Calgary Employer Forum

Do you think your company’s job posting is youth friendly?

By Leita Blasetti

A job posting is a tool to attract candidates to apply for a position with your company. Typically, a job posting includes some general information about the company, the qualifications required and direction on how to apply for a job. Sounds easy, right?

Once you start looking at job postings, you will find that a job posting for a retail clerk can be half a page with one company, and several pages with another. Are the qualifications really that different? With this simple comparison, which job do you think a youth is more likely to apply to? If you guessed the short one, you are probably right.

Here are some tips on writing a youth friendly job posting.

First of all, you need to keep the posting simple. The 2016 State of the Hourly Worker Report found that 72% of hourly job seekers use their phone to do their job search. For one thing, postings need to be mobile friendly. Use bullet points and bold text to get the reader’s attention. Nobody likes reading an essay on their phone.

• Keep company history short, 1-2 sentences should do. Interested candidates can always go to your website.
• Use simple language and stay away from industry lingo and abbreviations
• Highlight the most important qualifications and duties, try to keep it to the top 5 must haves
• Preferred qualifications can deter youth from applying

Plenty of youth have low self-esteem and applying for your first job takes a lot of courage. Youth want to know they at least have a chance of getting hired and that they will fit in. Use statements like:

• Entry-level
• Training provided
• Mentorship program
• No experience required
• Opportunity to grow
• Flexible hours
• Fun, friendly environment
• We value our front line workers

These words will assure youth that they can apply. If the position has a minimum age, it is ok to add that if it is 18 or under. Youth under 18 are unsure of where they can apply, so make it easy for them.

Location and hours are a big deal for youth. Most youth take public transportation, and they want to see if they can get to the job or not before they apply. Hours are good to add in too, so youth can figure out if the company hours fit with their transit schedule, school and other responsibilities.

Check out our tip sheet on youth-friendly job posting for more information. For further help writing youth friendly job postings reach out to the Calgary Employer Forum.