A recruiting page for a small business

Say what it pays

Competitive salary means nothing and is read as below market. The strongest candidates already have a job, and they will not spend an evening on an application to discover a number you could have published.

A range is enough. Saying what the range depends on is better still, because it answers the follow-up question and signals that the decision is based on something rather than on negotiation.

Some jurisdictions now require pay information in job advertisements. Check what applies where you are hiring, since the requirements differ meaningfully. Nothing here is legal advice.

Describe the actual work

A list of responsibilities copied from a template tells nobody what the days are like. Write what the job actually involves, including the repetitive parts and the parts people find difficult.

That honesty is a filter in both directions. Applicants who are fine with the hard parts self-select in, and the ones who would have left within a month select themselves out before you interview them.

It is also what distinguishes your advertisement. Every employer in your trade has the same responsibilities list, and almost none of them describe a real week.

Be specific about the practical terms

Hours, days, location, whether travel is required, whether the role is on site, and what the first three months look like. These decide whether somebody can take the job at all.

Say what the arrangement genuinely is rather than what sounds most appealing. Flexible that turns out to mean available at short notice is the fastest route to an early resignation.

And say what you need from them: licenses, tools, checks, physical requirements. Discovering a requirement at interview wastes everybody's time, including yours.

What a recruiting page must include

The list below is what a serious applicant is looking for. Missing items do not usually produce questions. They produce a decision not to apply, which you never see.

• The pay, as a range, and what it depends on
• Hours, days and location, stated plainly
• What the work actually involves, including the hard parts
• What is required before starting
• Who they would work with
• What happens after applying, and when
• How to apply, in one obvious route

Say what happens next

How long before they hear back, how many stages, what each stage involves, and who they will meet. Uncertainty about the process is a real deterrent for people who are currently employed.

Then honor it. An applicant who hears nothing after being told they would hear within a week tells other people, and in a small trade that reputation spreads quickly.

Reply to everybody, including the unsuccessful. It costs a template and it is the single most commented-on aspect of small employers who do it, because so few do.

Where the page should live

On your own site, at a permanent address, even when you are also advertising elsewhere. Job boards remove listings and take the visibility with them, in search and in an answer engine both.

Keep a careers page live all year with a note saying what you usually recruit for and inviting speculative applications, so the address exists between vacancies rather than appearing only when you are desperate.

Applicants research employers before applying. A recruiting page on a site with no about page, no team and no sign of life is a harder sell than the same job at a company that looks real.

What not to write

Requirements that are really preferences, which deter good applicants who meet most of them. And anything about family, culture fit or wearing many hats, which is heard as understaffed.

Be careful with wording that could exclude people unlawfully. Requirements should relate to the job, and several categories of preference are unlawful to state in most jurisdictions.

Take your own advice on employment law where you operate. Our pages explain what rules generally cover, and nothing on this site is legal advice.