When employer brand became a popular topic of conversation for recruiting teams around the world, the go-to phrase was that employer brand was going to make you "stand out." You could differentiate yourself from your talent competitors and now, there would be a whole role dedicated to the cause.

So this entire new category of jobs was created with very little talent pipeline or an understanding of skills. Personally, I thought it was all marketing. If you had marketing experience, you could lead employer brand.

I was very wrong. Working in a marketing department might help, but it isn’t everything. See, if recruiting is marketing? Recruiters have the hardest marketing job in the world. Marketers can send an idea to the whole world and if 1% of people respond? They’re some of the best. They have officially stood out. Recruiters take the whole world and boil it down to 1 person. 1 hire. That’s an entirely different, and much harder, marketing challenge.

Prioritizing Effort: Why Work On Job Postings? 

Unfortunately, as it goes with many recruiting trends, a ton of best in class road maps and models were released. Agencies created. I say unfortunately because while best in class works in a marketing team trying to connect with 1% of the world, it’s not so useful when you’re trying to get the one.

When we’re reading case studies and trying to build a business case to drive results it’s hard to remember one of the few universal truths about recruitment marketing: best in class doesn’t mean best for you. In following those roadmaps, I’ve seen EB teams around the world create all kinds of content - whether it’s a careers site, welcome automation, Glassdoor profiles, or something else. Often, forgetting job postings.

While all of that content adds up to a better brand, it’s not going to create immediate results. Plus, these are bi-annual projects at best. You don’t overhaul a careers site once a year or redo all of your About Us content. So how do you stand out every day? What can you invest in to elevate your brand and more importantly get the right person to hire?

How Do You Know Your Job Post Works? 

Start with something you create more than once every other year: a job posting. Why should you create a business case for better job postings? Not only is it an easy place to stand out, an investment in best in class job posts creates measurable results to show why EB matters so much. 

How will you know it’s working?

• No screenshots. Let me say the obvious thing we’re trying to avoid: not looking stupid on the internet. People will take screenshots and post your scariest job postings. Don’t destroy your good work with one bad post.
• Traffic. If no one can find your job post because you didn't pick the right job title? It doesn't matter how good your job post is.
• More underrepresented candidates. Removing bias from requirements and creating clarity in job postings means more people - people from different backgrounds - will be able to self-qualify.
• More qualified applicants. If the person on the other side can find your postings then actually understand what you’re looking for, the right person applies. 
• Shorten time to interview. I would love to tell you we can impact time to fill, but managers dictate that. You will get a more qualified pool of candidates faster which *in theory* will make time to fill faster.
• People stay longer. The #1 reason people quit? The job doesn’t align with their expectations.