5 Reasons Youre Struggling To Attract The Perfect Candidate

5 Reasons Youre Struggling To Attract The Perfect Candidate Its a familiar scenario for many you put together what you think is a great job advert, post it on a few boards and then wait for the perfect candidate to apply and wait and wait but the perfect candidate never appears. You cant understand it; other similar jobs in the market are attracting great candidates so the issue cant be a lack of candidates which leads you to conclude that the problem must be your approach and your job advert. Now, when it comes to job advertising, theres lots of room for error and unfortunately even a simple mistake can be enough to put a talented candidate off applying particularly in the digital sector where (as you can see from our jobs board) jobs are plentiful right across the UK at the moment. With that in mind; we thought it was time to shine the spotlight on some of the most common job advertising errors which can make the difference between attracting the perfect candidate and missing out. 1. The Job Advert Isnt Exciting Enough: When discussing job adverts with our clients, we always look at the content of the job and consider how appealing it sounds for a potential candidate and a lot of the time, while the job in question might be pretty exciting, thats just not portrayed in the advert itself. If youre passionate about your company, your future plans and the role youre recruiting for, let it show in the advert. Think about your ideal candidate and what theyd want to see in an advert in order to convince them to apply. Be sure to include details of whats on offer, the potential benefits and rewards for the right candidate and how this particular role might fit in with a candidates long-term career plans. When youre finished writing your advert, read it back and ask yourself if the advert fairly portrays your company and the job on offer and most importantly, if the job actually sounds like something you might like to apply for if you had that particular skillset. 2. Youre Using The Wrong Advertising Platform: Just like any other form of advertising, when it comes to advertising your job, its all about getting it in front of the right target audience so its extremely important to choose the right platform. If youre looking for candidates in a particular industry area or with a particular skillset and youve chosen to advertise on a generic job board, its little wonder youre not attracting the right candidate. OK, so generic boards can perform but when it comes to a niche role, wed always urge you to consider a more niche platform or job board which might be more engaged with the type of candidates youre looking to attract.  Think about it; if youre advertising on a job board which purely advertises digital jobs and which has a reputation for advertising these types of jobs, chances are youre going to end up attracting better, more qualified candidates who have visited that site with the specific aim of finding a new job in that particular sector. 3. Theres Not Enough Detail In The Advert: If your advert is short, sweet and extremely vague its no wonder youre not attracting your ideal candidate. Like we said in point one, the job advert needs to be exciting and it also needs to be detailed! Be sure to include key information like salary (yes, really!), location, job responsibilities, company info and a few points on the type of candidate youre looking for. Just to clarifiy; were not telling you to write an essay but we are saying that details matter so dont leave them out! 4. The Salary Doesnt Match Others In The Market: No candidate wants to feel like theyre undervalued or underpaid so if youre trying to pay your new employee way below the average market rate, wed urge to have a rethink. Yes, job satisfaction and a good working environment are extremely important but at the end of the day, its salary that puts a roof over someones head and that will first appeal to a candidate when considering new job opportunities so bear that in mind. If you cant raise the salary, be sure to emphasise how great the role is and what opportunities there are to progress within the business in a bid to convince the candidate that while the salary might be lower than theyre looking for, the job is still a great option. 5. Youre Asking For Too Much: If youve made all the changes above and youre still not getting results, it might be time to ask yourself if youre asking for too much in terms of skills and experience. Yes, there are candidates out there that might have everything youre looking for but if youre asking for a lot, I imagine there arent that many out there and there are probably even less that would be looking to work for your particular company in your particular location. With that in mind; have another look at the role and ask yourself which skills/experience are the most important and which ones are less vital and consider reworking the ad to place the emphasis purely on these essential criteria points. As we said earlier, theres lots of room for error when it comes to advertising jobs however, we hope that this post (along with all the others in our Employer Advice section) should help to act as good starting point when it comes to reviewing an under-performing job advert. Think weve missed anything out? Or have a topic youd like us to cover on this blog? Leave me a comment below.