Writing job ads that work in every province you hire in

The structure that works

Use the same seven blocks in the same order for every ad. Consistency makes ads faster to write and easier for candidates to scan.

1. Title. The words people search for. "Payroll administrator", not "People Operations Specialist II".
2. Opening two sentences. What the person will do and why it matters. No company history yet.
3. A normal week. Four to six bullets describing real tasks.
4. Must-haves. Only what is genuinely required on day one. Three to five items.
5. Nice-to-haves. Clearly labelled, so capable people don't rule themselves out.
6. What you offer. Specific proof points: training, schedule, team, location, growth path.
7. Process and required details. The stages after applying, rough timing, and any information the province requires you to include.

That last block is where provincial rules usually land, so keeping it in a fixed place makes compliance checks easier.

Rewrite your current ad, line by line

Take your most recent ad and run each line through three tests.

Would a candidate miss it? "We are a fast-growing company committed to excellence" fails. Delete it.

Is it specific? "Competitive benefits" fails. "Health and dental from your first month" passes, if it's true.

Is it true for this team? "Flexible hours" fails if the role is shift work. Saying so plainly is better than a candidate discovering it at the offer.

Here is a typical before-and-after for an opening:

• Before: "[Business name] is a leader in our sector, with a passion for customer success and a culture of innovation. We are seeking a motivated self-starter to join our dynamic team."
• After: "You'll run the front desk at our [City] clinic, the first person patients see and the one who keeps the day's schedule on track. We train every new coordinator for two weeks alongside someone who has done the job for years."

The second version tells the reader what the job is, where it is, and one concrete reason to trust the employer. That is the whole job of an opening.

Must-haves: the list that shrinks your pool

Every requirement you add removes people. Some of those removals are the point; many aren't. For each must-have, ask: would we really reject an otherwise excellent candidate who lacked this?

Common over-requirements:

• a degree for work that is learned on the job
• years of experience as a proxy for a skill you could test directly
• "Canadian experience". Ontario's posting guidance now addresses Canadian experience requirements directly. Check the Ontario guide and your provincial human rights commission, listed on each region page.
• software you could teach in a week

If you hire under federal jurisdiction, the Canadian Human Rights Commission is the federal body to read. For provincially regulated employers, each province and territory has its own human rights body.

Provincial rules to check before you publish

Posting rules are changing across the country. As of October 2026, these are the main ones we build template fields for. Each summary is a pointer, not an interpretation; read the source and confirm with your HR lead or counsel.

Other provinces may add requirements. Before each hiring season, check the employment standards office for every province you post in; links are on the region pages.

Writing for a phone screen

Most candidates first meet your ad on a phone, often on a job board's app. That changes how you write:

• keep paragraphs to two or three lines
• put the location, schedule and work arrangement in the first screen
• use bullets for tasks and requirements, not dense paragraphs
• avoid attachments; put everything in the ad itself
• make the apply step short. Every extra page of questions loses applicants.

Read your finished ad on your own phone before you publish. If you have to scroll three times to learn where the job is, move it up.

Making your own postings findable

If your openings live only on job boards, you're renting your visibility. Post each opening on your own careers page as well, as a separate page with a clear title and location. Google publishes job posting structured data guidelines that make properly marked-up openings eligible for its job search experience; follow them, and remove the markup when a role closes. Our careers site and job ads service builds this for you.

A checklist before every posting

• Title matches what people search for
• First two sentences describe the job, not the company
• Must-haves are five or fewer and genuinely required
• Offer section uses proof points from your employer value proposition
• Process and timing are stated
• Provincial fields are completed for each province where the role is open
• French version planned if recruiting in Quebec
• Read on a phone
• Careers-page version published with structured data

Common mistakes

Copying last year's ad. Roles drift. Re-run the intake conversation before reposting.

Hiding the hard parts. Shift work, travel, physical demands: state them. You want people to self-select out early.

"Only successful candidates will be contacted." It tells everyone else they'll hear nothing. A short decline message protects your reputation; Ontario's rules also now address informing interviewed applicants.

One ad for every province. A national posting for a remote role may fall under several provinces' rules at once.

For the hiring maths behind how many applicants an ad needs to generate, read the capacity planning guide. To see all guides, go to the guides index.