How can job postings be changed to improve talent attraction?
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The market is different today. When I'm conducting interviews, especially with younger candidates, they'll ask questions like, "Why should I work for you? How do you do team building? What's the culture?" The conversation is not just about the skills they need to have or what task we want them to do. They want to know what else they can do apart from those basics.
We need to change how we post jobs. The job descriptions are so boring and they’re mostly made up of buzzwords. They require a ridiculous amount of experience and, at least in most postings that I've seen, there isn't a sense of what the candidate is getting out of it. What is the value of this job from their perspective? There is nothing that speaks to the culture of the organization and why someone should be excited to work at that company. It’s a huge disservice, especially to the millennial and Gen Z candidates we're trying to attract. If they don't understand the higher purpose of the organization, or the reason why they should come and work for us, they won't care. Then we are just another logo to them.
I was talking to the class of 2023 last year at one of the Ivy schools. As we were talking about the company and what we do, someone asked, "What values does the company stand for?" I was well prepared, so I said, "Meaningful impact in people's lives." Tons of LinkedIn requests suddenly started coming in from them after that, because that's what they're looking for. Their main question is, "What's your impact on society, underserved communities, or diversity?"
It's not just a job anymore. It's a way into the corporate world that can enable them to do something, either for the community, for the environment, or to make a mark.
Culture is a huge factor to a lot of people. Everyone who's looking at jobs now is trying to figure out how they’ll be able to balance their lives. They want to get out of the typical corporate mindset and bring value back. They want to know how they can leverage the enormous amount of time they spend at work to do that, so it’s important to communicate those possibilities. Mindfulness, empathy, as well as diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) are all critical, so it’s hard to attract talent if your company culture does not have any of that.