Question

• As an HR professional, how would you go about using a more collaborative approach in gathering information for creating a job ad?
• In your opinion, what are the key components of a job ad that would attract the most qualified applicants?
• What are the best collaborative HR practices for job analysis and design?

Answer 1

The best method to create a job ad is to identify tasks performed. This data is usually compiled by obtaining information from many sources such as; existing job descriptions or training manuals, interviewing subject matter experts, people who are knowledgeable about the job (supervisors, current employees performing job, etc.) observing performance or even performing the job itself. Then make sure your job ad is well written with good grammar and syntax and make it elaborate but short to grab attention. Also be mindful of the design because visual is one of the most important elements for a job ad, so try to ad images if possible. A good job ad should mention the salary because let’s face it everyone has bills to pay and salary matters a lot to individuals. Lastly, separate skills into two groups such as required and good to have/desirable, so that people will not be discouraged to apply if they do not meet all the “required” skills.

While I agree with you that inside collaboration sometimes does not allow you to fully understand certain needs of the hiring process or can be irritating, it does have its advantages. I personally think that when a potential job candidate comes into any organization and sees that leadership values the insight of other employees about the hiring process and selecting the right person, the candidate sees that as a benefit from your organization. A team that’s involved in interviews and hiring serves as a strong selling point for most candidates and also allows your employees to feel like their opinion counts, so you kind of get a double bonus from it. For example, at my previous employer I would conduct individual interviews to narrow it down to a few potential candidates for my department and then I would conduct a second round of interviews with those selected as a group with the rest of my team. I believe it’s important when you work with the same individual’s day in and day out that the personalities mix and that my employees feel heard. Plus it allowed the potential candidates to hear firsthand what to expect on a regular basis from the demands of the job from people who are already doing the work.

I like how you mentioned creativity in your post and you are correct that sometimes having others involved in the process allows different creative approaches to emerge that you may have not thought about. People have to open to a wide variety of alternatives and recognize that there are usually multiple ways of achieving those results, so having ideas from other team members definitely helps reach that outcome. I have several friends who work in HR and they have expressed on several occasions that sometimes in their job it can be hard to creative when everything, and everyone needs to fit into tightly defined rules, regulations and systems.

Besides job ads that grab a candidate’s attention what other ideas could be used to engage potential candidates to apply? For example, in healthcare and at the hospital I work for they offer an employee referral program and it can be a really effective recruiting tool especially for nursing staff. This allows your own staff to use word of mouth to seek out individuals that existing employees know are looking for a job and would be good recruits.

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