Martians Reunited

The jobs section on the new Martians Reunited site is destined to be a valuable forum for attracting alumni with the skill sets we all value.  But the quality of response you receive to your ad will be determined by the effectiveness and impact of that ad.  Vacancy notice or powerful selling tool – which would you be more likely to respond to?  But as not everyone’s a professional copywriter, or has direct access to a recruitment marketing agency, we thought we’d provide a few practical pointers for you to bear in mind when preparing your own recruitment message.

Know your audience
By definition, you’ll be addressing people who are familiar with Mars culture and competencies – so there’s no need to rehearse any of this stuff at great length.  You’re preaching to the converted!  So use the ad to focus on the distinctive or non-standard aspects of the role and the person.

Talk direct
Keep the tone positive and businesslike, but not starchy or formal.  And use the second, rather than the third, person: talking to ‘you’ is much more engaging than talking about ‘the successful candidate’.  Don’t forget that advertising works on an emotional as well as an intellectual level.

Make it compelling
Don’t stick to abstract language and talk in generalities or list broad, generic responsibilities.  Wherever possible, give concrete examples of what the role entails, which will help to differentiate it from similar roles in other organisations and highlight its attractiveness.

Focus on competencies
Don’t refer to age, specific length of experience, subjective terms like ‘youthful’ or ‘energetic’, or anything else which could make you liable for direct or indirect discrimination.  (And make sure you’re equally rigorous throughout the selection process, of course.  If in doubt, consult an HR professional.)

Stay on brand
If your organisation has any level of public profile, it will already have an employer brand.  (And this isn’t based on what you want to say about your organisation; it’s more about what other people are already saying about it.)  So you need to manage your recruitment message carefully and ensure it’s fully in tune with your brand values.  That said, keep it real: it’s fine to accentuate the positive, but don’t over-egg the pudding.  In today’s Web 2.0 environment, if you overstate the corporate case you’ll soon be found out.

Write for the web
There’s any amount of research to prove how quickly people read copy on the web – and how fast they move on to the next thing if an item doesn’t catch their eye.  Keep your sentences – and paragraphs – short and punchy, and don’t waste words.  At the same time, your ad will be more effective if you maintain some kind of coherent narrative sequence – a list of random bullet points is unlikely to engage anyone.  The principles of good writing apply whatever the medium.

Use the language of the market
Some organisations have eccentric or misleading job-titles.  So don’t just include the internal job-title automatically if there’s a better recognised term in the market at large.  If the ad doesn’t initially ring the right bells, the right people won’t apply.

Don’t forget the basics
You’d be surprised (or maybe not) how many professionally prepared recruitment advertisements often leave something important out.  Happily the new system prompts you to enter all the relevant info, including location – often overlooked.  Following an initial brief summary of the proposition, you’ll need to tell your target audience something about the role and its organisational context, the qualifications and experience you’re looking for, the rewards (tangible and intangible) on offer, and how to apply.  And, most importantly, build in a few selling-points – tell them why to apply.

Money talks
If you know what you can pay for a role, it’s worth including this in the ad.  Assuming the package is reasonably competitive, it will help to ensure you get the right level of response.  If the situation is more flexible, or there are internal or other reasons why you can’t quote salary, accept that you may have to wade through a greater volume of less relevant applications.

Other media environments
These pointers have been prepared specifically with a view to advertising jobs on Martians Reunited.  Don’t forget that if your ad is also to appear elsewhere – on a commercial job-board or in a recruitment publication – you may need to adapt what you’ve produced to match the format or requirements of the alternative medium.  You can get help on this from the medium direct, including – in the case of online – advice on how best to optimise your recruitment message.

This article has been commissioned from Peter Griggs, who has long experience of helping Mars businesses with their recruitment communications.  He currently works with a number of Mars alumni on B2B, recruitment and other communications projects in addition to writing extensively on recruitment issues for Ri5 and other media.  He can be contacted via 07884 231730 or peter.griggs53@btinternet.com.