The answer is an emphatic YES.  As a matter of fact, they matter more than the job description. Period.  This is true for two main reasons,  the first is in the way machines handle the search queries and the second is how humans scan and review results.

The goal of the job title is to show up in results for the right candidates while engaging them enough to click through and review the rest of the job description.  You need to strike a careful balance to satisfy both kings.   Stuffing the job posting title with too many keywords (to show up in more results) can lead to lower engagement from candidate who are reviewing the search results.  The opposite is also true, being too ambiguous or clever in the the job posting title can land you at the bottom of search results where your exposer to a candidate pool is diminished.

Strike a Balance

The major search engines place a higher value on keywords that in the job posting title vs the job description.  You should be able to distill the requirements for the role down to a few keywords that relate to the role. Additionally, adding in some information that speaks to the jobs uniqueness engages users; “this is a job for me” vs. “this is a job for anyone.”  Do a search on a few jobs boards and see how many job posting titles are exactly the same.    With a little effort you will be able to improve you candidate quality and quantity.

For example:

Title:  Software Engineer II     <- Boring and lacks skills necessary for the job

Title: Software Engineer – PHP/MYSQL New Product   <- provides some additional keywords and tells them that they will be working on something exciting and new.

Title:  Software Engineer – PHP/MYSQL New Product – San Diego <- Adding a location in the job posting title helps with search query scoring and gives the user some important information.  (our CatalystFive job posting software helps you automatically build job titles and tweets!)

 

Time

You should spend 5 to 10 minutes on creating a job title that engages the user and improves search results.  This is time well spent and should help improve your process!

 

Your employees are the lifeblood of your company and it is your job to make sure that they are productive, happy and engaged.  When you have to fire some one, there is a shifting of responsibility.  The same amount of work remains, however, in many cases the load is increased on the employees that produce the most.  Interestingly, this is typically the owners or those employees who are most invested.

If the increased workload caused by the employee was fired continues for too long, it takes many happy employees and makes them feel overworked and burns them out rather quickly.  Having an action plan to replace the missing employee is key to reducing the pain.   We refer to these pains as, “Firing Pains”.

1) Prevent the Problem: Know your staff – like all relationships in life we have ups and downs.  The key to employees is understanding where in the cycle they are.  This is very important when it comes to your key employees.  Check in with them often.  Know when they going long before they do.  What life events are “happening to them” and how do you expect them to react to it.  You need to know if they are getting married, their Uncle is extremely sick or their sister is having children a baby.

In most cases simply talking to them makes them feel engaged.  Listening to their where they are in their life helps you identify if they are are at risk to leave.  It also lets you know if you they can be saved or if you need to start recruiting their replacement.  Either way, you will be more informed.

2) Always be Recruiting:  For small and mid market businesses this is often very difficult due to the fact that they often to not have a dedicated person who is responsible for managing the employment brand and bringing the new blood.  At a larger company, there are Recruiters dedicated to college recruiting, diversity recruiting and general outreach.  At small and mid market businesses it is often a function of another person’s role.  The good news is that in the electronic age it is very possible to quickly deploy a year round recruiting strategy.

The first step is to add a career page to your website that accepts resumes and establishes or enhances your career brand.  This can be done using our CatalystFive Career Sites (and it’s free with our normal account).   Once you are able to accept resumes, create a simple employment brand message that outlines the types of people that you love to work with and who you are always interested to speak with about employment opportunities.  You would be surprised how many people would love to hear more about working with your company!

3) Great Communication:  We can all agree that great employees make great companies. The truth is that most companies do not spend enough time Recruiting the right candidate.  This is mainly due to the process they use to recruit. It is simply to short and is confined to one strategy, posting jobs.

Attracting the right candidates means that you need to engage them in the method they are most comfortable.  Simply adding a statement like, “We are always looking for exceptional Web Developers” on your email communications to employees and customers will reach a new pool of candidates.  This can be done year round.

Most companies have a social media strategy that builds the Sales Brand.  Adding in some tweets, posts and updates that are centric to the people behind the company helps build a company that is the “Employer of Choice” where top talent wants to work.  Updating social media with awards you have won, individual performance successes and community involvement furthers an employment brand that is engaged with their employees.  This proves the company is holding up their end of employment relationship.

Bottom Line:

Great people want to work for great companies.  The only way for them to know you are great is to have great outreach and a strong employment brand.