How to write a job ad that gets the right applicants

Most small business job ads are written in 20 minutes, at night, by an owner who is already behind. They get copied from the last ad, or from a competitor's, and they all end up saying the same 5 things: fast-paced environment, team player, can-do attitude, competitive salary, opportunity to grow.

Then 30 applications arrive, 26 of them irrelevant, and the owner concludes that nobody good is looking. Sometimes that's the market. Often it's the ad.

This covers what to write instead. It sits under the wider guide to hiring and leading a team in Adelaide, and it assumes you've already decided the role should exist. If that part is still open, when to make your first hire is the earlier question.

The ad's job is to repel as much as attract

This is the reframe that changes everything else. A job ad is not a marketing document trying to reach the widest audience. It's a filter.

30 applications from people who half-fit is a worse outcome than 6 from people who properly fit, because you have to read all 30, and the reading happens at 9pm after a full day. Every vague line in an ad widens the field. Every specific line narrows it toward the person you actually want.

So the test for each sentence is: does this help the right person recognise themselves, or does it help the wrong person think they might be in with a chance? "Fast-paced environment" fails that test. "You'll be on 2 or 3 domestic sites a day across the northern suburbs, driving a company ute, starting at 6:30am" passes it, and it tells the wrong applicant to keep scrolling, which is a favour to both of you.

The 7 things a small business ad needs

1. A title people actually search. Not "Client Experience Champion". Write the title the person would type: Bookkeeper, Second Year Apprentice Plumber, Practice Manager, Service Coordinator. Add the suburb or the region, because that's how people filter.

2. What the business is, in 2 sentences. Not the values statement. What you do, how long you've been doing it, how many people work there. A person considering a business of 5 wants to know it's a business of 5.

3. What the person will actually do, hour by hour. This is the section that does the most work and the section most ads skip. Describe a normal Tuesday. Not "assist with general duties". Say what the duties are.

4. What you're not asking for. Naming the things that don't matter widens the right end of the field. If you don't need a degree, say so. If you'd take someone returning to the workforce after 5 years out, say that. Plenty of capable people screen themselves out of small business ads because they assume a requirement that isn't there.

5. The practical facts. Hours and start time. Location and whether there's travel. Whether it's ongoing or fixed-term, full-time or part-time. What gear or vehicle comes with it. These are the details people decide on and the details generic ads leave out.

6. Who they'd report to, and what they decide alone. In a small business this is genuinely attractive. A person who can make decisions without a committee will take that over a bigger name.

7. What happens next, and by when. "Applications close Friday, interviews the following week, you'll hear back either way." A person applying to 4 businesses will remember the 1 that told them the process.

What to cut

Cut every line that could sit in any ad for any job. If you can copy a sentence into an ad for a completely different role without editing it, it's carrying no information.

That usually means cutting: fast-paced, dynamic, team player, self-starter, wear many hats, competitive salary, exciting opportunity, and the whole family of phrases that begin "the successful applicant will". Also cut the wishlist of 14 requirements. It's a fantasy candidate, it discourages the strong-but-not-perfect applicants you'd actually hire, and it tends to filter hardest on the people least likely to over-claim.

And 1 more: write the ad in the first person, as the person who'll actually be working alongside them. A business of 5 that writes like a faceless corporate entity throws away the only real advantage it has in the ad.

The same role, written 2 ways

The difference isn't length, it's specificity. Here's the generic opening most small business ads use:

Motivated and reliable team player wanted to join a fast-paced, growing business. The successful applicant will have excellent communication skills and a strong work ethic.

Nothing in that describes the job. Now the specific version:

You'd be the 4th person in a plumbing business working mostly on domestic maintenance across the eastern suburbs. Most days are 3 to 5 callouts, you'd have your own van and stock, and you'd be quoting small jobs on the spot rather than sending them back to the office.

The second version is shorter on adjectives and longer on facts. A qualified maintenance plumber reads it and knows immediately whether they want it. Everybody else keeps scrolling, which is exactly what you wanted.

The pay line, which owners agonise over

Owners split on whether to publish a number. Both positions are defensible and it's worth deciding deliberately rather than by default.

The argument for publishing a range: it stops you spending 3 interviews on somebody who was never going to accept, and it signals that you're straightforward, which matters more in a small business where the owner is the whole HR function.

The argument against: it sets an anchor before you've seen what the person brings, and it can create friction with the people already on your team.

If you don't publish a number, at least decide your number before you advertise. The worst version is discovering your ceiling during a negotiation with somebody you've already decided you want.

Whatever you decide, treat the amount as a commercial decision: what is this role worth to the business, given the margin the work carries. The legal floor is a separate question entirely and it isn't a judgement call.

Where to put it, and what happens next

In a tight market the ad is only half the job. What an owner can actually control in the SA skills shortage covers the published figures and the levers, and the biggest 1 is speed: capable people are usually talking to several employers, and the business that moves in days wins by default.

So before you post the ad, decide who reads the applications and when, block out the interview times in advance, and commit to answering every applicant inside 48 hours even when the answer is no. Ads are also worth putting where the person actually is: the industry association board, the local trade supplier, a training provider's alumni list, and your existing team's contacts, which in a small business is often the strongest source of all.

Then plan the first week before you make the offer. A strong ad followed by a chaotic first fortnight undoes itself quickly, and onboarding in a business with no HR sets out what a workable version looks like when everybody is busy.

The part that isn't a writing question

What you can and can't say in a job ad isn't only a matter of style. There are rules about it, and getting them wrong carries real consequences, particularly around requirements that could exclude people unlawfully.

That's a regulated area and this isn't the place for it. Check the national workplace relations regulator for the employment rules, and take the specific wording of your ad and anything touching entitlements, classifications or the terms of the job to your own employment lawyer or an HR adviser before you publish it. This post covers the commercial and communication side: what the role is, who you want, and how to describe it so the right person recognises the job.