Let us share our recruitment insights and industry trends with you

A job title is so much more than just what’s written on a position description. From helping employees to understand how they fit into your organisation’s structure, to being a lens that forms part of how people see themselves, a job title can be a political and emotional minefield!

When it comes to advertising, the job title you use can have a major impact on the results of your campaign. For this reason, we often advise clients to advertise the role under a title that is slightly different to what you may have agreed to call the role internally. Whilst that can be difficult to accept after your management team has spent hours anguishing over the exact wording of your position description, there are good reasons for this!

    1. Getting seen

Starting with how many times your advert shows in search results, the difference between ‘Administrator’ and ‘Office Coordinator’, for example, can be monumental. Understanding what search terms your ideal candidate is using should define the title you use because more people will see your advert if you choose the more popular search term.  

The algorithms of top job boards favour ‘exact match’ and when job seekers have signed up for alerts, your advert won't be delivered to their inbox if you don’t have the job title they are looking for either.

    2. Minimising confusion

Some job titles can mean very different things in different industries.  An ‘Administrator’ could be an IT specialist or could be a general office clerk. A ‘Program Manager’ could be working in any number of industries. If you want an IT Administrator then consider advertising the job as such. If you want a Program Manager to work on fundraising, then specify the program name/purpose in the job title.

The same advice applies if you are recruiting a ‘Technician’. Whilst internally, you may refer to the role as an ‘SBCA Technician’, if this is not an industry term that anyone is likely to be searching by, consider advertising a more popularly known title such as ‘Service Technician – Glass Repair’

That helps candidates to immediately see if the role is right for them and helps you to avoid having to sift through dozens of unsuitable resumes.  

    3. Attracting the right candidates

It’s important to remember that a key reason for people looking to change jobs is for a step up and a new challenge. People will ‘apply up’ but usually don’t ‘apply down’ when it comes to job titles, so thinking about the desired experience level is important when deciding whether to advertise something with the moniker of ‘manager’.

The term ‘manager’ means different things to different businesses: in some cases, it means you are in charge of a task, in others it means you are in charge of people and it covers a wide range of seniority levels. If you are looking to attract someone ambitious with reasonable levels of experience and are not happy with the standard of applications coming through, sometimes this tweak to the job title can make all the difference.