The New Rules of Job Ads: High-Impact Tips for 2026

Lori Cole (00:06):

Hi, thank you all for being here today. While we are waiting for people to get logged in, we’re just going to give it a couple of minutes here, but I want to share something with you. We have a brand new feature that we just launched, and it is the candidate interview scheduling tool. This is now included with your job slot at no extra charge, and it really speeds up the interview scheduling process. You can schedule and manage all of your candidate interviews right from the iHire platform. So what it does, it syncs with your calendar and your conferencing tools instantly. You just have to click a few buttons and then candidates can pick their own optimal time slots for their interviews based on your availability. So you’ll put all of that information in about when you’re available, when you prefer not to have interviews scheduled, and then the candidates can pick from those times.

(01:10):

You can set up all your preferences. You can choose the interview types and duration, and you can even add special instructions. So the best part is that our clients are seeing a 33% decrease in interview no-shows. So that’s huge. We all know anything you can do to decrease that no-show rate is wonderful. And it takes so much of the friction out of the hiring process. So if you have not checked that out already, I would encourage you to do so.

(01:49):

I would also encourage you to find the emoji widget at the bottom of your screen. You should see a whole line of widgets at the bottom, and there’s one there for emojis. Test that out. We love it as speakers when you throw out an emoji when we’ve said something that really hits home with you. So please, it takes a second for those to start popping up, but test that out. All right. Let’s get to why we’re really here today. I’m Lori Cole. I am a certified career coach, advisor, content creator, and brand ambassador here at iHire. Welcome everybody to today’s webinar, The New Rules of Job Ads: High Impact Tips for 2026. So before we get started, I’d like to point out some features of our webinar platform that will really put you in the driver’s seat. The widgets allow you to move and resize windows and explore content related to today’s presentation.

(03:01):

Make sure you find that ask a question widget and submit your questions at any time during the presentation. Only our producers will see those questions and we will answer as many as we can after the webinar. Also, keep an eye on your inbox tomorrow for a recording of this webinar so you can replay it at your leisure. And lastly, just a few quick reminders that you’ll earn one credit today for SHRM and HRCI recertification. So stick around until the end of the webinar and that certification widget will pop up on your screen and then you can download your certificates of completion.

(03:49):

With that, I would like to introduce our presenters today, Molly Floyd and Mishanna Wood. First of all, Molly oversees iHire’s hiring success team. She develops solutions for iHire clients to ensure their experiences with our industry-focused recruiting tools are personalized, seamless, and rewarding. Welcome, Molly.

Molly Floyd (4:13):

Thank you, Lori. Happy to be here.

Lori Cole (04:16):

We’re happy to have you. And then Mishanna Wood is a senior hiring solutions advisor here at iHire. And some of you have probably talked to her before. She leverages her extensive experience in advertising to help companies of all sizes secure the right talent quickly and cost effectively. Welcome, Mishanna.

Mishanna Wood (04:41):

Thanks, Lori. Hello, everyone.

Lori Cole (04:44):

Thank you both for being here today. All right. Let’s start out with a very quick poll. Do you always include salary in your job ads? Yes, no, or unsure. And while we’re waiting for that, we’re going to have Molly go through our agenda items for us.

Molly Floyd (05:06):

Yes. All right. And don’t worry, your answer on the poll is anonymous, so answer truthfully. Let’s go over the agenda for today. To attract the talent you need in 2026, your job ads have to stand out for the right reasons. So we’re going to cover how to do that. That includes writing a clear and compelling job title and description. You want to grab the reader’s attention and make human connections with your ads, and we’ll show you ways to do that. Shining the spotlight on your culture and benefits, and we’ll show you how to ensure you’re not leaving out any key elements. For example, salary could be one of them. And we’ll show you how to utilize AI as a tool to help you create those outstanding job ads.

Lori Cole (05:59):

All right. Let’s look at our poll results here. Well, it looks like a good portion of you are including salary, so that’s exactly the right thing to do. If you’re not including the salary, I think that by the end of this webinar, we’re going to be able to convince you that you should start doing that. All right. Mishanna, you’re going to walk us through how to really write job titles and descriptions that actually get noticed.

