I was walking along the street the other day and I spotted this advert. It made me do a double take for a number of reasons (company specifics deleted):

• This was an advert for a retail job and there is no mention of customer anywhere in the advert
• The description is all about product with no mention of it being sales or customer focused
• There is nothing about the team that they were about to join
• Also, there is nothing about the store or the company and what they stand for

What type of candidates would this advert attract? How motivated would they be to join this team or this company?

Now, I am sure that it may attract some great candidates who with leadership, training, mentoring and induction could turn into great team members. But, it seems to me that this advert was leaving a lot to chance.

If you want to deliver a great customer experience, a great place to work and a great team then it has to start before your employees start and one of the first places that they will come into contact with you is via your job advertisements. This is where your brand and your employee experience starts.This is where you start motivating the right people to apply for a place on the great team that you are building.

When you next commission a job advert, think about the first impression that you are making it’s often very hard to change.