Drafting the Advert

The advert is a signpost for drawing in potential candidates and should contain concise information on the main focus of the role and the kind of person you are looking to recruit. It is not necessary for you to put in every detail of the department, role and person specification into the advert as this will be included in the further particulars for the post. It is important however that you give sufficient information to allow the candidate to identify with the role and make a quick assessment of whether they would meet the criteria. This helps to draw candidates you would like to attract in whilst at the same time reducing the number of inappropriate applications received.

HR will put check any advert and will ensure it complies with brand rules and includes the correct salary information and so on.

Some tips for a good recruitment advert are:

• Keep it short and snappy i.e. 7 – 10 lines of text
• The name of the department/school/directorate should be in the first line of the text
• A short summary of key duties should be given, perhaps taken for the main purpose of the role section of the job description
• An indication of the type of candidate you are looking for should be given listing the most important qualifications, skills and experience you are seekingLanguage should be punchy e.g. “You will…” rather than “the successful candidate will…”
• Avoid using language that might be considered discriminatory