A job posting is often a potential candidate’s first exposure to a role. In today’s environment, insurance job openings are abundant, making it essential to cut through the noise and resonate with the right individuals. If you’re included within the 67% of insurers planning to hire this year, the below checklist can serve as a valuable guide to ensure your posting is as compelling as possible.
Will it connect with candidates?
Write your post through a candidate’s lens and focus on what is most important to them. Highlighting the role’s impact on the company, clients and community is more likely to pique interest than a list of daily tasks and responsibilities.
Are all of the listed requirements vital for success?
While it can be tempting to list all of the attributes and experiences your ideal candidate would possess, distill your post down to the ones that are most essential to the role. If something can be learned on the job or won’t directly impact their ability to succeed, it’s often best to remove it.
Does it focus on skills? 
Especially in today’s continually evolving environment, transferable skills are key to an adaptable and agile workforce, even more so than experience. For example, rather than mandating five years of management experience, focus on the skills you’d expect someone to have acquired within that timeframe – such as leadership, problem-solving and coaching.
Is it easy to read and/or skim?
According to LinkedIn, the average individual spends 14 seconds deciding whether to keep reading a job post or to move on. Use white space, headers and bullet points to your advantage, ensuring position highlights aren’t hidden within long paragraphs of text.
Is it inclusive?
Gendered language, limited geographic locations, and specific past experiences and educational requirements can exclude or discourage otherwise qualified candidates. Avoid potentially polarizing terms by running your posts through online tools and having trusted individuals with various perspectives review your posting prior to pushing it live.
Did you include commonly searched keywords?
Similar to how you may scan applicant resumes for keywords, job seekers are doing their own searching and scanning. While it’s not necessary to pack in every potentially relevant term, do make sure your post will be found within standard search results.
Does it reflect your company’s personality, culture and values?
Be creative with your job postings to better showcase your organization and the role. Even if you aren’t specifically telling the reader about your culture or corporate values, they’re indirectly conveyed through how the post is written and its chosen areas of focus.
Is it grammatically correct and error-free?
Prior to pushing publish on your post, give it one final review to ensure all grammar, spelling and sentence structures are correct. This sets the tone for the rest of the recruiting process – ensure you’re starting off on the right foot.
This checklist will help create a strong foundation for your job posting; however, if your post isn’t gaining the traction you’d intended, or if it’s primarily attracting applicants who are not right for the role, continue to make tweaks and refinements. For more, view our post, “Creating Compelling Job Postings.”