It is Friday afternoon, someone hands in their resignation, and within the hour the job ad is already being drafted. It feels productive, it feels like momentum, but it is rarely the right approach.
We see it constantly. A business pulls up the old job description, changes a name or a date, and posts it again within the day. The problem is that the role has usually moved on since that description was written, and so has the reason the last person left. If the ad does not reflect what the role actually requires now, you are not attracting the right candidates, you are attracting candidates for a role that no longer exists.
This is what happens when we are time poor and rushed. We skip the one conversation that actually matters, which is what went wrong, and why. Was the workload right for the role? Did the fit break down between the person and the team, or the person and the manager? Were expectations set clearly at the start, or did they drift over time? None of this gets resolved by rushing an ad online, and none of it gets fixed by hiring the same role again if the same issues are still sitting underneath it.
A job ad should be a genuine reflection of the role as it exists today, not a copy and paste exercise from a folder of old templates. That means being honest about the day to day tasks, the reporting lines, the pressure points, and what success actually looks like in the position. It also means being honest with yourself about whether the last hire failed because of the person, or because of how the role and the business supported them.
Some businesses will dress a role up to bring in more applications, but if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is too good to be true. The goal was never the highest number of applicants, it is the right person for the role, and an ad built on exaggeration only attracts candidates who will uncover the gap within weeks, and walk away once they do.
Hiring well takes a moment of pause before it takes action. The businesses that get this right are not necessarily the ones that move fastest, they are the ones that move with intention.
Before your next ad goes live, ask yourself, does this actually describe the role we need, or does it describe the role we had?
Recruit RE connects Real Estate businesses with the right people for the right roles. Find out more at www.recruitre.com.au