How to maximise the effectiveness and reach of your EP job advert

At edpsy we’ve been supporting EP services to spread the word about job vacancies for a little over two years now and we wanted to share our learning about how to maximise the reach of your adverts.

1. Avoid advertising during the school holidays – stick to term times

Our stats show us that interest in job vacancies is highest during the school term time and that this is true across multiple platforms (email, the website, Twitter and Facebook). If your job advert is live for three weeks, and two of those weeks are the Christmas holidays, it’s likely that you’ve lost important time, exposure and attention for your vacancy.

2. Use your networks to draw attention and maximise reach

Platforms like ours have a wide reach and we share with our multiple communities – email subscribers, website viewers and our twitter, facebook and LinkedIn followers. Your job advert will do even better where services and colleagues within your service or region also share it. For example, asking your Twitter-using team members to share the link to the advert is likely to really increase how many times your job advert is viewed.

3. Give details about the role and the organisation

Sometimes we receive job adverts that say very little about the role the applicant will be doing. Our most viewed job vacancies are those where there is clear information about the organisation (structure, location, specialism areas) and the role itself (areas of focus, desired specialisms, opportunities for development).

We would also encourage organisations to always include salary information. This can often be a deciding factor about whether to apply for a role.

4. Write clearly and structure your advert

Remember that your advert is on the internet. People most often engage with web content by scanning the page, moving their eyes in a broad ‘F’ shape. They will often look first at the title and sub-headings to work out if that page is relevant for them.

A clear structure and good sub-headings also helps people who need to use screen readers, as these often read out headings first.

Sometimes we receive adverts that are just one continuous flow of text. We of course help by adding in sub-headings to make the advert more readable, but you know your own vacancy and aims better than us. Do think about sub-headings and structure when working with your HR services or team to construct the advert.

5. Give named people to talk to and how to contact them

This is a usual feature of job adverts but is sometimes missing. Applicants often value the opportunity to discuss the role informally.

It might be useful to provide multiple ways to contact a relevant person e.g. telephone and email, to suit applicants preferences.

If possible, provide contact information for people at different levels in the organisation e.g. the service lead and a maingrade EP.

6. Give a clear application closing date and, if you can, the interview dates

People often work to a deadline and having a clear date means they can come back to the vacancy details when they are ready, and plan accordingly. Even if the role(s) you are advertising have a rolling recruitment, it can be effective to implement a deadline for this round.

7. Review your advert when it closes

Look at how well your advert and its promotion did, in particular how many people: 

• saw adverts about your role (eg on Twitter, email or Facebook)
• read your job listing 
• clicked through to find out more about the role, your organisation or to apply

This should help you decide where to put energy and money next time, if there are things you could try differently around: 

• using your network to promote the role
• where you advertise your jobs
• how you write your job advert, or how you describe your roles

Have a conversation with who you placed your job advert. Get their thoughts on increasing reach and visibility. They might have a useful view about what figures are ‘normal’ or things you could try differently.

We automatically provide statistics when a job closes, but we’re always happy to have answer any questions you might have.

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