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Job seekers are investing more time in their visits to job boards. According to a recent survey we conducted here at WEDDLE’s, most visitors now spend at least twenty minutes on these sites, and more than a quarter (27%) actually spend thirty minutes or more. The good news is that most of this time is devoted to looking at the job openings we post on the sites. The bad news is that our ads aren’t always viewed in the same way.Job seekers, of course, are not generic beings. They fall into one of two populations—active or passive—and it’s that status which determines how they look at job postings. Active job seekers will consider any and all ads—those that are well written and those that are not. They will ignore unclear descriptions and uninviting value propositions and apply anyway. Passive job seekers will simply ignore poorly written job postings altogether. They represent more of the top talent that organizations most want to recruit, so they have too many choices to spend their time plowing through job postings with all of the excitement of a brick.

How can you be sure that your job postings capture the attention and pique the interest of passive job seekers? Understand and respect the characteristics that define and set them apart.

Active job seekers are, by definition, actively looking for a job. Most are determined and even aggressive in their pursuit of employment opportunities. They need to find work, so in most cases, they will seek employers out and overlook any shortcomings in their job postings.

Passive job seekers aren’t job seekers at all. More often than not, they are already employed; to be recruited, therefore, they must be persuaded to move from their current employer to another. No one seeks the disruption such a change will cause, however, so passive prospects put it off by holding job postings to a very high standard.What is that standard? Passive prospects have the attention span of a gnat. They expect to be informed and captivated in a very short period of time. In practical terms, that means you must work magic in the first four lines of your job postings. That introductory text must transform a person who isn’t looking for a job and doesn’t want to change employers into someone who is at least willing to read further. The rest of the posting must convince them to become active, but the first four lines create the suspension of inactivity that makes such an outcome possible. To put it another way, well written introductions shift passive prospects to “active-ready” job seekers.

To achieve that high standard, the first four lines of a job posting must include the following four elements in the following order:

1. A powerful, compelling statement about why the opening is a “dream job.” Passive prospects are willing to make a change in employers, but only if they believe they will get to do interesting work and interact with talented peers.

2. An equally powerful and compelling statement about why your organization is a “dream employer.” Passive prospects don’t look for a job; they seek opportunities with employers that will encourage and support their best work and advance their careers.

3. A statement regarding the compensation the opening provides. A salary range is sufficient, but such terms as “competitive” and “commensurate with experience” are not. Most passive prospects don’t work for the money; they work for the intrinsic satisfaction they derive from doing interesting work for a supportive employer. In our culture, however, money is a measure of how much that work is valued, so they will not make a move unless they know there is a financial advantage to doing so.

4. A statement that underscores your employer’s commitment to protecting candidate confidentiality. Since most passive prospects are employed, they are risk averse in the job market. They can only be engaged if they are convinced that their identity will not be revealed at any point to anyone outside your organization.

All of that is what you should say in the first four lines. How you say it is equally as important. For maximum impact on passive prospects:

Be concise and use short, hard-hitting statements. The goal is not to describe your entire value proposition in the introduction, but rather to elicit an emotional response—to get a reluctant reader to make a spur-of-the-moment decision to read on.

Use the second person, wherever possible. It’s much more effective to tell someone “You will get to do this” or “You will be able to accomplish that” than to speak in the impersonal third person with phrases like “The successful candidate will have experience in this” or “Applicants must be able to do that.”

Avoid inside jargon that is unique to your organization as it will make prospects feel like outsiders. Instead, use words and phrases that reflect the values and culture of your organization that were most appealing to its highest performing employees when they were recruited.The sequence or order in which these elements are presented will also influence their effectiveness. Traditionally, the search engines for job databases at job boards produce search results that list openings by the title of their posting. (See my August 24, 2006 column for an introduction to writing powerful titles for job postings.) More recently, however, a small, but growing number of search engines are also providing the first several lines of each posting. By organizing your ad to begin with what passive prospects want, you lead with your strength. You tell them up front what’s in it for them, and that’s the way you transform them from passive prospects to “active-ready” job seekers.