Mishanna Wood (06:33):

Thanks, Lori. Yes, you definitely want to use clear titles and a clear job description. So job ad titles should be as short, simple, and straightforward as possible to maximize apply rates. According to AppCast, titles with one to three words get the most candidate clicks. You want to avoid overly creative job titles like Sales Ninja, Chief Happiness Officer and Social Media Guru. That can confuse the applicant and hurt your chances of being found in those search engines. If the role is remote or a hybrid position, consider adding that to the title as well. Some job seekers are now only interested in remote work, so be sure to communicate that aspect of the job as clearly as possible.

Lori Cole (07:29):

All right. A little bit more on the next page for you here.

Mishanna Wood (07:33):

Yes. And to be as clear as possible when describing the roles, duties, and responsibilities, the job description should provide ample details about what the day-to-day job entails, but you don’t need to write an essay about every minor task the individual will perform. In fact, this should not be the same as an official job description HR keeps on file for the role. Prepare a two to four sentence overview about the position. And the purpose of this paragraph is to tell the reader what their life will be like if they work for your company and write this section so the reader can envision themselves doing the job, explaining specific activities, opportunities, and challenges, rather than general responsibilities. Be clear about why this position is important and how they’ll be able to contribute to your company’s success and create a summary with a short bulleted list of specific duties that you want to highlight and make sure each bullet point follows a parallel sentence structure that uses the same tense, and this format supports candidates viewing the ad from their mobile devices as well.

Lori Cole (08:50):

So it’s all about being clear in your job ad, keeping it simple, trying to be as specific as possible, and then your candidates will know exactly what they’re applying for. Molly, let’s talk about turning a boring job posting into something that actually excites candidates and gets them to apply.

Molly Floyd (09:14):

Yes. The job ad really is an opportunity to connect with the candidates on the other side reading the ad. And the more you can do that, the more likely you are to attract that quality candidate that you’re wanting to hire. So like Mishanna mentioned before, too often employers make the mistake of just copying and pasting a formal job description and using that as the job ad. And that results in the job posting possibly being too long, boring, and uninviting. So your job ad is an advertisement. This is where you can convey to the reader all the highlights that you want to point out in order to attract those great hires and make them excited to apply. So like any great marketing campaign, your ad must speak directly to your audience. So first, using personal pronouns like you, we, us, helps paint that picture of them being able to visualize what they’ll be doing.

(10:13):

For example, you’ll contribute to high impact projects or join our award-winning team. Focus on making a human connection with your reader by telling them about the team they’ll be working with and what your company culture is like. So these are the unique traits that set you apart from other companies, hiring for similar positions. This is your opportunity to compete. I know that’s sometimes hard for the employers that we work with to kind of understand that that’s the angle that you’re taking, but it is competitive out there. So this is your opportunity to really highlight those exciting things that the candidates would be interested in. So use an exciting, positive, inspiring tone. Changing jobs is a major life decision and applying takes time and effort on their part. Avoiding discriminatory language in your job posting is important because if you use it, it could turn away a candidate that would be a great hire.

(11:20):

So avoid phrases like, excuse me, new grads, retirees, young and vibrant. Any gender specific terms like waitress, salesman, cameraman, using pronouns specific to a gender, he, him, she, her. If you use the he or him, then any female might think they’re automatically unqualified. So that’s why it’s important to use we or you. Words related to physical capabilities like strong, healthy, fit. A person reading that can just automatically disqualify themselves. So avoiding that leaves the opportunity open longer for that candidate to keep reading and see themselves as a fit. Sometimes job ads have been used for years and never updated, so it’s best practice to read through them fully, know any updates that need to be made each time you post for an open role. And you can check out an article in the resources widget you have for more examples and guidance on that as well.

Lori Cole (12:29):

And if you have a job description or a job ad that hasn’t been updated for a while, AI is a really good use of that tool to just update it and try to make it more modern and insert that positive tone into it.

Molly Floyd (12:47):

Yeah. I was thinking too about what Mishanna mentioned with the kind of outdated titles of sales guru or chief happiness officer. I remember a time maybe like five to seven years ago where that was popular to do, but now with such a focus on SEO and really competing against other companies, you want to reign that in a bit.

Lori Cole (13:12):

Yes. Yes. I remember seeing chief happiness officer a lot and thinking, oh, that’s really clever and cute, but nobody’s really going to search for that.

