Job description best practices based on hiring data
Jun 05, 2017
This weekend I went for a walk with my three-year-old daughter and suggested to her, “Let’s take a lap around the pond!”
She turned to me and said, “How can I sit on your lap if we’re walking?”
I told her, “Sometimes words have two meanings.” What I didn’t say is that the context that surrounds each word helps define the word’s meaning and importance.
Textio's predictive engine understands that the same word or phrase may perform differently depending on context. Job postings meant to attract chefs are going to look and sound different than those for executives. By knowing the context that defines who will be reading the job post, Textio provides the precise guidance that helps that role fill faster.
Textio is constantly updating its predictive engine — in today’s update, Textio adds new guidance for several job functions, including:
- Accounting
- Executive
- Food/Hospitality
- Manufacturing
- Sales
Every time Textio is updated, new language patterns emerge. For example, take the language in sales job posts. The language that fills these jobs the fastest can be quite nuanced:
- Instead of interpersonal skills, use listening skills:
- Instead of interface, use collaborate:
It’s no surprise that what works in manufacturing jobs is different from what works for sales. It’s a different kind of work, and different kinds of language works for effective hiring depending on who you’re trying to hire.
The difference in impact between particular phrases can be subtle, and only come out when you’re measuring impact over millions of jobs. For instance, Textio shows that sales people respond well when you talk about collaboration and listening skills. Would it surprise you to know that in manufacturing jobs, collaboration performs less well than teamwork, and providing input perform less well than providing feedback?
- Instead of collaboration, use teamwork:
- Instead of providing input, use providing feedback:
This is just a sampling of the many phrase patterns that Textio’s predictive engine now finds for these role types. As more and more documents for these roles are written in Textio, the learning loop will surface even more patterns. All of these improvements will help Textio become even better at helping you hire people faster.
