With the skills shortage still going strong, attracting quality candidates is harder than it’s ever been. Many organisations are going all out in an attempt to bring top talent closer to their business, whilst unwittingly some companies are guilty of top job turn offs.

So, what exactly is it about your vacancy that’s putting star candidates off applying for the role?

Jobseekers are far more demanding in today’s labour market, with almost 80% of candidates unwilling to comprise on their ideal role wish list. Although you can’t be all things to all people, the list below of fairly simple top job turn offs serves as a good reminder that having an insight into the labour market and mindset of current candidates really can help your attraction rates.

Salary
Although salary isn’t the be all and end all, almost twenty percent of candidates would be immediately put off by a low pay packet. As many jobs boards require this information to be listed at the job of your advert, chances are that anyone viewing your vacancy won’t read much further into your vacancy if they consider the salary to be below the industry average.

Regardless of the amount of perks and benefits on offer that might be good selling points, if they disregard your position because of the pay listed then they’ll never even get to this part of your advert.

Job Descriptions
You shouldn’t expect candidates to have to second guess or fill in the blanks for themselves when it comes to your job description. Twenty percent of jobseekers see a poorly written job spec and job description as a top job turn off, so you’ll need to ensure that you give a good overview of the role without bombarding them with too much information.

Lengthy Recruitment Processes
Today’s jobseeker isn’t one to hang around, and you’ll often find that they’ve applied for several roles at the same time. Having plenty of irons in the fire gives them the ability to pick and choose which roles they are most interested in going forward with, and over 10% of candidates say that a dragged out recruitment process is one of their top job turn offs.

Of course, you need time to follow the whole recruitment process properly, but by regular communications with your candidates making them aware of timescales and have far you’ve got in the process will help keep them interested in your vacancy.