One of my closest friends recently confessed to me that she hated recruiting for her business. I offered to help her and she sent me her job ad.

Oh no. I read through it and didn’t get one sense of her business, or who she was as a person. In the real world, this person has loads of spunk and her business is on a massive growth trajectory. It’s an exciting phase for the company and an unreal time for someone to join her.

Problem is, when I read her ad I got no sense whatsoever of that excitement and wasn’t enticed to submit an application at all. It was textbook. Template. Yawn.

Here are some tips I shared with her about writing job ads.

1) Make it about them, not about you

Tell the candidate what’s in it for them. Try and convey every little perk you can offer. Do you buy your office coffee one day a week? Does your company work with exciting brands? Is travel involved? Do you go on team building adventures? Is there a great leader in the business? In short, what’s in it for them?

2) Be a bit lighthearted and self-effacing

If you’re recruiting for you (ie you’re the manager and you’re looking for someone to join your team) and you’ve got some funny traits (come on, we all do) list them down. It might be something like “I’m no good without my morning coffee, but after that my world is all fine again.” Or, “I tend to run late at times, and therefore need someone to help keep me on track.” Letting candidates into your world and being a bit personable will endear them to you and make them interested to learn more about you.

3) THINK about what you’re saying in the job ad

So many people write what they think they should write in their ads, without really considering the detail. So they say “Advanced Microsoft Office skills a must” when it’d really be fine if the candidate can put together a basic spreadsheet. Don’t turn candidates away if you don’t need to.

4) Try and use the word ‘you’ a lot in your ad

So, things like: “It’d be great if you had some knowledge of Salesforce.” Instead of “Experience with Salesforce required.” Or, “You’ll love joining a team that’s focused and collegiate”, instead of “Great team environment.” Again, this is all about making your job ad about them.

5) Thank the candidate

Uh huh – that’s right. Candidates spend hours reading through job ad after job ad, and after a while they all sound the same. Yours will stand out if you just write: “Thanks so much for taking the time to read this ad. I hope we get the chance to meet soon!”

Having come from a background of reading hundreds of CVs a day and conducting countless interviews, the shine of the recruitment process has somewhat worn off, but the outcome has not. I still get that feeling of excitement (akin to just before you open Christmas presents) when I get to offer someone a position on my team.

Two cool questions have helped me improve my hiring.

The first is this: “Will this person lift the average of the team, or will they bring it down?” My goal is to consistently send the average upwards. I’m never scared of hiring people who are brighter, more organised, more astute, lovelier or more capable than me and the rest of the business. When this new person walks in, I want my existing team to sit up that little bit straighter and I want them to enjoy their role more because the new person is enriching their working life.

Here’s the other question I ask: “Is this person an A grade team player, or am I settling for second best?” My experience is that your gut never fails on this one. You know when you’re trying to convince yourself that they tick all the calibre and suitability boxes, when really you’re cutting corners to just get someone in to the role. Yes it’s painful when you need to fill a vacant position but it hurts more when you make a wrong hire.

These two questions (while certainly not exhaustive) have served me well when building my A team.

What other questions have you found useful when hiring?