Why Your Job Ads Should Repel Candidates

Talent Talks, formerly The Talent Revolution

Notes from Tom:

Most recruitment is a lie. Open, honest communication can make the hiring process—and your company—stronger. But how do you do that and what does it look like in action?

Glenn believes that there are two employee engagement strategies that work (almost) everywhere:

• Open and honest communication, warts and all
• Offer employee share ownership

But what does each mean and why does it matter?

Open and honest communication can look like a lot of things. In one example, Glenn spoke to a firm’s head of IT about whether they should invest in a particular software. The individual felt the software was too expensive, but Glenn pushed back. “You’re a $20 million revenue business trying to grow into a $40 million revenue business,” he said. “So maybe it’s not too expensive.”

The head of IT was incredulous. “We’re a $20 million revenue business? I had no idea we were that big.”

When even senior members of staff lack the context to frame decisions that can move the business forward, you’ve got a problem.

Many companies are nervous about the consequences of sharing too much, because they’re worried that employees might become disengaged or leave the company.

But often, the reverse is true.

People need context to make good decisions, and they’ll work harder for you and your business if they feel like they’re a trusted part of it.

And when you have trusted and engaged teams who have context for decisions they also feel like they are contributing to their own success. In terms of shared ownership of a company, this approach links very closely to open communication; once everyone has a financial stake in the company, it’s like writing a permission slip to openly discuss P&L. Suddenly, everyone is working toward a common goal. If the company wins, everyone wins. The organization has the opportunity to make a meaningful difference in people’s lives.

And in order to secure talent that wants to be a part owner of your org, you need to start by having job adverts that tell candidates exactly what they're walking into and why they should want to join your team.

Glenn makes a bold statement by talking about how he believes that your job adverts should repel 90% of candidates looking to apply. Why?
Because job adverts often bear no resemblance to what hiring managers say they want.

It seems counterintuitive, but the goal of a job description should actually be to put people off. You don’t want everyone to apply. You want the right people to apply.

Once you have the right team on your side and are crushing goals, its time to start considering what happens to those people when and if they decide to leave your company. The average length of an employee to remain at a company these days is about 3-4 years depending on tenure and age. With that in mind, it's not likely that everyone you hire will break the mold and stay forever.

Glenn and I discuss why the myth of the permanent job should be sidelined, and why loyalty isn’t a valuable commodity in this day and age.

If people no longer find the work challenging, no longer enjoy it, or can’t find a role that makes them happy, it’s in everyone’s best interest if they leave.

This may sound harsh but in reality its liberating for candidates, employees, executive team members and CEO's alike. It’s got nothing to do with disloyalty. For Glenn, it’s all about the learning, peak, and plateau of an employee’s life cycle. Very often, people stay at a job past their peak time, which benefits no one. Not the firm, and not the disengaged employee, who starts to stagnate.

His advice? Let employee departures be what they are.

Mentioned in this episode:

Glenn's Book - Build It: The Rebel Playbook For World-Class Employee Engagement

See Also:

TTR, Episode 3 - Why Employee Experience Matters (and What To Do About It)
TTR, Episode 4 - Double Down on Diversity with The Power of Internships