With the labor market currently favoring the job seeker, people looking for work have more options than ever. The onus is now on employers to be as appealing as possible to job seekers.

A simple, but highly effective way to attract top talent is to craft a great job description.

If your company has open jobs, your job descriptions have to be easy to understand and sell the opportunity and sell the company as a great place to work.

That can be a lot to ask and defaulting to cookie-cutter job descriptions may seem like the way to go. However, generic descriptions undersell the business and the job. Poorly written job descriptions are also more likely to invite bad-fit applicants.

Consider the following best practices for crafting job descriptions.

Keep the classic job titles

Somewhere along the line, employers thought it would be a good idea to spice up their job titles, possibly to attract millennials. Companies weren’t looking for web developers anymore, they wanted “developer ninjas” or “web gurus.”

This trend quickly became a bad cliché and even worse, it made finding these jobs difficult with a standard search engine.

When it comes to job titles, keep it classic and plan on using captivating language elsewhere in your description.

Keep company mission in mind

A well-written job description does more than lay out basic requirements and responsibilities. A good description resonates perfectly with the company’s mission. For instance, if your company is focused on cutting-edge technology, your description should include references to this technology, not technology that debuted five years ago.

Carefully consider job requirements

When establishing the set of job requirements for your description, be prudent. Way too many requirements may discourage good applicants from applying, particularly younger job seekers like recent graduates. Although these applicants lack experience, they tend to be more enthusiastic, passionate and willing to learn than older applicants.

Decide on two lists of requirements: a list for “essential” qualifications and a list for “preferred” qualifications. Applicants can then consider the latter as optional, and this will result in a broader spectrum of applications than a stricter list.

Do your research

As with most things in life, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to writing job descriptions. Job boards are full of countless positions, many of which are similar to the position you are trying to describe. Reading up on similar postings for similar jobs can not only give you a sense of what yours should look like, it can also help you figure out a way to separate your job opportunity from the rest of the pack.

Sell it!

Job seekers mostly want to know ‘what’s in it for them’ when they read job descriptions, so don’t hesitate to sell your open positions as great opportunities. If the workplace is in a great location or your company offers flexible scheduling, be sure to mention those perks.

At Action Group Staffing, we take the hard work out of sourcing talent so our clients can focus their energy on core business activities. Contact us today to find out how we can help your company.