What's stopping people applying for your job?

Finding exactly the right hire for your organisation is tough right now, if it wasn’t before. The talent pool is only getting shallower, and some of the best candidates are passive ones, or those who are already working for someone else and not actively looking to move jobs.

If you’re consistently finding that your vacancies aren’t getting the right applicants – or indeed – any applicants at all, then it might be time to think about where your message isn’t hitting the mark.

At a glance: why aren’t people applying to your role?

• The salary’s too low (or not disclosed)
• Your requirements are too prescriptive
• You’re not selling your EVP
• Too many clichés
• Language that isn’t inclusive

Review your roadblocks

Whether or not to apply for a job is a potentially life changing decision, and there will be many questions racing through someone’s head when they’re reading about your vacancy. Are they qualified for the role? Has the position been vacant for a while? Does the organisation sound like somewhere they’d feel comfortable? The sum of all these questions adds up to the following: should they apply for your job or not?

The next time you’re listing a new role, it’s a good idea to go through it and ask yourself honestly whether you’d apply for it if you were in the applicant’s position. If not, ask yourself why.

Here are six red flags you should avoid when articulating your job opportunity:

Candidates want to know that they’re going to be fairly compensated for the work they do. Have you benchmarked your salaries lately to check that they’re still within the typical range for the job you’re trying to fill? There are also resources you can use that show the average pay for certain job titles.

Even more likely to deter a candidate than a salary that’s below scratch is not listing it at all. Research has indicated that a job listing with a salary range gets twice the number of applications as one without. Using phrases such as ‘competitive salary’ or ‘comprehensive benefits package’, instead of the actual salary, not only gives candidates the impression that the pay will be below the market average, but also that you’re not transparent as an employer. If you want to showcase your organisation as fair, open and honest, including the salary in a job listing – even if it’s a range – is a good place to start.

It’s an endless list of requirements

A job listing isn’t supposed to just consist of a shopping list of everything you’re looking for in an employee. In fact, jobs with an over-inflated list of requirements are likely to remain unfilled for longer – candidates will glance at the extensive experience and skills needed and quickly decide that they’re unsuited for the position.

If you’re struggling to attract candidates to your role, take a step back and examine what is absolutely essential in your prospective hire, and where you can be flexible. Can you consider applicants from further afield? Is there a certain qualification you absolutely need? Do they need to be proficient with a particular software, or is it something you can teach? Adopting a more values-based hiring approach could mean you access a more diverse pool of potential candidates, preventing your workforce from becoming homogenised and lessening the risk of a limited approach to problem-solving.

You’re not selling your EVP and what makes you unique

Job listings should be as much about selling the organisation as specifying the skills required to do the job. What do you offer that makes you the best place to work? Why do people enjoy being part of your team? Hiring is a two-way process – a candidate is offering you their skills, enthusiasm and experience in exchange for an opportunity that offers great rewards and good career prospects at an organisation whose values align with their own.

Conveying the functional benefits of the job, for example salary and additional rewards – both monetary and non-monetary – is simple enough, but to make your organisation truly stand out you will need to think of creative ways to convey the less tangible ones. The quality of your service or product, your organisational mission, a commitment to social responsibility – these are all things that people want to see in a prospective employer. Whether you convey this via videos, testimonials or quotes – this information should be readily available.

Too many clichés that alienate the applicant

If there’s one thing candidates hate – it’s jargon. Words like ‘self-starter’, ‘game-changing’ and ‘detail-oriented’ are not only meaningless but suggest that this is common vernacular in your workplace – not the impression you want to give prospective employees. Cutting this sort of language out and speaking plainly makes it much more likely that candidates will identify with the position and want to come and work for you.

This rule also applies to the title – no one searches for an ‘Excel Wizard’ or a ‘Content Superstar’. These sorts of titles also give no indication on function or seniority, making it extremely unlikely that you’ll engage the right candidates. Ideally, a title should be as short and simple as possible and include terms people are familiar with and likely to use.

Your language isn’t inclusive enough

A job listing that uses inclusive language is much more likely to appeal to those from a wide range of backgrounds, increasing your pool of potential applicants. Being mindful of your use of pronouns and gender-coded language is the first step towards creating a description that reflects this approach. Research has shown that words in job ads that are deemed to be ‘masculine-coded’, like ‘ambitious’, ‘confident’ and ‘driven’, for example, are shown to potentially discourage women from applying.

Corporate language and industry-specific lingo is also likely to turn applicants off – when drafting a job description, always assume that those reading it don’t understand the terms and acronyms you might be tempted to use. Universal wording makes it much more likely that potentially highly qualified candidates from other industries will be tempted to apply, widening your prospective talent pool considerably.