For more than half of employers, attracting qualified candidates is the number one recruitment challenge — but a range of new data begs the question:
When it comes to improving your job postings, how hard are you really trying?
According to our latest Source of Hire report, employers using Breezy have seen a 62% increase in the total number of applications year over year. In the past three years, the number of applications for employers using our platform has more than tripled.
The right applicants are out there. If you’re not attracting them, that could have more to do with your job descriptions than you think.
Let’s take a closer look at the top five things modern job seekers want to see in a job posting, to help you elevate your offer and attract the best new hires for your business.
What job seekers want
- Transparent pay
- Flexibility
- Well-being
- Career development
- Supportive culture
What usually goes into a strong job posting?
Before we dive into the latest perks to add to your job listings, let’s take a minute to make sure all your “table stakes” information is covered.
A strong job posting should include:
- Company summary
- Job requirements
- Key responsibilities
- Working hours
- Location
- Benefits and perks
In a talent-driven job market, you can’t afford to stop there. You need to ensure your job ads use inclusive, jargon-free language and are supported by a clear Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) statement.
Make sure your job postings are well-structured and easily scannable, and that they’re easy to access via mobile as well as desktop.
Once you’ve got those bases covered, you’re ready to start thinking about new ways to level up your postings in order to increase the number of potential candidates.
1. Transparent pay
In 2023, there’s no good reason not to include pay in your job postings. Despite the fact that pay transparency has become an expectation for modern candidates, less than 13% of global companies say they publish the role’s pay range as part of their recruiting process.
Employers who choose not to add pay to their job postings still cite the same old reasons:
- They want to leave it open to negotiation
- They’re worried it will cause problems with other employees
- They want to see the candidate’s experience before deciding on salary
While these motivations may seem reasonable at first glance, a lack of transparency around pay has become a clear red flag for job seekers — and that includes vague mentions of a “competitive salary”.
With 62% of Gen Z workers saying they’re more likely to apply if the company has a commitment to equal pay, now is the time to embrace salary transparency starting with your job postings.
If you’re still not comfortable adding a set salary to your job postings, consider adding a range such as, ‘$50,000 to $60,000 depending on experience’. This one small change could lead to a massive increase in quality applicants.
2. Flexibility
Even if you can’t outplay your top competitors on salary, there are plenty of other strategies for attracting more candidates to your job opening that can help you win top-notch candidates.
One of those is flexibility.
In recent weeks, some of the biggest names in tech have made “stunning policy reversals” with regards to remote work. With major employers like Google, Meta, and Amazon citing flimsy reasons like c-level “judgment calls”, the backlash toward in-office mandates is only growing.
The ability to work remotely is central to a healthy work-life balance and a key motivator for 21.3% of job seekers. This leaves the door wide open for companies with lesser-known employer brands to come in and scoop up top talent for remote, or partially remote, roles.
Recent data from LinkedIn shows that job postings that mention well-being, flexibility, or culture receive nearly three times more views and more than twice as many applications compared to two years ago. If you offer remote, hybrid, or flex work, now is the time to state it loud and proud in your job postings.
And if you can’t offer remote work?
Clarify the reasons why in your job posting. A major part of the frustration among workers is the arbitrary nature of return to work mandates. If there are genuine reasons for needing workers to come into the office, state those clearly in your job posting to avoid confusion and resentment down the road.
3. Well-being
Would you believe that employees care more about their well-being now than they did during the pandemic?
According to a report by Adecco, more than 80% of workers say their stress levels are the same or higher than before the pandemic. They’re also more likely to quit if their needs for better well-being aren’t being met.
On the flip side, recent data from Gallup shows that employees who believe their employer cares about their well-being are:
- 3x more likely to be engaged at work
- 5x more likely to strongly advocate for their company as a place to work
- 69% less likely to actively search for a new job
Employees no longer want to live life on the edge of burnout.
Workers all across the globe are reconsidering their roles in light of their stress levels, making well-being even more important than it was during lockdowns. So how can you emphasize employee well-being in your job postings?
Honestly, this one can be tricky. Employee well-being is, by nature, a very personal thing. An onsite gym or monthly wellness stipend might work great for one employee, but go consistently unused by another.
Fortunately, insights from the UK’s Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) shed light on the core areas of employee well-being: health, working environment, values, social well-being, personal growth, good lifestyle choices, and financial well-being.
Experts at the CIPD suggest employers take a holistic approach to employee well-being, including a framework to support each key area, with consistent support and buy-in from line managers.
When it comes to your job postings, candidates will be looking not only at your lineup of employee perks and benefits, but also at the language you use to describe the role. Postings that make regular mention of overtime or a willingness to “burn the midnight oil”, will likely see fewer applications from discerning candidates.
4. Career development
There’s a reason 81% of recruiting professionals say they need to work more closely with learning and development (L&D) in the future. According to LinkedIn's latest Future of Recruiting report, “The walls that once divided recruiting and L&D are coming down fast.”
For 63% of employees who quit their jobs, a lack of advancement opportunities is cited as the main reason. With an ongoing retention crisis, a growing skills gap, and the rapid rise of generative AI, the need for development opportunities has become painfully clear.
To attract candidates who stay, consider adding the following to your job postings:
- Skills development programs
- Mentorship opportunities
- Internal mobility opportunities
With the rise of skills-first hiring and out-of-the-box recruitment through professional apprenticeships, employers are already taking action to broaden their candidate pools by providing hands-on development opportunities to both new and existing employees.
LinkedIn’s Future of Recruiting report also identified upskilling and reskilling as two of the most important factors shaping the future of recruiting over the next five years. And with over a billion jobs set to be radically transformed by emerging technologies, modern candidates need to know you have their back when it comes to staying relevant and ready for the future of work.
Use your job postings and hiring managers to make it clear that you’re here to help them develop new skills, and bump up to a new job title, even if they only stay with you for a couple of years.
5. Culture
With the rise of new job regret, this is definitely one area of your job posting where it pays to keep it real. Today more than 70% of job seekers say they’ve experienced new job regret and one in five say they’ll quit within a month if their new job isn’t what they expected.
You might be surprised to learn that cultural talking points that sound nice on paper are now seen as giant red flags for candidates.
According to a survey of over 5,100 post-interview job seekers, the number one red flag is the use of the word “family” to describe your company culture. And that’s not all.
Here are some of the other cultural red flags to be aware of:
- Low salaries
- Desperation to hire
- High turnover
- Positions that have been open for months
- Lack of work-life balance
- High or unrealistic expectations
With the rise of ghost jobs and months-long hiring processes, you can’t blame candidates for the increased skepticism.
To attract more of the right candidates, be honest about what you offer. Communicate your company culture in every element of your job posting — not just the company summary.
Win qualified candidates with Breezy
In the modern world of hiring, there’s no shortage of recruitment challenges. To stay a step ahead, you need to deliver a strong candidate experience, backed by an authentic employer brand.
For that, Breezy is here to help.
Our end-to-end recruiting software was designed to help growing businesses attract and hire great employees in less time. With features like easy-to-build careers pages and one-click job postings to all the top job boards, Breezy has everything you need to win the best candidates for your business.
Elevate your recruitment strategy. Try Breezy free for 14 days.
