How To Define Company Culture In A Job Advert

When it comes to promoting your vacancy in a job advert, there are lots of factors to consider beyond simply describing the job and the skills that are required.

One of the biggest parts of the job advert is to sell the company and the office culture. This is especially important as it ensures that you get applications from people who are not only qualified, but also have the right sort of personality to be a good company fit.

With that in mind, we’ve put together a few things to consider when trying to define your company’s culture in a job advertisement.

1) Be Honest

A lot of businesses these days – especially in the digital industry – offer unique perks such as beer on Fridays, duvet days or a day off on your birthday, but that isn’t the be-all and end-all when it comes to company culture.

Don’t make up perks that don’t exist just to promote your company, and instead focus on what makes yours an attractive business to work for.

If you offer normal 9-5 shifts, but have a small, dedicated team then you can promote this by describing it as a cozy office environment with no overtime. Focus on what makes you unique and highlight that.

2) Don’t Be Cheesy

A lot of companies feel the need to make themselves stand out as a “quirky” and “cool” business by talking in an overly-colloquial manner and using alternative language, but sometimes this can come off as cheesy and quite patronizing.

When writing a job advert, it’s important to find the balance between professional and down to earth.

Be too professional and you come across as stuffy and isolate the candidate, but be too friendly or off-the-wall and it comes across as try-hard and a bit embarrassing!

3) Highlight The Perks

Let’s be honest, everyone loves a good company perk. Whether it’s finishing early on a Friday, flexi-time, or team building fun trips, perks will always get a candidate’s attention and – whether you like it or not – could be the difference between them applying for your role or not.

Make sure you mention some perks that you offer employees in your job advert, as it just gives your business that edge and shows that you look after your employees.

However, avoid going overboard with the perks – you don’t want to come across as desperate or that you need to offer perks to get applications.

4) Be Consistent

Writing a job advert is no easy task, and it’s vital that you keep it as consistent with the branding of your business as possible.

For example, if you’re a more corporate firm and this is reflected on our website and in all your branding, writing a trendy job advert will look strange and won’t attract the right candidates. The same goes for trendy, modern companies trying to be very stuffy and corporate in their job adverts – it just doesn’t work.

It’s pointless trying to misrepresent your business in a bid to get more applications as, not only are you going to mislead job seekers, but you’ll also attract the wrong sort of candidates.

5) Seek Feedback

If you’re struggling to put your company culture into words, then why not pick the brains of the people who know it best?

Your employees live and breathe your company culture for the majority of the week and experience the office environment, so they’re the people best placed to describe what it’s like to work for your business.

Ask them to look over your job advert and give any suggestions of what to change or add, because – like we said before – it’s much better to be honest with job seekers in your advert rather than misleading them.

So there we go, some tips on defining company culture in your job advert! Do you agree with these tips or have any of your own?

How To Define Company Culture In A Job Advert