6 Reasons Why Post-and-Pray Recruiting Doesn't Work

Post-and-pray recruiting hinges on the misconception that publishing an open job means that the job is done. If a hiring team can just get a job post published online somewhere, the applications will come. And they’ll come regardless of how good the job post is or how well the team distributes it.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the case. It’s not enough to ‘slap together’ a job post, ‘throw it up’ on Monster or CareerBuilder, and call it a day. That type of post-and-pray recruiting doesn’t work, mostly because it underestimates how technical job posts and job hunting really are. It ignores the details. And, in fact, the details are the most important parts.

1. Job descriptions and job posts aren’t the same thing

Let’s start with one important detail. Depending on where you live and work, you may conflate the term ‘job description’ with ‘job post’ or ‘job advertisement.’ We have a habit of doing that here in the United States, although hiring teams in Europe tend to distinguish between the two.

But regardless of where you land on the terminology, it’s important to avoid conflating the two documents behind these terms. A job description is a comprehensive, internal document used by human resources to lay out all the details of a position. Meanwhile, a job post is an external document used by hiring teams to attract job seekers to an open job.

Two distinct documents for two distinct purposes. Which means hiring teams shouldn’t just turn a job description from their human resources department into their job post. Or just make one up on the spot without a lot of forethought.

2. A job title isn’t a no-brainer

A job title is a no-brainer, right? If a company is advertising for an existing position, that position already has a title. If the company is advertising for a newly created position, the hiring team just has to pick a title and get on with the hiring process.

Not so fast. Just as with job descriptions and job posts, internal job titles and external job titles are two different things. A job title used internally at the company isn’t always the same as a job title used by candidates searching in the marketplace.

Your company can use an internal title however you want. You can use it as a leveling tool, as a way to avoid an industry-standard or ‘cliché’ title, or as a way to make a job sound fancier than it actually is.

But when recruiting time comes, all that goes out the window. Hiring teams have to use titles that are clear and industry-standard (even ‘boring’). Because those are the titles that job seekers are searching for and that job boards are using as keywords to respond to those searches. In short, job titles matter.

3. The content you include matters

Job post architecture (i.e., your template) is another area that tends to get short shrift in the post-and-pray recruiting approach. Seemingly insignificant details that job seekers nevertheless want to know get left out of job posts when consistency isn’t top of mind.

Diversity statements, for example, are something that many potential candidates care about. Yet sometimes hiring teams leave them out of job posts because ‘they’re assumed.’ Same thing with benefits and perks. But candidates don’t make assumptions about these things.

In fact, our own research shows that diversity statements increase the perception on the part of job seekers that a company is committed to inclusive employment practices. Even when the diversity statement is ‘common’ or ‘legalese.’

4. Language can be a deal-breaker

Unfortunate things can happen to job-post language when hiring teams take the post-and-pray recruiting approach. One, biases can seep in. Two, wordiness, vague phrasing, jargon, and even grammatical errors can seep in as well, confusing and possibly deterring qualified candidates.

Biased language hurts the recruiting effort by deterring qualified job seekers from historically underrepresented groups, like women and minorities. (It also hurts the company’s brand.) But vague or confusing language (e.g., soft skills in the requirements section) can also hinder the recruiting effort by making jobs needlessly long and dense.

If the job post doesn’t define the role clearly, it’s hard for job seekers to determine whether they should apply. Qualified job seekers may get confused and not apply. At the sam

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Created on Jan 15th 2022 17:01. Viewed 292 times.

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