Why advertise vacancies?
While I'm a multichannel recruiter, and a skilled headhunter, who uses all appropriate channels to fill a given vacancy, the first visible thing you'll typically see from me on the market is a job advert.
It's not because I see this as the most effective channel, although adverts are responsible for placing candidates in around 1/3 of the unconfidential vacancies I fill.
It's because they are a natural consequence of the invisible work, and confirms how a vacancy is interpreted with meaning into relevant candidate marketplaces.
Around half of my vacancies are confidential, which is to say you'll only ever know about them, as a candidate, if I contact you directly. However, my communications to prospective candidates are still informed by the advertising process, even if a traditional advert never materialises.
The first order of work typically looks like this
1/ meeting with employer to consult on the vacancy, its needs, what 'good' looks like, and what the effective channels might be for filling it. (1-3 hours)
2/ write meeting report and executive summary (5-10 hours) for employer approval. This is critical and goes through several versions. It establishes that the client and I are in agreement, sets out the recruitment process and is a candidate focused document that supplements the job description. It answers the questions - who should we employ, where are they, and why would they want to work here?
Simple questions with answers many find difficult.
Sometimes I'll rewrite the job spec on the common occasion where the employer has given a good stab that proves unrepresentative of their own requirement. (Honestly, if you're struggling to recruit, the first thing you should do is revisit your JD - it's the root of many problems if you get it wrong)
These documents are the initial part of the market mapping process which dictates the channels that will be effective in finding the right people. Which is why I'm a 'multichannel' recruiter - it's all about finding the right channels for your specific needs.
Once the documentation is complete, which are themselves a consequence of my work, they are simple to distil into a further set of steps:
- an advert that appeals to an ideal candidate (avatar)
- written communications (DMs, emails, texts and messages) around similar principles (content dictated by medium)
- the basis of vacancy discussion
- the basis of qualifying people based on their aspirations and capability
The advert comes from the same place as every other type of communication, when it comes to recruitment. Therefore it represents the skill level of a recruiter.
Which is to say if your recruiters don't know how to advertise your vacancies, they may not have access to the best candidates.
Let me know if you'd like me to write an advert for you - as long as you know what you are letting yourself in for. Or I can advise you where to get some training.
Not all recruitment is the same.
