Tom O'Neil: Recruit right

Ensure you are clear in what the ideal candidate will possess in terms of skills, experience and expertise. Pic Getty.

Would you ever authorise an advertisement about your products and services that is inaccurate, has typos, incorrect phone numbers and does not reflect your brand? Of course not. However, it astounds me, the lack of professionalism many people have towards advertising for executives, management and staff.

Impacting your company's brand

How do you want your business to be portrayed in the marketplace? Sadly, for many organisations, their recruitment advertising is a poor reflection of how they want to be viewed by prospective leaders and team members interested in being employed by them.

When you consider how important it is to get the right person for your business, your advertisement must have a number of key characterises:

Accuracy

I am consistently amazed about the lack of accuracy in many recruitment advertisements. Designing a CV for a CEO level customer recently, I came across an advertisement from a leading international recruiter with incorrect information in it. When my client challenged the information, the recruiter simply stated "oh … sorry … That must have been left in from a previous advertisement by my PA." When you are charging $30K+ for recruitment services, you need to do a lot better than that.

Job requirements do change from time to time, even though the job title may stay the same. New legislation, technology, industry challenges and current team skills may mean that you need to think a little harder about who and what you are seeking .

If you ensure your information is accurate, it will help you save time in the long run, not having to screen through candidates that do not match what you are actually seeking.

About Us

Its always great to have an initial statement from the organisation, briefly stating who they are, what they do and some of their key values. It's important to make this inspiring, lookingfor candidates who want to join a company for more than money.

Fit

How does the role fit within the organisation, and what are its overarching goals,themes and objectives?

Role Responsibilities

Make sure this is an accurate reflection of what the role is actually about and is clear in its responsibilities. One continual criticism from my CV.CO.NZ clients is that so many advertisements are really "waffly" and don't say anything of use in this part.

Skills Seeking

Ensure you are clear in what the ideal candidate will possess in terms of skills, experience and expertise, allowing prospective employees to "self-select". Again, doing this well at the outset will save you loads of time later on, not having to screen through candidates who are just plain wrong for your opportunity.

Contact

Finally, make it easy for people to apply for the role. Recently I came across a vacancy online that had the usual "Apply Now" button displayed. After a client didn't hear anything from the company after a couple of days, they followed up and were told that the company was not actually accepting online applications, but to apply to the HR department instead.

Remember – your job advertisements are a wider reflection of your brand, attracting the most important influencers of all to your company – your own future employees.

Contact Tom for a free LinkedIn or CV review, or to be your personal career coach. Visit www.CareerCoach.nz or www.CV.co.nz to find out more.