Molly Floyd (13:22):

What is that? What is the chief happiness officer?

Lori Cole (13:25):

All right. So let’s address salary transparency. Molly, why is this a must have in your job description?

Molly Floyd (13:35):

Well, there are a few reasons why it’s very important. So you really always want to include salary, even if it’s just a range. It’s required in so many states now and being transparent with applications from the very beginning will strengthen your brand and their impression of you. So not surprisingly, in our 2025 state of online recruiting report survey, over 57% of our job seekers said they would be more likely to apply if a salary or range was specified in the job posting. So if it’s not included, this is also an opportunity for whatever platform you’re advertising your job add on to provide an estimate. And that may not always be as accurate as you would like it to be and can actually set the wrong tone right from the beginning if it’s very inaccurate. When you post your job with iHire, we do have a section at the top that highlights the salary range, so job seekers can easily find that information.

(14:38):

And it’s also important to call this out in the job description itself. You can place it within the benefits section and we’ll talk more on that in a bit, but really take the time to research current market rates for your open positions and their locations because that does matter. iHire has a great salary research tool within your platform, but if you are interested in hands-on help with this, we have a team of HR pros that can do a compensation study for you and they use a handful of resources to give you the most current and updated benchmark salary information. And you can book a consultation using a link provided in the resources widget below.

Lori Cole (15:26):

And those consultations are free. So that’s a great thing too. I have a question for both of you since you work with employers so much. I know that this has come up in other webinars where they’ll say, “We’re a little bit embarrassed about the salary range because we know we’re not as competitive. Should we still put it in the job ad?” What would you recommend?

Molly Floyd (15:54):

Yes. I mean, it’s important. So what you can offer salary wise include it, and then you can make up for that if it’s lower than maybe some of the other companies that are hiring similar positions, really highlight benefits and the culture and the full package is really how you’re going to attract that quality candidate. So that’s why you want to sell the entire job description.

Mishanna Wood (16:21):

Exactly.

Lori Cole (16:23):

Go ahead, Mishanna.

Mishanna Wood (16:25):

Just exactly. I agree.

Lori Cole (16:28):

And it also avoids awkward conversations later because then it gets to be a back and forth game about, well, who’s going to say the salary that they need first? And it’s just so much better for everybody and it doesn’t waste anybody’s time if you can get that salary range included. All right, Mishanna, this is where a company can really shine. And maybe if they don’t have as much in salary to offer, but they make it up in the company culture and the benefits, how can they really showcase those benefits and intrigue people to apply?

Mishanna Wood (17:15):

Yeah, that’s a great point, Lori. So be bold. Applicants, they want to know what’s in it for them. Why should they apply for your job instead of your competitors or instead of staying with their current job? Highlighting benefits is your chance to really shine. You may organize this area as another bulleted list and consider including at least five to 10 items. This can be displayed in a few sentences or with a handful of bullets. Include the standard benefits like health insurance, 401k matching and so on, and unique benefits like tuition reimbursement, internet tech stipend, wellness programs, generous PTO, pet insurance, some are Fridays and other things. Many job seekers are looking for certain benefits. So some perks you offer might be more enticing to them than a higher salary, in fact. Being transparent and upfront about what you are offering will allow candidates to determine whether your position is a possibility for them before an application even reaches your inbox.

(18:29):

And here’s a bonus tip. The benefits area should come at the end of the job hosting. This will ensure that the candidate has taken the time to read through the rest of the information instead of simply seeing something like tuition reimbursement and just deciding to apply.

Lori Cole (18:50):

That’s a good point. So a lot of candidates will actually look at the entire package, the salary and the benefits and may choose your company because of all the benefits you offer. I know some of the, and I’m going to ask you guys, what are some of the benefits that you’ve seen that you don’t traditionally see on job ads? But I’ll see parking. If you’re living in a city, you might not think that paid parking by the employer is a big deal, but it is a big deal for those candidates. Fully stocked kitchen, that used to be one when we were all in the office. That’s one that we would use all of the time and people were always fascinated and pleased with that because we had a fully stocked kitchen. It was great. Can you think of any benefits that employers have used that really stand out to you?

