Today I’ll share:

• The power of a perfect job title.

• How much flexibility you have in changing a job title.

• The 4-point process I use to find the job title that connects with your ideal candidate.

I’ve seen how powerful the right job title can be.

I’ve had a few occasions when I’ve been working on role but found that four or five days in that I don’t have any applications worth interviewing!

In those situations my go-to action is to change the job title, and I see the application rate do a complete 180! Sometimes going from less than 10 applications to over 100 in the space of a week by changing a single word in the job title.

Now it’s rare that I keep th original job title, preferring to change it for something more effective. Based on the results I’ve seen over the last four years, I highly recommend you take 15 mins before you advertise the role to get this right.

Now, you might be thinking – “Kellie, I can’t just change the job title – it’s in the structure! We’ve done job evaluations I can’t change the title on a whim!”

But I’m here to tell you that you absolutely can…

You should advertise the role as whatever you think will reach your ideal candidate, but add a short discliamer to the ad.

For example I recently advertised a Pastoral Guidance Officer role as Head of Year and at the bottom of the ad I included a line that stated “NB – in the structure this job is called Pastoral Guidance Officer, we have advertised as Head of Year for accessibility purposes”. I’ve regularly changed job titles for four years now and not a single candidate has ever queried this.

Onto the 4-point process. This is all about getting your ad in front of your ideal candidate and making them think “yes…that’s me!”

Keep it short. One word is ideal so if you have a snappy title like CEO, CFO or TA, resist the urge to add to add to it! Two words is great. Use three if you absolutely have to but never more than three words.

What does your ideal candidate call themselves? This is what they’ll google when they look for a job.

Think about this role in context of whole jobs market Choose the title that is most commonly used by the wider world, not necessarily the one we’re used to in education.

Time for a final sense check. Can the title be confused with something else? Ask someone you know outside of education.

That’s it! It’s a quick process that will help you to avoid an empty applications inbox.

I’ll be back next week with a new video to help you to recruit with ease.