Writing effective job listings

Quality job advertisements produce quality results!

A quality job description is complete, accurate, understandable, and describes a current employment opportunity.
It provides enough information to allow effective self-screening by the job seeker.

To ensure high quality, your job listing is reviewed by trained, professional Job Center staff. Your job orders are checked for our conditions for acceptable job orders, completeness, clarity, formatting errors, and legality. This is the essential value-added difference between Job Center of Wisconsin and other Internet job boards.

Does the job listing provide enough information?

If you were the job seeker, would you have questions after reading the job announcement?

Job duties, tasks and responsibilities. Specific, and fully describes the situation even to someone not familiar with the occupation.
Equipment/machines/tools/computer programs used. Be specific. Are you willing to train?
Skills, knowledge and abilities. What is required to perform the essential functions of the job?
Licenses or certifications. Are occupational licenses required? TIP: List only what is required to perform the essential functions of the job.
Education and training. Is a degree or certificate required? TIP: List only what is required to perform the essential functions of the job.
Working Conditions. Explain physical requirements, work site conditions, exposure to weather, travel requirements, reimbursement for expenses, etc.
Hours, workdays, shifts, and duration of the job. Hours per week, shift hours, days of week, overtime, on-call, or holiday work clearly identified. Is the job seasonal or temporary?
Wages and benefits. State dollar amounts if possible. Explain unusual details in the “Additional Compensation” text field. TIP: Vague or incomplete compensation information discourages quality candidates from applying!
Company information. Use the “Company Profile” to accurately explain the company, products, services, advancement, career and employment opportunities.
Testing. Have any required pre-employment tests been identified on the job order?

Is the information clear and easy to understand?

If you were the job seeker, would anything be confusing or unclear?

Job Title. Simple, commonly used occupational titles avoid confusion and allow better keyword searching on the Internet. TIP: You can use your company title in the job description to identify the job for application purposes!
Work site location. Clearly identify all of the work sites, especially if different than the company headquarters.
Company name Corporate names, mergers, and buy-outs can lead to confusion about local facilities. Local, commonly recognized company names work best. TIP: Use the “Company Profile” to identify corporate connections.
Abbreviations or jargon. Use only commonly understood abbreviations. Avoid industry jargon.
Application proceduresApplication methods, deadlines, contact person, or special requirements are identified.

Job Description Writer can help you write more effective job ads:

Job Description Writer guides you step-by-step through creating a job description. Use the keyword search to identify your occupation. Enter as much information about the job listing as you wish. This can include the location of the job, any education, training, or licenses required, and the wage offered. You include statements from lists of tasks and knowledges from O*NET (Occupational Information Network) in your job description. A final job description containing the job title, job location information, tasks and required or preferred knowledges is produced. You can copy it to your hard-drive or a flash drive for further development.

Job Description Writer is a service of Career OneStop and the U.S. Department of Labor. See the Business Center page for additional resources.

Conditions for Acceptable Job Listings

All job listings placed in Job Center of Wisconsin must comply with the following conditions:

There must be a current job opening or an anticipated job opening with in the next 90 days.
An employer/employee relationship will exist between the worker and the company.
The work site is in Wisconsin or in a border county with Wisconsin in Illinois, Iowa, Michigan or Minnesota.
No monetary investment is required by a job seeker.
No fees will be charged job seekers to apply or be considered for the position.
The position being filled is not involved in a labor dispute.
You must guarantee at least the state/federal minimum wage for all hours worked. This includes jobs paid on commission, performance based incentive, piecework or any other method of compensation.
You will comply with all applicable state/federal employment laws.
The job listing contains no potentially discriminatory wording.
The job listing accurately describes the employment situation and complies with DWD/DET policy and quality standards.
If listed by an employment agency, the agency must confidentially provide the work site company name in the "Employer Comments" field of the job listing. This information will not be available to job seekers.

Requests for job listings that do not meet the above requirements will be denied or deleted from the system.