Last weekend my husband was lying on the couch reading the newspaper (yes, he’s still one of those people that actually reads them) when he drew my attention to a full-page colour hiring ad seeking workers to build the new AUKUS nuclear submarines. He knows I love talking about recruitment, so this was either some kind of weird foreplay, or my non-handyman hubby was showing an unprecedented interest in building subs. Instead, after hearing me complain all week about how large corporations wasted money on hiring ads full of useless cliches, he’d now come across a great example.
‘We are the Defence State and we are making history,’ ‘uplifting the capability and capacity of our industry’ ‘we are transforming our state, for the next generation and beyond’, ‘the biggest step forward in Australia’s defence capability’. You get the drift. There wasn’t a single specific attractor – you know those things like salary, career opportunities, work autonomy/diversity and so on, that show how someone’s life might improve if they took this job.
This is very common. It’s like these advertisers have swallowed ChatGPT, spewing out a string of cliches, yet they’ve forgotten what it is to be a job seeker and what people really want. Here’s two more examples from SEEK:
- ‘Amidst the suspense, the drama & the intrigue is an opportunity to keep the chase alive & the chase is still on for a Regional Guru to join this co.!!’
- ‘Cool, Committed, Caring, Innovative, Exciting and Energetic? We want you to come on board the starship!’
Let me be clear – no one wants mumbo jumbo scrawled out in 15 minutes, with little thought. This kind of lazy recruitment marketing may have sufficed in the twentieth century when there were more people than jobs, but in the current labour drought it is highly damaging. Not only does it show little interest or care for the very people you are trying to attract (that message comes across loud and clear) but it also lacks the one thing applicants want to know, which is why working for you will benefit them more than working for anyone else. If there is one thing an employer should know it’s this, and an effective recruitment ad involves spelling out these specifics in clear and simple language.
I experienced this first-hand when Nick, the General Manager of an electrical company asked for help, after failing to employ a single decent electrician for four months. He was now getting desperate and had splashed a lot of money on recruitment agencies, with no success. Their hiring ad was the usual blurb, like every other hiring ad out there so we spent an hour identifying the true benefits of working for his business as compared to anyone else. Here are some of them (and note none of these were in his original ad):
- No domestic work (because apparently many electricians dislike dealing with residential customers.)
- Plenty of weekend work and travel, if desired such as our recent projects in Mareeba, St George, Townsville, Rockhampton and Charters Towers.
- Staff retention rate unheard of in our industry – We have extremely low staff turnover – many of our people have been with us 10-15 years and our electricians have progressed to become leading hands, project managers and the GM.
- We enjoy many social events together – This year we took 70 people to Stradbroke Island, ran a getaway weekend, and for our Christmas Party we’ve booked out the whole second level at Top Golf.
- Experience job security – we keep our people employed for the long-term by managing our pipeline of work. For instance, when COVID struck we sat down and worked out a strategy to keep everyone employed and earning wages, even if no work came in for a few months.
All up, we identified 10 specific factors that made them different from other electrical companies and used real examples to demonstrate each point, bringing them to life for people.
Nick had this to say about the result: ‘As much as I thought the ad didn’t suit us (I thought it was a bit wanky) I ran with it. I’d say we got the best interest in an ad we’ve ever had. I had shortlisted 5 candidates, interviewed and employed within 2 weeks.’ He has now axed all the agencies, brought hiring in-house and continues to enjoy hiring success.
And just to let you know, after giving up on his career with AUKUS subs, my husband moved on to fighter pilot. ‘Look at this he said, ‘see the world, upgrade your ambition, establish a legacy.’ I talked him into going for a coffee instead.
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For anyone who is interested in how HR innovations can boost business results, come along to the next PCAP Tribe meeting in Brisbane on 18 July and hear guest speaker Hayley Cooper, CEO of Harnex, the largest manufacturer of cables, harnesses and looms in Australia, share how she axed her traditional practices and increased her profitability by 81% in a single year. She now has a waitlist of great people wanting to work for her. Click here for more information.
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