Molly Floyd (19:52):

Yeah. I think that many employers struggle when they’re hiring within a rural location and attracting candidates to relocate there or think that working there, they can see themselves in that position. So sometimes you can highlight the location and it might be a small, cute downtown. So located right around the downtown circle, for example, and close to cute coffee shops or just to try to help them see how it might look for them taking a break during the day. So even that simple, I think can work.

Lori Cole (20:36):

All right. Flexibility has moved from something that is really nice to put into your job ad to something that you must have in your job ad. So Mishanna, why does flexibility matter so much in 2026? Yep.

Mishanna Wood (20:56):

This is definitely another way to stand out because it’s a must for many job seekers today. Wellbeing and work-life balance become a priority. They became a priority during the pandemic. And for a lot of us, that’s not going to change. And flexibility doesn’t just mean allowing employees to work from home, though that is a nice work too. It could mean a hybrid work arrangements, the ability to set their own hours, flex time, floating holidays, and more. Check out the chart on the slide from our latest talent retention report to see which types of flexibility employees value most. Offering flexibility and supporting employees in achieving healthy work-life balance will go a long way in attracting and retaining top talent for your team, not to mention the positive impacts of your bottom line. You can talk about your workplace flexibility in multiple places in your job ad, when describing your company culture as well in your list of benefits.

Lori Cole (22:05):

I know at iHire, our flexibility is we have a lot of flexibility. We can flex our hours if we need to. If we have doctor’s appointments, I know that I flex my start time and my end time most days because I am a really early morning person. So the sooner I get started, the more work I can get done. But I think that that means a lot to me as an employee, especially during the dark days of winter. If I can be off at four o’clock in the afternoon, go out and do my errands and still capture a little bit of the daylight, that makes a huge difference to me in my mental health. What are some of the other ways that some of your teams or you see people using that flex time?

Molly Floyd (23:01):

Yeah. I think fitting in just some exercise and movement during the day and being able to step away and do that at a time that fits into their day. We just recently had an interview and we’re talking about how important work-life balance is and how that’s included in our job description and trying to understand what it meant for the candidate and then sharing how it applied to each of us on the panel. So we could really share that it’s different for everyone. What does that mean? So just making sure it’s a good fit. Yeah, that’s one way that the team uses it, or if there’s an appointment, right? You have a contractor coming in, then you can block your calendar off and make those hours up another time. So it really is a huge benefit for us here at iHire.

Lori Cole (23:58):

It is. All right. Mishanna, let’s talk about something that’s both legally important and it’s also a big cultural topic right now, the diversity, equity, and inclusion statements that we should include in our ads.

Mishanna Wood (24:18):

Absolutely. Yes. This is including the EOE. This statement, including it, is still a best practice and sometimes legally required, depending on the type of role you’re hiring for, it reinforces your commitment to fair hiring practices and that you value a diverse workforce. At iHire, we always include an EOE statement and a DEI statement, and you can check out the examples on the slide. So consider what you can highlight about your organization. Do you have a formal anti-discrimination policy? Do you have employee resources or support groups? What recruiting practices do you have in place that support DE&I? Emphasize how your benefits support your commitment to DEI. For example, do you provide healthcare benefits to domestic partners and/or include domestic partners in family leave or bereavement leave policies?

Lori Cole (25:24):

All right. Molly, here is where we can really show people how to work smarter and not harder. Tell us about our AI tools for job ad creation.

Molly Floyd (25:39):

Yes. So generative AI tools are great time savers when it comes to writing job ads. You can feed it a complete job description and ask it with a prompt to write a concise and compelling ad based on your information. This is a great way to keep the tool from hallucinating or inventing its own facts. And again, thinking about those rural positions where it’s difficult to hire, you can place the city and state in there and ask it to help you include attracting details that you can include in the ad. You can use AI to conduct competitive research and see how other companies are advertising similar positions and help you figure out what popular SEO terms to make sure you’re including in the job ads so that it’s helping the search results. It can also instantly adjust the ads length if it’s really long or it’s not long enough.

