How To Optimize Job Postings to Get the Best Matches Possible

Louisiana Job Connection and its intuitive 13-point matching system can help you find the perfect employees for your business. Job seekers from around the country and within Louisiana are searching for careers on Louisiana Job Connection. Making your job descriptions specific and succinct is the the best strategy to maximizing the site’s matching system and finding qualified candidates for your job openings.

Provide Accurate Job Postings For Accurate Results

To receive accurate matches, pay careful attention to the words used to describe the job you are posting. Remember that while the system is smart, it’s still automated intelligence searching for specific terms and matching phrases. If you need a seasoned accountant, indicate the desired skills and required certifications needed to successfully fill the role. Do you need an accountant who can sit for the certified public accountant exam? One who already has a license? Or are you looking for a bookkeeper? The requirements for each are quite different, but some would say that they are all technically accountants. By providing accurate parameters for your position, our skills engine can then analyze your job posting and generate quality matches with job seekers who possess the experience and skills you need.

Choose Job Titles Carefully

Be aware of what the current industry-standard job title is for the position you’re going to advertise. You want the title that uses the most commonly understood terms and that most accurately covers the duties you will detail in the body of the job posting. If you’re not sure what to use, research the position. Titles evolve, and many are actually becoming obsolete or being replaced with hybrids that encompass what once was several jobs or specializations. Be careful, however, of making titles too detailed — or odd. It may narrow your pool of talent too quickly. Choose a utilitarian, accepted title, and save details and creativity for the job description. The skills engine will associate applicable skills and certifications to the job description and title you provide, so being clear and concise is key to getting quality matches with the skills you need.

Create Strong Job Descriptions To Ensure Strong Candidate Matches

To ensure quality candidate matches, the most vital task for your company will be to create job postings that will target potential employees who possess the expertise you need to complete your team. The U.S. Small Business Administration offers extensive advice specifically for companies trying to find qualified candidates they want to employ. Think of your job post as the counterpart to a résumé; you want to find the résumé that best matches the skills, certifications and abilities your job requires. You can do this by breaking down your posting into two main segments:

1. Description

This is where you explain the function and scope of the position in terms of the candidate you’re looking for. Craft your description as if you were talking to someone, explaining what a typical workday would be like: the general day-to-day activities and type of work environment to expect. Within your description, be sure to include a detailed list of the duties and responsibilities the job entails. You can also include a purpose statement to give job seekers a general summary of your job opening.

2. Job Duties and Responsibilities

Think about what tasks a person in that position will be responsible for completing. List them all, and then prioritize them. Make sure that your top priority heads your list and that the rest follow in decreasing importance. Be sure to include all desired skills for your position. The skills engine will then generate a list of necessary skills for your position using the information you provide to match your job post with qualified job seekers.

3. Purpose Statement

Just as job seekers usually include an objective, most employers have a statement that summarizes what the job is about. This is typically just a line or two — a general description summarizing the job in 25 words or less.

4. Certifications, Licenses and Special Requirements

In addition to desired skills and job duties, be sure to provide any required certifications, professional licenses or other competencies in technical operating systems, software, hardware or industrial machinery within your job post. If a particular certification is not available, you can still select the “desired” option and include it along with your other requirements. The system uses this information, in conjunction with computed skills, to generate quality matches for your position.

Word Usage – The Key To Matchmaking

What Louisiana Job Connection is looking for when it makes its matches goes beyond keywords — although they are important, too. The site’s algorithm and enhanced skills engine look for phrases, skills, abilities and other terms that fit categories for a particular job. To write the best descriptions and collect the best matches:

Consider at least 20 terms or keywords that would “match” the job. If you’re not sure what to include, look at advertised listings for similar jobs. What are your competitors requiring, and how do their terms fit your needs? Print off some announcements, and start highlighting the most important words and phrases. You don’t want to duplicate anyone else’s listing because chances are it doesn’t fit your business. However, you will see patterns that you can use, and so will Louisiana Job Connection.
Devote attention to the verbs you use to describe duties. “Handle” or “fix” are vague terms, but “edit,” “write,” “calibrate” or “audit” are much stronger indicators of job responsibilities.
If the job involves multitasking, be sure to list all the tasks. Each duty that you list increases your chances of matching what job seekers have on their résumés. With more matches, your job match percentage rates improve, likewise increasing the likelihood of identifying your perfect candidate. For example, while five potential employees may have experience in sales, only one might have actual marketing expertise and bidding experience.
Include all versions of specific licensing requirements, certifications or professional associations. Even if Louisiana Job Connection uses them to make a match, a long string of abbreviations and acronyms may be meaningless or off-putting to the candidate who also receives you as a match. Likewise, if you list only the abbreviations or acronyms, you run the chance of Louisiana Job Connection only picking up job seekers who used the acronym. Most professional résumé and career services urge applicants to spell out such terms, so skipping spelled-out, full-word requirements may actually decrease the likelihood of a match or miss out on the perfect candidate. To be safe, include both.

Appeal to your Audience

Most of all, make your job descriptions understandable and appealing to the job seekers on Louisiana Job Connection. When you appear on a job seeker’s match list, they see a description of what the job entails. If your listing is clear, positive and approachable, your matching job seekers will be:

More eager to respond.
More likely to view your listing as an opportunity they want to pursue.
More likely to accept the job if it’s offered.

Keep Refining Your Job Postings

Louisiana Job Connection offers both employers and job seekers in Louisiana a free but invaluable resource that matches qualified people who want a job with employers who need to fill a position. If you aren’t getting the types of matches you want, you can adjust thresholds or requirements easily. Because you always have the options of contacting a candidate, saving a candidate for later or removing a candidate from the match pool, Louisiana Job Connection’s system will learn from your job management choices and adjust its calculations to make better future matches. Louisiana Job Connection makes finding qualified candidates you want and need quick and easy. Complete your company profile, and create jobs. Qualified matches are waiting to join your team.

Find more Louisiana Job Connection resources visit https://louisianajobconnection.com/Help/HelpDIY.