Finding quality candidates is a hard enough job on its own, but too often, HR professionals and hiring managers make the job even harder by grading applicants and candidates on the wrong things. Making job listing requirements highly specific or strenuous may actually be too prohibitive, discouraging eligible candidates who are more than capable of learning on the job or who have relevant experience that substitutes for a specific degree. On the flip side, using an unstructured interview process is only about 20% successful in predicting the future success of a candidate, according to Harvard Business Review. Then there’s the inevitable presence of unconscious bias, which can lead hiring decision makers to make snap judgments on candidates based on irrelevant information or past experiences, whether positive or negative.

Recent research by GovernmentJobs.com found that public sector applications are down overall even though hiring is on an upswing. This poses a problem today for agencies who are looking to fill critical vacancies. While offering unique perks and benefits, as well as a more stable work-life balance compared to the private sector, are great things you should be highlighting in your job listings, you should also consider what may be turning job applicants off early on in the hiring process. Doing everything you can to shine a light on what makes working for your organization special will help you get the best talent. Let’s take a look at nine red flags in job listings that prevent candidates from applying to a job.

The job market is hot right now, with many people not only job searching in the wake of the pandemic, but also being more selective about which jobs they apply to. This is likely to increase even further in the new year, when job applications are traditionally at their highest anyway. That’s why it’s so important that your organization has a careers site that stands out and is engaging to job seekers. You might have some of the best perks and opportunities for professional growth out there, but if your careers site doesn’t catch someone’s attention, they would never know it. 

If you feel your time-to-hire and/or quality of candidates are not up to par, you should take a look at where you’re sourcing your candidates. This includes everywhere you post your jobs: online job boards, career pages, social networks, job fairs, traditional media like newspapers or magazines, and via referrals. This will allow you to determine where to find the best job candidates.

It’s a question that seems obvious, but can be used to gain critical insight into your recruiting and hiring processes: how attractive is this job I posted to job seekers?Determining a job posting conversion rate will allow you to see which job postings are doing well and which could use some help to attract more applicants.

Building diversity, equity, and inclusion is vital for public sector organizations. Learn how to support DEI in the workplace with education and training.

Entry-level employees are critical to your organization's success. Here are vital to ensure your new employees are prepared to perform at their best.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts should be a crucial part of any organization’s recruiting and hiring process. However, it’s easy for DEI webpages with boilerplate phrases like “equal opportunity employer” to be written off as disingenuous if an organization doesn’t put in real work to ensure DEI initiatives are fruitful. 

Despite a semblance of normalcy on the horizon, the effects of the pandemic will have a significant impact on how local government agencies are run in the future, especially for human resources departments. Government HR leaders have been forced to meet challenges they never had before, in ways they may have never thought possible -- like enabling remote work, designing touchless work spaces, and migrating manual processes to the cloud.

As American society faces a new reckoning around the subject of discrimination and harassment, government bodies are looking for ways to remedy these problems with legislation. One such topic being addressed by state and local laws in the wake of the #MeToo movement is sexual harassment training, with several states and one major city enacting policies that require employers to ensure their employees are getting this important education and training.