How is the search for new staff going? Do your job ads get enough responses from potential candidates? If not, there might be something wrong with the way you’re writing them. Did you know that 1 out of 8 job ads is too difficult for people to understand? The majority of your target group will stop reading because they can’t make out what you’re looking for. That’s problematic for two reasons. Firstly, you won’t receive many applications. Secondly, it makes it even more difficult to become a diverse and inclusive company. Because that requires job ads that everyone can read and understand. An understandable job ad is one written at language level B1.
3 ways to improve the readability of your job descriptions
The Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) distinguishes six different language levels. These are A1, A2, B1, B2, C1 and C2. Language level B1 is the one that approximately 60% of readers can understand. To improve the readability of your job ads and write them at B1 level, you need to:
Use short words and sentences – The longer the words and sentences you use, the more difficult they are to understand. That’s why your sentences should have a maximum of 15 to 20 words. It’s also advisable to mix longer sentences with even shorter ones. Words should be short and simple, too. You should avoid jargon and outdated words as well. Very few people understand these.
Use an active tone of voice – A sentence like ‘Your performance will be assessed’ is a passive one. Passive sentences are difficult to read. Therefore, you should always try to use active sentences instead. Here that would be: ‘We will assess your performance’. That is much easier to understand, right?
Use ‘you’ and ‘we’ in your sentences – In job ads, we tend to use terms like ‘the candidate’ and ‘the company’. By doing so, we use an indirect way of communicating. For readability, it’s better to speak directly to the reader. That’s easier to understand. You can do so by using ‘you’ when you speak about the candidate, and ‘we’ when you speak about yourself.
Textmetrics is your solution for writing at language level B1
Writing job ads at language level B1 is important for readability. The readability of job ads is important if you want to receive a lot of applications. And if you want to reach your diversity and inclusion goals. Above, we showed you three ways to write your job descriptions at language level B1. You can implement these rules yourself. Or you can use the Textmetrics platform to write readable job ads at the correct level. The platform uses AI algorithms to assess the readability of your job description. And it then gives you suggestions to reach the desired B1 level. It’s as easy as it sounds. Before you know it, the applications will come pouring in.
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