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You want to advertise your role on CharityJob? That’s great news—welcome! Would you like some advice on how to get the best results? You’re already posting on the UK’s busiest and most specialised job board for the charity sector, so you’re starting in the right place. Now follow our top tips on how to get the most from your ad, field by field, and find the right candidate the first time.
Step 1: Choose the perfect package for your vacancy
Choosing the right job ad package is important, as it dictates the pool size, type and quality of the candidates your ad will reach. A big part of the decision will come down to budget, but here are a few stats to keep in mind:
Enhanced ads get 325% more clicks on the ‘apply’ button than Basic ads and 95% more than Branded ads.
Branded ads get 67% more clicks on the ‘apply’ button than Basic ads.
Still not sure? Tell us a bit about the role and we can even suggest a package for you!
For more personalised advice on the best package to suit your needs, contact your friendly account manager on 020 8939 8430.
Step 2: Think like a candidate: enhance your ad visibility by nailing the search fields
Job title
Keep it simple and familiar. For candidates to find it, it needs to be something that they’re likely to search for.
Although a Job title like ‘Marketing Superstar’ might reflect the fun atmosphere and ethos of your charity, candidates are much more likely to search for Marketing Assistant or Marketing Co-Ordinator/Executive.
Work location
This is market sensitive—and although the balance is slowly beginning to tip, the market still continues to be candidate-driven and remote working seems to be our candidates’ preference. Our 2023 salary report shows that remote roles are six times as popular as on-site roles and hybrid roles are three times as popular. So do you really need the role to be based on-site?
If you do require any kind of office presence, even just one day a week or month, then select ‘hybrid’ so candidates know they need to live within a commutable distance. But then use the job description to spell out exactly what this requirement is so it’s clear what candidates will need to commit to.
Charity cause
This is very important for attracting the most relevant candidates, as 76% begin their job search by first exploring organisations based on their cause.
Working hours
Could you consider making the role part-time if required? This could significantly expand your pool of candidates. If so, then select both options, but don’t forget to add the necessary number of hours and how flexible you can be about this (hint, the more, the better!) into the body of the job description.
Salary
It’s compulsory to list a salary range when posting a role on CharityJob. This is necessary for fairness and transparency in the sector. It’s also important to make sure your proposed salary is competitive for the role and the number of responsibilities listed to make sure you attract the best talent. You can check how your offer compares by using our free salary checker tool which lists salaries by job title and charity size/location within the sector.
Job description
This is the real meat of your advert. Remember to keep it succinct but don’t sell yourself short!
Avoid having only a one-paragraph job description or being too generic. ‘Looking for an enthusiastic person with great xxx skills’ is the candidate’s cover letter equivalent of ‘I’m a passionate candidate and I believe with the best of my ability that I’ll be a good fit for your charity.’ It doesn’t really tell you anything.
Also, don’t forget to make sure any requirements you list as essential really are essential, so as not to deter candidates.
Contact your account manager for more personalised advice on how to write a great job description.
Keyword boost
Candidates often search for roles using keywords as well as specific job titles, so pick the most relevant categories to apply to your role. You can choose up to twenty keywords.
Interviews
If your role is particularly time-sensitive or hard to fill, then we’d recommend you interview candidates as soon as applications come in, rather than wait until the closing date. However, it’s important to let candidates know this, otherwise you may be disadvantaging those with limited time or resources, so select this option to add a note to your job ad.
Step 3: Choose your application method
We’re not biased or anything, but we’d always advise you to choose Apply via Quick Apply. Not only will you receive twice as many applications, but you’ll also get access to free recruitment tools through CharityJob Recruiter, so you can:
- easily manage your applications in one place with our end-to-end hiring platform
- debias your hiring process with features such as anonymous recruitment
- share your brand and values with candidates through your dedicated organisational profile.
Application instructions
Carefully consider this, as the more difficult and time-consuming you make it for candidates to apply, the fewer will do so. Our best advice is to request a CV and ask a few screening questions to test how the candidate matches the most important aspects of the role. This should give you enough information for shortlisting, then you can ask for more details at the next stage.
We don’t generally advise using application forms, but if you have one then why not extract the most important questions (the ones that don’t ask candidates to repeat information found on their CV) and set them up as screening questions instead?
Anonymous recruitment
Want to improve diversity, equality and inclusion at your charity? Make your recruitment fairer by switching on this option and we’ll remove all personal details from applications until you’re ready to contact the applicant. This helps to reduce bias in the first stage of recruitment.
Reach
We have a number of options to reach even more candidates, including our exclusive cross-posts to LinkedIn and other niche sector websites. The number of good quality candidates dwindles as you go up the hierarchy, so passive candidates can be an ideal pool to tap into. These candidates are usually employed, not actively job-searching and don’t have the time to browse and apply for jobs, even though they might be open to switching roles if the right opportunity is served up to them.
Contact your account manager to find out how you can best reach passive as well as other groups of relevant candidates.
Final tip
Use your account manager
Register with CharityJob and you’ll be given your own personal account manager who can offer dedicated advice on how to tailor a market sensitive campaign to get the highest number of top-quality applications.
The recruitment market in the charity sector is constantly evolving and we’re continually improving our website to enhance your user experience, but your account manager will always have the most current information. So our final tip, and the most valuable one we can give you, is to give your account manager a call on 020 8939 8430, or email us on [email protected].
We wish you the best of luck filling your vacancy.
Tags: attracting the right candidates, charity recruitment, charity sector recruitment, finding the right people, hiring process, recruitment, recruitment process
