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Q: Our organization posted an Office Manager role two months ago, and the response was disappointing.  We are looking for someone with superior writing and speaking abilities, aspirations of moving ahead in his/her career and a great command of office accounting and management.  We listed all of these skills in our Position Description as well as those related to being a good receptionist and public face of the organization.  What is going wrong?

A: Your question has several components that have a bearing on the disappointing outcome you reference.  I will deal with the main ones separately.

Posting Strategy

You did not state when and where you posted your ad, and its placement matters. For instance, did you place the ad on sites that heavily target recent college graduates?  If so, your ad will get the same response as any other entry-level position search.  You may get better results by putting the description where a more experienced, professional crowd will see it.

Position Description

Even if you include all of the skills you want in an applicant, the way you rank or organize them can play a role in who takes interest.  If writing skills are paramount, list those first. The typical receptionist/requisition skills can follow later in the text.  People reading the description are more likely to catch the first few bullets, so be careful how you order the description to really highlight the skills of greatest importance to you.

The specific words you use to articulate the skills you seek also matters. Depending on not only where you placed the ad, as mentioned above, but also on the words you used, you might have inadvertently used “buzz” words attracting a skill level you don’t want and turning off the applicants you do. Make sure your text reflects the level of skill and professionalism you seek.

Title

The title Office Manager comes with very specific connotations.  Even if you specify otherwise in your position description, you are competing with a cultural understanding, if not assumption, of what an Office Manager is and does.  Many organizations use the Office Manager for requisitions, internal events and accounting functions.  If your role includes additional skills, such as drafting documents, composing letters, contacting donors and the like, you may have to think about another title.  In fact, you would do better to invent a new title if the role you have is significantly different from the norm.

Carefully review the context and placement of your advertisement, then strategically repost. Ensuring you are targeting the audience you seek by paying close attention to the description’s words and placement should reap better results.

Karen Alphonse and ExecSearches provides various recruitment and executive search services for nonprofits.

ExecSearches.com is a job board for nonprofit job seekers interested in fundraising, management and executive nonprofit jobs.

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