How and where you advertise your job opening will play a key role in finding the best candidates. The key in planning your advertising strategy is to evaluate the return on investment. You will want to place your advertising where it will attract the highest number of qualified candidates.

When planning your recruitment advertising, consider the following tips:

• Identify your targeted candidates, i.e., people with specialized skills like computer programming etc.
• Research the best places to advertise, i.e., major job posting sites like Monster, Craigslist or specialized online posting sites that target different professionals. Other ideas to consider are local colleges and graduate schools that have their own job posting boards for students and alumni, as well as newspapers that can offer a combination of print and online advertising.
• Consider opening up your search for the ideal candidate to your existing employee base.
• Implementing a candidate referral program at your company can also yield good results.
• When developing your job posting or job advertisement, consider features and benefits of the job that will be most attractive to your ideal candidate.
• Evaluate costs.
• Develop a timeline, allowing enough time to place the advertising, receive response and conduct interviewing.

About Your Job Posting/Advertisement

• There should be an actual vacancy to fill. If there is no real job, do not advertise as if there were.
• You must comply with laws such as Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) laws. For example, you cannot state that you want a person of a certain gender, age or race. If you need to hire a certain type of person for a specialist role (such as a female for airport security), you should contact the EEOC for advice on exemptions where appropriate.
• Your advertisement should be realistic and honest. Do not make promises that you aren’t going to keep, as it will reflect badly on you and your company, and could create contractual employment obligations that your company could be required to fulfill or as a basis for a lawsuit. For example, if you promote how you have very little turnover and most people stay with the company for many years, you may create a situation which could interfere with your rights under ‘employment at will’ to terminate the employee.

How to Apply for the Job Opening

When developing your job posting, decide on how the candidates should apply for your job opening, including the following submissions:

• Resume
• Portfolio of work samples
• Certifications
• Completion of job application form

To Learn More, Check Out This Free Whitepaper: ‘What Every HR Manager Needs To Know About Online Recruiting‘