(26:44):

That’s a common challenge that we work through with our employers. Sometimes it’s so long, and then we have analytics on how many people are accessing this ad from their mobile device. And if it’s too long, there’s just going to be a huge drop-off rate. And if it’s not long enough, the candidate’s not going to be able to visualize themselves in the position. So you want it to be a good length. You can adjust voice and tone to help ensure you’re using that inclusive language that we talked about a little bit earlier. And there are lots of tools out there to pick from. It can be overwhelming. iHire has an AI powered job ad builder. This is something we’ve really worked on over the years and iterated on it, and it’s in a really cool place right now. Once you enter your job title and some details, it can instantly generate a job description with the right keywords and skills for that particular role.

(27:48):

It also provides a score for your job ad to give you instant feedback on layout, format, readability, and the content before you post it live. You can check out the builder by logging into your account and start posting a job, or click the link in your console to learn more. But we do have a short demo here that we can share with you as well.

Lori Cole (28:12):

Alrighty. I’m going to push the button. I know this comes up very fast, so are you ready, Molly?

Molly Floyd (28:18):

I think so.

Lori Cole (28:19):

Okay.

Molly Floyd (28:23):

All right. I did have the wrong window. So do you have it going?

Lori Cole (28:28):

Yeah, it didn’t go yet. Hold on. Here we go.

Molly Floyd (28:34):

All right. I do have the right window. All right. So you can see here this is where you’re entering a title and we’ll pre-populate some as you start to type. You can determine on this next slide your work type. So it’s going to kind of walk you through each step there and the location. This is where you can enter a range or a salary. We do provide an estimated competitive amount to consider and some stats on how job seekers really like that salary. This is the section where you include the benefits you can offer, and there is a custom benefits section here. I did use Elementary Education Principle as the title because that’s my previous life and free cafeteria lunch was a benefit. I don’t know if it was actually an attractive one though. So on this side, this is the CTA here to generate with AI.

(29:36):

You’ll see how our robots are at work creating your job ad and analyzing the information you put in to create this nice product here. So anything that you change or revise throughout this process, it’ll call it out in the yellow highlights so you can see See how you’ve adjusted it. Definitely reviewed what it provides, but it is in a nice format for candidates to read from their mobile device. You can add skills here. We’ll populate some skills that are common in other ads like this one. And then you just update it. It’ll, again, highlight what you change so you can kind of make sure it sounds right or looks right. You can’t edit anything at this point right now, but before you do post live, there’s a place where you can manually edit. And what you’re seeing now is the option to adjust the length and tone.

(30:38):

So you can make it more formal or less formal depending on what role you’re recruiting for. You really need to have that situational awareness and who is your audience, what would they appreciate to read in this ad? And then you can always revert to the previous version. If you’re not satisfied, there’s a link to just go back to the last version you had. But once you’re happy with it, and you could probably play around with this for possibly too long, but the point is to save you time. So it really generates a nice product quickly. You can make a few adjustments. And here, this is where you can click into the box and always read and make sure it fits exactly what you’re expecting and what you want. You can make any minor edits and then post it and it will go live and we’ll start matching to quality candidates.

Lori Cole (31:40):

I know feedback when I was working in customer success, feedback about this product is that employers love it because we used to get calls all of the time from employers saying, “Could you write my job ad for me? I just don’t have the time to do it. I’ve got this old job description, but I need to shush it up and make it something exciting for my candidates.” And this really just takes all of the guesswork out of it. What kind of feedback do you all hear about it?

Molly Floyd (32:17):

Our employers love using this tool and I’m on the post-sales side, Mishanna. So it’s my team who’s onboarding the customer and teaching them how to use it and they appreciate the speed and support. I don’t know what you might be thinking, Mishanna.

Mishanna Wood (32:39):

I share the job ad builder and our demonstrations all the time and really connect with our employers just by taking one of their sample job ads from their website, just showing how we can enhance it. And it’s very enlightening and helpful.

Lori Cole (32:56):

Yes. It is super helpful, especially when you can pick the additional keywords that you might not have thought of, but you look at that keyword list and you say, “Oh, well, that’s important. Yes, they need to have this.” So you don’t want to overdo, as Molly said, sometimes you can spend too much time on it and you can put too much information in there to the point that candidates would say, “Oh, I’m not anywhere near qualified for this and might not apply.” So you have to find that right balance and make sure that you’re trying to attract the right types of candidates. All right, Molly, let’s do a recap before we get to all of our Q&As. Or I’m sorry, Mishanna, I think you’re going to do this recap.

