Is your dealership having trouble attracting great candidates for your open positions? If so, you may want to review your job ads. What’s a job ad? If you’re not sure, that may be one of your problems.

There’s a big difference between a job ad and a job description. A job description is a list of responsibilities. A job ad promotes all the great reasons why someone would want to come work for your dealership.

Put Yourself Out There
I always recommend approaching the creation of a job ad the same way you would approach the creation of an online dating profile. Let’s say you’re looking for a new salesperson. If you are posting a job description, it might look something like this:

How does this job look to you? Let’s be honest, it’s boring. Who would apply for this job? Boring job ads attract boring candidates. Only someone who is sitting at home on the couch and desperate for a job would apply to this ad.

Now imagine you are single and you want to attract the perfect mate. You decide to create an online dating profile that describes who you are and what you’re looking for. Following the above example, your profile would probably look something like this:

Who is going to respond to this ad? Probably not the spouse of your dreams. Only someone sitting at home on the couch and desperate for a mate would apply to this ad.

Ads must be exciting. You spend a ton of money and time creating all kinds of ads to sell your vehicles. Why wouldn’t you spend a little bit of time and effort creating a job ad that sells your dealership to the candidate of your dreams?

Six Elements Every Job Ad Must Include
When it’s time to fill an open position, there are six things that you should include in every job ad:

1. Why your dealership is so amazing and how your culture stands out
2. Awards and recognition your dealership has received
3. Company perks and benefits
4. Experience the applicant should already have
5. What you expect from the person you hire
6. Awesome things your employees get to do and why that’s important

Here’s an example of a job ad that includes these elements:

Don’t you agree this job ad is more appealing than the first one? Who wouldn’t want to be an ambassador? That sounds pretty exciting.

Your New Recruiting Strategy
Once you have your exciting job ad, the next step to finding the perfect candidate is to make sure your ad gets seen. If you simply post an ad on your website and an online job board, you are missing out on many great candidates.

If you’re single and looking for the perfect mate, you don’t rely on just one dating website. You go to parties, you attend local events, you post cute pictures of yourself on social media, you strike up a conversation with someone in a coffee shop. You’re looking everywhere,

Well, the same rules apply when you’re looking for job candidates.

Yes, post the job on your website and on one or two job boards. On your website, be sure you have an employment page that promotes the benefits of your brand. Don’t just post job ads there. Post photos of your current, happy employees. Post a section on what the potential career paths are in your dealership. Talk about your culture and how you give back to the local community.

Post your job ads on your social media accounts. Attend local career fairs or host a hiring event at your dealership. Ask your customers when they come into the sales or service department, “Hey, do you know anyone who may be interested in working here?” Include the job ad in your customer newsletter.

Be creative and get the word out through as many channels as possible. The more people who see it, the more people will inquire. It’s that simple. Stop posting boring job descriptions, and start pretending each ad is like an online dating profile.

Dave Druzynski is the human resources director at Auto/Mate Dealership Systems. Email him at dave.druzynski@bobit.com.