A Coach’s Best Practices for Attracting Strong Job Candidates

Sep 15, 2021 | News, Uncategorized

By David Gould, Staff Editor

It was long the case that advertising an open position for an instructor could land you at the bottom of a pile of resumes, forced to dig out. Then came the pandemic year of 2020, and that equation flipped. Recruitment of golf instructors is now a competitive arena. Here are eight ways to give your job posting helpful advantages in today’s challenging job market.

1. Capture Your Audience’s Attention. It’s been said a recruiter only has about 10 seconds to gain a candidate’s interest and give them reasons to get engaged. Your job posting shouldn’t just include the rules and requirements of the position. You have to sell them on why they should apply with you.

2. Tell Your Success Story, with Emphasis: Think about the wording you would use in applying for an important award, and bring some of that horn-tooting along when you advertise for a new staff member. Make sure to explain your company culture and the workplace environment, which can factor highly in decision-making by candidates. Highlight what makes your teaching business unique.

3.  Remember the What’s-in-it-for-Me factor: In a job market where most people are already employed, recognize that you’re probably competing with candidates’ current employers. The people you’re looking for will be undergoing the effort  of communicating and interviewing, so make sure their upside outweighs the hassle. Explain how your work atmosphere, compensation potential and other incentives will benefit them. It’s not enough to just highlight pay. Today’s employees want more from their prospective employer.

4. Post Job Openings to Facebook: The marketing power of Facebook is proven, but it extends beyond customers to include job-seekers. Your postings on the platform are free and easy to publish and you probably have a lot of fellow golf instructors as friends on the platform. Another nice feature is that Facebook allows you to ask screening questions. You may want to consider “boosting” your job listings to help spread the word to those who don’t follow your Facebook page, it’s a small price to pay for extended exposure.

5. Ask Your Current Team:  Happy employees are the best recruiters. Don’t overlook your staff when it comes to hiring new talent. Also, make it easy for them to share the details of the positions you’re trying to fill by giving them content they can easily send to potentially interested parties. You might also provide incentives to employees for helping bring in new hires as the competition for talent is fierce right now.

6. Create a Careers Section on Your Website: Adding a “careers” or “employment” button to the navigation bar on your website is a great way to get ongoing applications, even when you’re not actively promoting any open positions. The main benefit is that you give people a resource to learn more about the open positions you have available, and also a way to contact management if they’re interested in learning more. This helps build a contact list of potential employees, which can be great when it becomes time to hire more people.

7.  Make It Easy to Apply: Grinding through a long process of filling out forms and questionnaires is enough to turn a potential applicant away. Your application process and job postings say much more about who you are as an employer than you may realize.

8. Include a CTA (Call to Action) in the Closing: It’s surprising how many job postings don’t tell job seekers what to do next. The beauty of online postings is that a link can take applicants to the next step: “Apply online.”

Use as many of these tips as possible and you’ll have a leg up on the competition the next time you need to hire a new coach.