level position, according to Recruiterbox. The average cost of hiring an employee is more than $4,600, a SHRM benchmarking survey found. However, if you have a bad hire, that number can rise substantially. By the time you are done, you may have incurred hundreds of thousands of dollars in costs with recruitment ads, relocation and training fees, and lost customers.

To avoid this costly situation, we have assembled four major mistakes to avoid when posting your job opening so you can start with a group of better-fitting candidates:

1. Irrelevant or nonstandard job title. Job titles are basically keywords; if you use the wrong title, you are going to get the wrong talent pool applying for the position. Think about what type of phrase or title a job seeker would be likely to search when trying to find their ideal position, and go from there. Don’t go with legacy titles for the sake of consistency—make sure you are asking yourself if the most qualified candidates are searching for these titles.

2. Not requiring a trackable click for application. Trackable links deliver conversation statistics. Make sure you are using a trackable click on your Apply button so you can always identify where the job seeker found the ad. Force the job seeker to click on “Apply” and do not provide emails or phone numbers in the ad, which are not trackable. Then make sure that once the job seeker clicks the button, they are tied to your advertising source. This will provide you with data on where your best candidates for certain positions are searching job postings—and give you return-on-investment data for your job ad.

3. The job posting is not treated as an advertisement. The job placement company and the recruiter need to come together to create an appealing piece of marketing that will attract the desired talent. Don’t forget to include information that will help the job seeker visualize themselves with the company. All postings should include experience, requirements, preferred skills, a description of the company culture, benefits, what an average day in the role looks like, and most important, salary. Do not leave the candidate guessing and start off your relationship with a lack of trust.

4. Posting to the wrong job board. Establish expectations prior to placing the ad. When you post your recruitment ad, make sure you have thought out where you are posting your job opening. If you post to a major job board with mass appeal, you will get a lot of resumes; and recruiters will spend extra hours weeding through many candidates who are not a good fit. Finding and posting to niche job boards will help you narrow down the more qualified candidates, even if you get fewer resumes overall—which many recruiters might enjoy.