Mishanna Wood (33:50):

Yeah. So to attract the top talent in 2026, your job ad needs to be clear and compelling, not overwhelming or boring, speak directly to the talent you want to hire, include lots of information about your benefits and culture, include a salary range, flexibility offerings, and an EEO statement. And you can easily achieve this again with the help of AI tools like we just showed you.

Lori Cole (34:24):

All right. Let’s get to our Q&A here. First question is, how long is too long for a job description before candidates lose interest?

Molly Floyd (34:40):

This is a good question and I saw some chatter in the questions coming in about the length of a job description. So we do get this question a lot and depending on what source you ask, I think you’ll get different answers. But generally speaking, six to 700 words is the sweet spot. Anything more than that, the engagement tends to drop, especially for candidates reading on a mobile device. So really depending on what that title is that you’re recruiting for, some are more popular to be read on a mobile device, while others would be from a desktop. That’s a conversation you can have with your hiring success strategist to help you understand who your audience is and how they’re reading your description. And the goal isn’t to list everything that someone might ever do in the position, but really just help the person reading quickly understand three things.

(35:41):

So what the role is, what their day-to-day will look like and what they, not what, but why, why they would want to work for you. So that short overview paragraph with clear bullet points can help break up that text, you touching on responsibilities, qualifications, benefits, and salary. Yeah. If they have to scroll endlessly or read just like a dense piece of text, they’re probably going to drop off and you might lose that strong talent that you’re looking for.

Lori Cole (36:18):

Okay. Hold on. I was going through all of the questions and I lost my place here. So could including salary ever hurt applicant quality?

Molly Floyd (36:33):

I can take that one, Mishanna, if you don’t mind. This is one that comes up a lot as well and no, it can’t hurt. It actually helps the quality. So when salary isn’t included, you might get more applications, but they might be misaligned. So that just means more screening time and more frustration, not only on your side, but also for the candidates. Our state of online recruiting, again, said that 57% are more likely to apply when that’s included. And it just helps the candidates be more informed and you know who’s very serious and aligned with the role. So transparency is one of our core values at iHire and it’s applied in situations like this. So just the transparency about what to expect. And it, again, it protects your brand, helps the candidate self-select before they even apply, which is a win for both sides.

Lori Cole (37:42):

All right. Could including ... I’m sorry, next one. How often should employers revisit and refresh their job ads? Who wants to take that one?

Mishanna Wood (37:59):

Sure. So at a minimum, I can take that one. Employers should revisit their job ads every time they post them, even for repeat or evergreen roles because the labor market changes quickly and candidates’ expectations shift, benefits evolve, salary ranges change, and laws around transparency and language continue to expand. So we recommend at least a quarterly review of frequently used job ads to make sure the language, salary, flexibility, and benefits are still accurate and competitive. Even small updates like clarifying flexibility, tightening the job title or refreshing the opening paragraph can have a big impact on apply rates. Think of your job ad as a living marketing asset, not a set it and forget it document.

Lori Cole (38:53):

All right. Are there words or phrases that you would recommend completely removing from our older job ads?

Molly Floyd (39:07):

You want me to take that one, Mishanna, you got it?

Mishanna Wood (39:11):

So I would recommend, like we talked about earlier, taking out those pronouns or anything that talks about being anything physical as well, like we mentioned earlier. I don’t know if you have anything to add.

Molly Floyd (39:26):

Yeah, like the age-related terms, digital native or recent grad. Again, like we said, salesmen, waitress, any gendered language. Yeah, it’s just you want to exclude that. Even if it’s not intentional, it can unintentionally deter someone from applying that might be a good fit.

Lori Cole (39:56):

All right. The next question, would it be better to put salary range or hourly rate in your job ad? I know from my experience, I don’t think that it would matter much, but you could actually do both. You could put the salary range and then maybe in parentheses, whatever the equivalent to that is hourly, like $20 an hour, just so that people aren’t trying to do that math on their own and could say, “Oh, okay. I qualify for that.” What have you seen, Molly, with the job ads that you handle with your team?

