Having trouble finding the right candidates for open positions? Attracting lots of candidates but few who are the right fit? Feel as if you spend more time searching for people than working on programs to train and keep the staff you’ve already hired? It might be time to review how you’re doing recruitment advertising and what makes it effective.

Let’s first begin with a mnemonic device to help us remember the elements of good advertising: ICMIC (pronounced eye see m eye see). ICMIC stands for Impactful, Creative, Memorable, Informative, and Clear, the elements of good advertising.

Now that we know the elements, in the coming weeks we’ll look at how each is defined, and some possible tools and methods for making recruitment advertising more effective. In this issue, we explore and provide an example of what makes an ad Impactful.

Impactful: Your ad stops the reader in their tracks. Job seekers take action by applying for the job after reading the ad.

Example: The City of San Diego uses this paragraph in its recruitment advertising, “There’s no such thing as a “perfect” candidate. [stops the reader in their tracks] The City is looking for exceptional people who want to make a positive impact through their work…Education and experience studies have shown that people are less likely to apply for jobs unless they believe they can perform every task listed in the job description. [emphasis added] The City may consider an equivalent combination of knowledge, skills, education, and experience to meet minimum qualifications and we encourage you to apply if you are interested.”

In this example, the city of San Diego leads with something unexpected “There’s no such thing as a ‘perfect’ candidate.” If you felt hesitant about applying for a job and the hiring authority’s message to you was “There’s no such thing as a ‘perfect’ candidate,” it would take some pressure off—right? Whether it is because we lack confidence or have chosen to cultivate humility, most people do not think of themselves as “perfect.” They’d be much more likely to take the time and effort to apply for the job if they knew managers were looking for good…not perfect candidates.

The paragraph goes on to mention studies that indicate that people don’t apply for jobs unless they perceive themselves to meet every qualification. This references a comment made by a Hewlett Packard (HP) executive to a McKinsey researcher and repeated in 2013 in Sherly Sandberg’s book Lean In. The HP executive said, ”[I]t’s much more difficult to get women to apply for senior positions than men. It seems like they lack self-confidence. They don’t even think about applying unless they think they meet 100% of the requirements. The men, if they feel like they’re even 60% there, they go for it.”

In the intervening years, researchers have sought data to back up the anecdotal evidence reported by the HP executive and repeated by Sandberg. After years of research and reading academic studies, Katty Kay and Claire Shipman report in The Confidence Gap that “there is a particular crisis for women—a vast confidence gap that separates the sexes.” Further research in recent years indicates that people of color, historically underrepresented in many professions, are also less inclined to apply for jobs when they perceive they don’t meet the qualifications. Not only does this decrease the candidate pool but it decreases the pool’s diversity.

So, the solution to the problem, as demonstrated by this recruitment ad, is to address the issue head-on. The City of San Diego makes it explicit that they will consider “an equivalent combination of knowledge, skills, education, and experience.” This ad is impactful because the words used counter (stop) previous assumptions about who should apply and it calls out the fact that hiring managers are not looking for the perfect candidate but one with an equivalent combination of skills and experience. This is the definition of impactful advertising. It provides job seekers with the encouragement needed to apply for the job (take action) and yields a qualified, robust, and diverse candidate pool for the city.

Does your agency use recruitment advertising that is Impactful? If you would like to elevate the profession and improve public sector recruitment practices please share your examples by emailing info@mynpsj.com.