Job advertising: five top tips from our team

“Having a stand-out job advert for your vacant role is key to attracting the best candidates,” says Jilly Jamieson, NLPSS head of client services & global process owner, recruitment. “Putting the time in at this point in the recruitment process will reap rewards later down the line.” Here are her top tips for advertising your job post to ensure you attract the best candidates that are suited to the role.

1. Prepare a job description and person specification

A good starting point is to make a list of what you would like your new employee to do and what skills they need to fulfil their role.

If you already have a job description, check if it is relevant and up to date and has been band matched according to the terms and conditions of the role. Ensure the person specification matches the role, and considerations are taken to ensure essential and desirable criteria can be effectively shortlisted against.

“We understand how important it is to advertise job vacancies quickly,” says Jilly. “But I often remind people of the importance of refreshing job descriptions and person specifications first, especially if it has been a while since you last recruited someone. By getting it right first time, you can avoid retrospective updates which slow down the recruitment process.

“Thinking about essential and desirable criteria is also useful for roles that attract a high number of candidates. Through the Trac system which we use for recruitment, you can add preliminary questions that filter out those applicants that don’t meet the criteria which makes longlisting much easier and less time consuming.”

2. Write an advert

The following should be included in your advert as a minimum:
the job title and grade
location and specialty
main responsibilities
ward profile/area profile
a contact name and telephone number for information
closing date
date of interviews — this enables candidates to have plenty of notice and improves attendance

To make your advert really stand out, you should also consider what you would want to know about a job before you applied and add this in, particularly what the post offers applicants rather than just what you want them to do. For example:

are their opportunities for career development or flexible working?
are positive changes taking place at your organisation at the current time that would be appealing for people looking to join?
what support systems and wellbeing services do you have for staff?
have you won any awards that give future employees an insight into your organisation?
add links to videos, websites or online booklets that showcase what it is like to work at your organisation

“The order in which you write your job advert is really important,” explains Jilly. “The job title and the first few lines are what any potential applicants will read first, so make this part the most appealing and avoid talking about your organisation straight away. The focus should be on the role and its benefits and then provide a summary of your organisation later in the advert.

“You can use LinkedIn job adverts as a source of inspiration or online AI tools like ChatGPT as a way of generating more appealing text but be careful not to use AI for the whole advert as you will lose the personalisation that is required, and your content may not be as inclusive as it should be. Remember that job adverts should not discriminate against any of the eight protected characteristics in line with legislation.”

3. Prepare pre-application questions for competitive posts

The Trac recruitment system allows hiring managers to enter pre-application questions that applicants have to answer before they get to the application form. Their progress to the form will depend on the answers they provide to the questions.

“Pre-application questions are recommended for posts where a high volume of applicants is expected,” says Jilly. “They are not recommended for hard-to-fill posts. They are designed to discourage applicants from submitting applications for posts for which they do not meet key requirements. For example, you can ask about their registration, qualifications, skill sets, or experience and collect small bits of information relevant to the post.”

The questions are split into two types:

Blocking — where the applicant will be stopped from applying if they answer incorrectly.
Application filtering — where the applicant fills in further information that can assist the shortlisting process.

Please contact the NLPSS helpdesk on 020 3758 2060, Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm, if you need assistance with preparing pre-application questions.

4. Promote your post

The NLPSS team looks after the advertisement of your post on NHS jobs and the trust website once it has been authorised by your organisation, but you can help share this widely by promoting it on your own social media platforms and asking your team to do the same.