As it becomes increasingly difficult to source talent for vacancies across Ballarat and regional Victoria, ensuring that you’re attracting not deterring the best of the best from applying for your vacancy is crucial. Applying for a job can be hard work and takes a considerable amount of time – if you do it properly, the savvy job seeker – the best of the best talent will want to do it properly because they value their career. They want to make the right move for the right reasons. The savvy job seeker is not the job seeker that is shooting off applications left, right and centre via the apply now button on seek.com without even knowing anything about the vacancy.
The savvy job seeker is carefully planning their next career move and weighing up each vacancy they see. Here’s what the savvy job seeker wants when searching for their next career move:
- An understanding of what the role really is and involves: On many occasions I’ve read a job advert and been left wondering but what does this job really do? I’ve had many savvy job seekers ask for my advice on this matter. Sometimes we try and get so creative with our job adverts and our position titles that we actually confuse the job seeker and deter them from applying. It’s easy to get wrapped in our workplaces, sometimes we forget to look at the advert from an outsider’s perspective. While you want your advert to be different and stand out from the crowd you don’t want to confuse and deter talent from applying because they aren’t sure if their skills and experience match with what the job really involves.
- Apply with ease: By this I don’t mean simply getting the job seeker to hit the apply now button and shoot off their generic resume saved as part of their seek profile. The savvy job seeker will want to tailor their application for any position they are applying for but they want to be able to apply with ease. By that I mean is your application process mobile? Can they apply using a mobile device and is it a streamlined process. Depending on the job you may need to vary the process, online doesn’t appeal for all job seekers. The best application processes are the ones tailored to suit the type of people you want to apply. And yes even in today’s world of technology sometimes that might mean hand delivering a resume or posting it in!
- The opportunity to ask questions: The savvy job seeker wants to know more than what is in the job advert and what they might be able to read in the position description. They want insight in to the position, the company and the culture. Before investing their time and effort to write and submit an application they want to know if it’s the right opportunity for them. Having no contact details on the job advert will put the savvy job seeker off applying if they have got questions and can’t get them answered. Worse yet is having contact details but not returning calls – that’s the ultimate way to deter a savvy job seeker!
- A positive experience: A savvy job seeker wants to get a good vibe about the vacancy and the company they are applying to. First impressions count and the savvy job seeker wants a positive experience. From a sharp and professional job advert that contains the necessary and relevant information, is well laid out and doesn’t have any spelling or grammar errors through to having an engaging conversation with the contact person and having all their questions answered, the savvy job seeker will be assessing you – your company, your brand, your professionalism and they want to make sure it aligns with their values and what they want from their next employer.
It’s the little things that will count when making your vacancy stand out from the crowd and ensuring you are attracting the savvy job seeker. By giving the savvy job seeker the opportunity to request a position description or call for further information you’ll be able to weed out the savvy job seekers from the scatter gun approach job seekers who are applying for anything and everything and can’t even remember your job.
What have you done differently to attract the savvy job seeker? I’d love to hear what’s worked for you or if you’ve been a savvy job seeker, what motivated you to apply for a job?