Molly Floyd (40:42):

Yeah, I think what you describe is definitely a way to go about it. If the position is a salaried position, I think it makes sense to share the salary in terms of that. If it’s an hourly paid position, then it would make sense to share the hourly rate. Within that resource that I shared, like the salary research tool that we have within the platform, we provide both on all the career titles listed, so you have both available. Yeah.

Lori Cole (41:20):

You can toggle, “Do you want to see this by salary or like annual salary or hourly salary?” And it’s a quick little toggle.

Molly Floyd (41:29):

Yeah. And it’s nice because it gives you the high, medium and low pay for your area in both salary and hourly form, but also nationwide too. So you kind of have an understanding of what that competitive window is that you want to be in.

Lori Cole (41:47):

And I feel like that’s really vital when you are negotiating with candidates that you can point to some data that you didn’t just pull the salary out of a hat, but you can say, “Listen, this is our median salary in this area and we are right within range to kind of justify where you are and what you’re offering.” And we all know that when you put a salary range on, candidates automatically feel like they’re going for that top range and they automatically feel like they’re worth that top number. And sometimes we have to pull them back a little bit based on what their experience is and what their skill level is.

Molly Floyd (42:38):

Yeah. It is an opportunity though too, if you’re having that conversation to share the path on how to get to that higher end of the range.

Lori Cole (42:50):

Yes. Well, and if you are not competitive in your market, you might not be the one setting the range for this. This might be coming from higher up. So you can take that data, especially if you have our HR people do the comp study for you, you can take that data then to your bosses and say, “This is what we’re seeing in the marketplace. This might be why we’re not attracting the type of people that we would really love to attract. Could we do something about this?” And then you have to make sure that all of your other people internally are being paid fairly as well, and you’re keeping up with that. So what are your thoughts on putting the benefits first in the job description or the job ad to grab a candidate’s attention, especially in such a competitive market?

Molly Floyd (43:54):

Yeah. I have thoughts on this, Mishanna, if I can start. It is tempting to do, but we would recommend not doing that because you really want to make sure that the candidate reads through the job ad and has an understanding of what they’re signing up for before they get to the perks of the job. There’s always though the opportunity, we work with our employers and if we see one thing not working, we might test another way and for a certain amount of time, post the ad a different way to see if it makes a difference. So there’s not always a right or wrong answer, but there is best practice in what we’ve seen produce the best results. But if there’s a challenge, then it’s always something we could try.

Mishanna Wood (44:50):

When I talk to employers initially, sometimes they’ll say when they’ve used just posting their job elsewhere anywhere, the candidates are not reading it. So that’s really important to get them to read that first information on the description.

Lori Cole (45:06):

I kind of feel like I understand the importance of, or the wanting to put it first, but I almost feel like you need to set that stage first and get the candidates thinking about that job, what their day-to-day is going to look like, what they’ll be doing, what kind of skills they’ll be using. And then if your benefit package is great, then that can be the cherry on top. That could be the thing that really helps them to make the decision to take the time to apply because most candidates, if they’re doing it right, if they’re doing it like we advise them to do it, they are creating a custom resume and a custom letter for every job that they’re applying for. I don’t know what you all are seeing, but hopefully they are taking the time to do it right. And that is a time commitment for them.

(46:08):

So you want to make them feel like, “Hey, this is going to be a worthwhile job for me to apply for.”

(46:18):

All right. Somebody said that they would love to hear a little bit more about benefit ideas. So I went out to chat, good old ChatGPT and did a few little things here, but it brought up some great things. So like decision days, a paid day off specifically to handle big life decisions. I know that would have been nice at some points in my life, a personal AI allowance or a monthly tech package stipend. We have that at iHire because the majority of us are remote. So they give us a little bit of additional money each month to make sure that we have that fast internet and that we have all of the tech that we need. And they also pay for some premium accounts for us for AI. No meeting mental health mornings. I love that. And that wouldn’t cost you anything to do.

(47:29):

Company-wide protected focus blocks every week. Let’s see, what else did they have here?

Molly Floyd (47:39):

I saw that one too come in, Lori, and I was thinking about some that iHire does and the wellness stipend came to mind. We have that quarterly allowance to put towards a gym membership or some sort of nutrition support just like for your overall wellness. The student loan reimbursement I think is a big one and we have something built into our package like that. And then telehealth came to mind. We have that access through whatever it is, but it’s so convenient and easy to just hop on a quick 10 minute call. And so those are small things, but they really do add up to being attractive benefits.

