How Do I?

Up to 7 FREE job adverts for IOL Organisational members.

Non members pay £200 per advert.

IOL Organisation Member job advert allocation:

• Level 1 Member Organisation - 2 free job adverts (worth £420 per year).
• Level 2 Member Organisation - 4 free job adverts (worth £840 per year).
• Level 3 Member Organisation - 7 free job adverts (worth £1470 per year).

If the post advertised is a Volunteer/Trainee/Apprentice category job you will be able to place 1 of these per membership year free of allocation depending on your level of membership.

* Capped discount job posting fee per annum (after current job allocation is fully used) Level 1: 5, Level 2: 10, Level 3: 20, Satellite: no reduced fee - contact the IOL Office for information.

Cancelled or unpaid membership. If you pay your organisational membership by Direct Debit and you cancel this payment part way through your membership year, or your membership is unpaid paid on invoice, you will incur the standard charge of £200 for each job advert you have placed against the membership year to date. Any listed job adverts will be removed from the website.

We can only accept job listings from emails sent directly from the organisation placing the listing against their membership allocation or from an advertising agency representing an organisation.

Re-listing: Once an advert has been removed after its closing date a re-listing is considered as a new advert and needs all information supplying to us again.

Alteration or removing a job advert before the closing date: If you need to amend your advert or remove your advert before its original closing date we can only do so with an instruction via email and which quotes the listed job title and closing date.

Recruiting new staff is a costly process. Here at IOL we see hundreds of job adverts in the outdoor learning sector. We often get asked for advice on putting together an advert, so here are a few ways to ensure your outdoor job adverts attract the best quality candidates.

The essentials to include in your job advert:

• Clear job title
• Good, brief copy advertising the job (not describing it)
• What experience / qualifications required
• Career opportunities and benefits
• Salary level or band
• Your logo or other relevant image
• Your webpage/contact details and link to job
• A clear response process with deadline

Try to avoid:

• Using a full job description or person spec in the advert – you can link through to that on your website.
• Using jargon as research shows this can put people off
• Writing too much text about the organisation

Remember you are advertising your job; trying to sell it to the right people, so avoid just posting a job description. You can also create impact through style; think of the layout of your job ads. Using bold text and bullet points to catch the interest of the reader quickly. (If you are writing it for the Institute for Outdoor Learning jobsite, remember you can’t include text formatting, so focus on your copy content!)

When you receive a CV from a candidate you want the facts. Remember it is the same for someone looking for a job. Initially they want the hard data, salary, job description etc. Try not to go overboard in explaining how wonderful your organisation is, they can always Google you if they are interested.

Be creative with your wording

You are allowed to be creative and even use some humour, but be careful. Keep it relevant and to a minimum. Used sparingly it can convey that your organisation is serious in its business but is run by interesting people, but it is easy to get this wrong. Avoid requesting ‘a sense of humour’ as it can indicate that the job itself is a joke…

Also avoid phrases like “competitive salary” and “great job prospects” as they have become meaningless. Be original and honest. The last thing you want is to take on a great candidate only to find they are disappointed with the job they’ve landed and then leave!

Don’t discriminate

UK law is very clear. You must not discriminate against anybody in relation to disability, race, gender, sex or age. For example you cannot say you are looking for a young person to fill the vacancy or “she or “he” would be ideal etc. See www.gov.uk for more info.

Stipulate the qualifications/experience required and leave it at that. If you are clear about the job and what is involved you will be approached by the right candidates.

Advertise in the right places!

Make sure you place your advert where your potential candidates are looking! It is very easy to spend a vast amount of money on advertising outdoor jobs and receive poor quality candidates in return.

For the Outdoor sector, the IOL job site is usually the first place people look. Receiving on average 50-60,000 page views per month, you can ensure that the right people are seeing your job advert. At just £200 per ad it is very competitively priced. Oh and it’s FREE if you are an organisational member!

Best of luck with your recruitment in 2024

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