Job Ads That Attract the Right People (and Quietly Filter the Wrong Ones)

The standard SME job ad is a legal document cosplaying as an invitation: a duties list copied from somewhere, a paragraph of values nobody believes, and "competitive remuneration," which every candidate correctly reads as "we won't say." Then a pile of applications arrives containing no fits, and the owner concludes the market is broken. Usually the market is fine; the ad did exactly what it was written to do, which was nothing in particular. A job ad has two jobs — make the right person lean in, and help the wrong person rule themselves out — and both are won with specifics.

Lead with the work, not the institution

The opening lines decide whether your right candidate keeps reading, and your right candidate is scanning many ads at speed. Skip the company-history opener. Lead with what the days actually contain: the functions they'll run, the real scale of the role, the named responsibilities, the person they'll be when a colleague needs an answer. Concrete work, honestly described.

Strong candidates are buying a job, not a brochure, and the specificity that excites them is the same specificity that makes the under-qualified pause. That double effect is the whole design principle: every honest detail attracts one reader and filters another, and both outcomes save you time.

Write the wrong-fit line

Then say plainly who the role suits and who it doesn't: suits someone who likes owning a function end-to-end; wrong fit if you want a big team around you or hate deadlines that don't move. The "wrong fit" sentence is the most underused line in recruitment. It reads as confidence rather than negativity, costs nothing, and improves the applicant pool by inviting self-selection. People are surprisingly honest with themselves when you hand them the criteria; what they can't do is self-select against an ad that describes nothing.

Pay the candour tax

Every omission in an ad is paid for in applicant quality, and pay is the omission that costs most.

• State a genuine salary range, not a range so wide it says nothing. Ground it in the relevant modern award classification, what comparable roles are advertising in your market right now, and what you would actually pay the person you want. Stating it filters mismatches in both directions and signals a business that deals straight; increasingly, strong candidates simply skip ads without it.
• Tell the logistical truth: where the work happens, what flexibility genuinely exists rather than what sounds modern, travel, tools of trade, parking. These are the things people resign over in month two when the ad fudged them.
• Describe the hours as they are, including the seasonal crunch if there is one. A candidate who accepts the real shape of the role stays; one who discovers it later doesn't.

Shape the requirements honestly and lawfully

Most requirement lists are aspiration inflation: qualifications the last person happened to hold, years-of-experience counts pulled from the air. Each unnecessary requirement deletes good applicants, so separate the genuinely essential from the merely nice, and say which is which.

While you're pruning, check the list for legal exposure. Requirements and phrasing that lean on age, gender, family status or other protected attributes — including coded versions like "digital native" or "recent graduate" — create anti-discrimination risk as well as shrinking your pool. Make sure the role's classification, hours and conditions line up with the applicable award or agreement, and use the Fair Work Ombudsman's published guidance when you're unsure what you can require or must provide.

Let the application process do some interviewing

Finish the ad by making the act of applying informative. Two or three short screening questions tied to the actual work tell you more than a generic cover letter, and a small, relevant ask — respond to this scenario, tell us about a system you improved — is friction only for people who weren't serious. Tell candidates what the process involves and how quickly they'll hear back, then honour it; the ad is the first sample of what working for you is like, and candidates read it that way.

Hiring is one part of a bigger machine, and the ad works best when onboarding and role design are built to the same standard — our People hub walks through that end to end. One caveat to carry with you: employment obligations vary by award, state and circumstance, so treat this as a map of the terrain and confirm the specifics for your own situation before you publish.