Lori Cole (48:29):

The other thing I saw here was for financial security, maybe offering something ... I mean, we have an app called Headspace we can access, but are there any financial planning type services to help employees get out of debt and make a plan? I believe that IHIR had something like that if we don’t still have it, that would just counsel people on how to make a plan, how to get out of debt, because that is a primary worry for a lot of your people. All right. What metrics ... Oh, hold on here. It really flipped my screen. What metrics should we track to ensure our ads are effective?

Molly Floyd (49:27):

So there are a few main ones. Mishanna, I don’t want to cut you off. I don’t know if I did.

Mishanna Wood (49:33):

Go right ahead. Nope.

Molly Floyd (49:34):

Okay. So the ones that we talk most with our employers are starting with job views, how many people are viewing your ad because that’s the first step. Then it’s clicking to apply. That’s the next part of that funnel. So after they read that, are they moving to that next step to click to apply? And then ultimately it’s the number of applications or responses completed. We look at impressions with the customer, we look at cost per apply. Those are really the main ones, I think. I don’t know if any come to mind, Mishanna, that I might be leaving out.

Mishanna Wood (50:17):

And are they the qualified candidate? Are you tracking the person that you are wanting? Because if it’s not attracting the right person, maybe there’s a couple keywords or phrases that you need to take a look at.

Molly Floyd (50:31):

Yeah, definitely.

Lori Cole (50:34):

All right. One of the questions we had was about the DEI statement. And this person said, “Isn’t there an executive order that eliminated the need to do that DEI statement?” So I did look it up. Yes, executive order 14173 eliminates that mandatory DEI in federal contracting.

(51:01):

However, you know what? It is a nice to have. I think that a lot of employees are still looking or a lot of candidates are still looking for that and it’s something that doesn’t cost you extra time to put in and it could make a difference to the number of applies that you get for your job. So yes, you’re right that that’s not required for the federal contracting. However, it still is a nice thing to include if you can do it. All right. How do we find the right keywords to put in our job ads?

Molly Floyd (51:49):

Well, there’s a couple ways there using our job ad builder that’ll help populate some of them immediately. And then there will also be an opportunity to review some other suggested ones and an AI tool can help you do that as well. You can put your ad in and request or prompt it to provide additional keywords that would really sell the ad to the right candidates.

Lori Cole (52:20):

All right. And then this is the last one. What do you do if your ad keeps attracting candidates that don’t meet the qualifications even though the requirements are clearly listed? Well, one of the things that I would do, I know on iHire, we can set up some questions, like some prescreening questions, and I would really take advantage of that area. I wouldn’t set up too many, I wouldn’t set up 10, but I would set up a few pre-screening questions based on where you’re seeing your candidates falling short of the qualifications, and then that will really help you screen out the people that don’t really qualify for the job. Any other suggestions?

Molly Floyd (53:10):

That’s right where my head went, Lori. And you can reiterate some of the qualifications like, are you a licensed whatever in this state? Are you willing to relocate? You can really just call out those key ones that are important and maybe being glossed over.

Lori Cole (53:28):

All right. We had so many more questions. I’m so sorry if we didn’t get to your question, but if you’d like, you can reach out with your question to our customer success team at [email protected] and we will get you connected with the right person to answer those. That’s all the time we have left today. We appreciate everyone that was on here. Don’t forget your certification widget should be popping up shortly so that you can download that certificate of completion and your recertifications. Another thank you to our presenters, Molly and Mishanna. Again, if you have any questions come to mind, you can always reach out to us and remember to click that certification button so you can download everything that you need here today for SHRM and HRCI. I hope you all have a great rest of your day. Thank you so much for being here with us today.

(54:29):

Thank you, Mishanna. Thank you, Molly.

Molly Floyd (54:32):

Yes. Thank you, Lori. Thank you all. Have a great day. Thank you.

Lori Cole (54:56):

I think we have to give it 10 more seconds so that widget pops up. So hold on here for just a second. I should have taken one more question.

Molly Floyd (55:04):

I was thinking too that the questions are, our team might proactively be reaching out if the question wasn’t answered.

Lori Cole (55:12):

Yes.