Analysing data from WaveTrackR, Wave’s job distribution tool, the report found that while many recruiters tend to post their jobs on a Friday, candidates most often apply for jobs at the beginning of the week. For example, while nearly a quarter of IT & internet jobs were posted on a Friday, only 14% of jobseekers applied for a role a Friday. In contrast, 18% applied on Monday and 19% on a Tuesday. 

“In order to stand the best change of capturing the interest of candidates when the job has freshly been posted, jobs should ideally be posted at the beginning rather than the end of the week,” says the ‘Recruitment Trends: Industry Insights 2020 Overview’ report that analyses data taken over the course of 2019.

Dave Jenkins (pictured), CEO of Wave, told Recruiter that the lesson from this was that in today’s candidate short market, “marketing your jobs at the optimal time, ie. when the people you want to target are active, is essential to attracting more talent to your business”.

In addition to getting the timing of their job adverts right, the report identified a number of factors linked to a high number of job applications, providing recruiters with important clues about what works and doesn’t work.

The greatest number of job applications was generated by jobs adverts of between 142 and 214 words. However, optimal advert length varies by industry. For example, candidates in management consultancy and science prefer longer and detailed jobs adverts than candidates in transport & logistics, telecoms, oil, gas and alternative energy sector.

For online jobs, including the right keywords is vital if you want candidates to find your job. The report identified the top keywords used by jobseekers on the JobsTrackR job board. Among the terms that attract a strong response are terms associated with flexible working, such as ‘remote’, while including the terms ‘full-time’ or ‘part-time’ as part of the job title boosts the response. Including ‘diversity’ and ‘diversity inclusion’ also boost the number of applications. 

The report found that 83% of posted jobs were on job boards, with 15% on recruitment websites, and only 2% on social media platforms, with permanent jobs making up 71% of all jobs distributed, temporary jobs accounting for 21% and contract making up 7%.

“Every piece of marketing should be aimed at the right audience, with the right message, at the right time, and talent attraction is no different,” Jenkins concluded.

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