Canadian HR Reporter

F E AT U R E S TOTAL REWARDS F E AT U R E S TOTAL REWARDS F E AT U R E S By Sarah Dobson L isting job requirements — such as skills, education or responsibilities — is a given in pretty much all job ads. But if employers want to attract star candidates, this might not be the best ap- proach. Instead, emphasizing the total re- wards on off er could be a better solution, according to a study. Most ads focus almost exclusively on demands-ability (D-A) fi t or job require- ments, with very little information about what can be off ered to the applicant, ac- cording to Derek Chapman, associate pro- fessor in the department of psychology at the University of Calgary, and co-author of Does Emphasizing Diff erent Types of Per- son-Environment Fit in Online Job Ads In- fl uence Application Behavior and Applicant Quality? Evidence from a Field Experiment. D-A statements include: •" e successful applicant will have excel- lent written and verbal communication skills." •"Job incumbents will be required to show initiative in prioritizing tasks and carrying them through to completion." •" e successful applicant will enthusiasti- cally support and co-operate with others to develop eff ective solutions." But job ads that focus on "needs-sup- plies" (N-S) fi t — what the organization can supply to meet an applicant's needs — can have better results, found the study, based on responses from 991 applicants to 56 ads for engineering and project man- agement-based positions at one Canadian employer. Some of these ads featured N-S fi t state- ments that were based on psychological needs and meant to be widely appealing in informing jobseekers about how the posi- tion would provide them with task identity, task signifi cance, skill variety, autonomy and opportunities for advancement. N-S statements included: •"You will have the opportunity to work on a variety of tasks and develop your skills in many areas." •" is position is on an important project, so the successful applicant will have the opportunity to make a valuable contribu- tion to the organization and see the project through to its completion." •"We seek to provide employees with con- structive feedback to foster their career growth." •"Employees are given many opportunities for advancement." • "Your job will also provide you with auton- omy as you will be required to complete tasks with minimal supervision." Results In the end, there was a higher number of overall applicants to the ads with N-S fi t statements but, more importantly, these job ads attracted higher-quality applicants than those emphasizing D-A fi t (as opposed to infl uencing lower-quality applicants to self-select out). "When we looked at the very best ap- plicants — so those we rated as fi ve on a fi ve-point scale — they were much more prevalent in the needs-supplies category than in the demands-ability manipulation," says Chapman. "We developed a metric of a simple ratio between the number of views and number of applications, and that was substantially more eff ective in the needs-supplies con- dition where emphasis is on what the em- ployer can do for the applicant." So why do the N-S fi t job ads have greater appeal? A lot of it has to do with the luxury of being able to consider that kind of infor- mation, he says. "Weaker applicants, they'll apply for whatever jobs are available. Strong appli- cants can pick and choose among the ones they choose to apply for and, as a result, they're looking for job ads that stand out to them... the ones that emphasized what the company can do for them, rather than a list of what the job requirements are." e job ads were also directed at more experienced applicants, with average years of experience being 13.93, says Joseph Schmidt, assistant professor at the Edwards School of Business at the University of Sas- katchewan in Saskatoon, and co-author of the study. "When you're looking for a new job, you care about what you're going to get out of it too, and we purposely emphasized psy- chological needs as opposed to… pay and location and more of the extrinsic factors that are in jobs as well, because research has shown that intrinsic motivation is re- ally important to people and, at the end of the day, that's the primary motivating fac- tor, once you have your basic needs met," says Schmidt. "People, I think, are really looking for that and they're really paying attention to that type of information to understand how they'll fi t and what their day-to-day experi- ence will be in the organization." Lessons learned If job ads fail to include information that job seekers can use to determine fi t, re- cruiting organizations risk losing high- quality applicants who develop inaccurate fi t perceptions based on the information provided and self-select out of the recruit- ment process, say the researchers in the study, published in the Journal of Business and Psychology. "Even small diff erences in the average quality of applicants can have a substantial impact on companies that hire people for positions of high value to the organization." Stressing information about N-S fi t can create a substantial return on investment, says the study. "Emphasizing such information will increase the utility of an organization's selection system and, ultimately, have the potential to contribute to organizational performance through the attraction of high-performing employees." A lot of companies don't give a lot of thought to job ads, says Chapman. "A lot of times, it's looked at as an admin- istrative function — get a copy of the job requirements and post it out there — with- out a great deal of thought about 'How do I get more high-quality applicants?' So I don't think it's a conscious thing, I think they just do what they've always done." People are focused on listing the qualifi - cations — exactly what's expected of people — in hopes that a lot of the unqualifi ed ap- plicants will weed themselves out of the process, says Schmidt. "But, I think, in the process, there might be some qualifi ed applicants who have po- tentially a lot of opportunities who might weed themselves out because they can't see how they fi t with the organization." Rethinking strategy Most organizations don't spend a lot of time thinking about recruiting strate- gies — they're kind of on auto pilot, says Chapman. "Many companies would benefi t from sitting down and looking at what is their re- cruiting message, what are headwinds that make recruiting diffi cult for them, what are tailwinds that help them recruit eff ectively — sort of assess what they have to off er and then build their job ads around that type of information to try to counter negative im- pressions and bolster positive ones to get the most out there." ere's also a concern companies will be overrun with applications if they make a job ad look too attractive, which can mean additional expenses to go through all the resumés. But given the number of quality appli- cants that come in, it's a worthwhile trad- eoff , says Schmidt. "Even if you get just one or two more re- ally good applicants, it makes a tremendous diff erence in your recruiting eff ort." at's not to say companies shouldn't put what they need from candidates in job ads, he says, but they should balance out that approach by telling applicants what they're going to get from the employment experi- ence as well. It's not a particularly diffi cult thing to do, it's just setting aside the time to think stra- tegically instead of administratively, says Schmidt. " ere really hasn't been a lot of research out there to tell them what's eff ective and what's less eff ective — we're hoping that this particular study will give one piece of in- formation that will help them design more eff ective job ads." Rewording Credit: Who is Danny/Shutterstock Emphasizing what a role offers can attract better-quality candidates than simple job requirements

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