Key takeaways
- Candidates want four things answered: what it pays, what hours, where exactly, and what happens to their pay when a client cancels. Most postings answer none of them.
- Publish the pay range and name what moves someone within it. Candidates increasingly filter out postings without one, assuming a hidden range is a low one.
- Name the difficult parts of the role. It produces fewer applications and better ones, and the candidates it deters would likely have left within a couple of months anyway.
- Cut company boilerplate, "competitive salary" with no number, and long requirement lists that mix genuine requirements with preferences for an entry level job.
- Shorten the application. Entry-level applicants asked to create an account, upload a resume and answer many screening questions frequently abandon partway.
- A posting that will not fill is usually one of four things: pay below market, hours that cannot be built into a livable week, no local candidate pool, or a reputation problem among technicians.
Most RBT postings are written to describe an organization. Candidates read them to answer four questions, and if a posting answers none of them, they move to one that does.
The four: what does it pay, what hours, where exactly, and what happens when a client cancels.
Everything else is secondary, and a posting that leads with mission and buries the schedule is optimizing for the wrong reader.
Publish the pay range
The single highest-impact change available.
Candidates increasingly filter out postings without one, on the reasonable assumption that a hidden range is a low one. Withholding it does not preserve negotiating room. It removes you from consideration before a conversation happens.
Publish the real range and say what moves someone within it: certification status, experience with challenging behavior, after-school availability, crisis training. That turns the range into information rather than a bracket.
If your range is genuinely below market, the posting is not the problem. See what to pay RBTs and BCBAs in Georgia.
Describe the actual week
"Full-time and part-time available" tells a candidate nothing about whether they can build a livable schedule.
State the hours you are trying to cover, how many hours the role realistically offers, and whether they are consolidated or spread. A technician who can see that this is a Monday to Thursday, two to seven role covering three clients in one part of town can decide immediately. One reading "flexible scheduling" cannot.
Be specific about geography too. Not "Atlanta metro", which spans an hour of driving, but the actual area: "clients in Decatur and Tucker, typically two locations per day."
Answer the cancellation question before it is asked
Almost no posting does this, which is why doing it stands out.
Guaranteed minimum hours, a partial rate for late cancellations, or nothing. State whichever is true. Candidates ask this at interview regardless, and answering it in the posting signals that you know it matters and are not hiding the answer.
The same applies to drive time. If you pay it, say so, because many providers do not and it is a genuine differentiator. If you do not, say that too. Discovering it in week three is how a technician starts looking.
Name the hard parts
Counterintuitive and it works.
A posting that says sessions can involve aggression, self-injury and elopement, and that the role requires staying regulated while a child is not, will get fewer applications and better ones. The people it deters would have left in month two anyway, and replacing them costs 15,000 to 25,000 dollars.
Honesty also builds credibility for everything else on the page. A posting that acknowledges the difficulty is more believable when it describes the support.
Sell supervision, because candidates evaluate it
Technicians increasingly compare employers on development rather than rate, particularly those aiming at BCaBA or BCBA.
If your supervision is scheduled in advance and kept, say so. If you offer unrestricted activities that count toward fieldwork, say so, because that is worth more than a dollar an hour to anyone on that path. If you fund coursework or provide in-service training qualifying for the 12 PDUs now required each cycle, say that too.
These cost you less than a pay rise and differentiate more.
What to cut
The company boilerplate paragraph. Every provider says it is passionate about changing lives. It occupies the position where the schedule should be.
"Fast-paced, dynamic environment." Candidates read this as understaffed, because it frequently is.
Long requirement lists for an entry-level role. A posting demanding two years experience, certification, crisis training and a bachelor's for an entry-level wage will not fill. Separate what is genuinely required from what is preferred, and be honest about which is which.
"Competitive salary." Either a number or nothing, and nothing loses.
A structure that works
- Role and pay range in the first two lines
- The schedule: hours, days, how many hours available, consolidated or spread
- Location: the actual area and typical travel
- Setting: center, in-home or school, and the client population
- Terms: cancellation policy, drive time, guaranteed hours
- Support: supervision cadence, fieldwork opportunity, training funded
- Requirements, genuinely required only
- How to apply, in one step
That last point matters more than it should. Every additional step loses candidates, and an entry-level applicant asked to create an account, upload a resume and answer nine screening questions will frequently stop partway. If your process takes more than a few minutes, that alone may be your fill problem.
If the posting is right and it still does not fill
Then it is not the posting, and it is worth identifying which of these it is: the pay is below market, the hours are unbuildable because the caseload is scattered, the location has no local candidate pool, or your reputation among technicians in the market has caught up with you.
All four are fixable. None is fixed by rewriting the advert again.
If you would rather not run this yourself, that is what a staffing partner does, and part of the job is telling you which of those four applies. Send us the requisition and we will say so plainly.
Common questions
Should we include a pay range in an RBT job posting?
Yes. Candidates increasingly filter out postings without one, assuming a hidden range is a low one. Publishing it and naming what moves someone within it turns the range into information rather than a bracket.
What do RBT candidates look for in a posting?
Four things: what it pays, what hours, where exactly, and what happens to their pay when a client cancels. Most postings answer none of them and lead with company mission instead.
Should a posting mention aggression and difficult behavior?
Yes. Naming it produces fewer applications and better ones. The candidates it deters would likely have left within a couple of months, and replacing a technician costs 15,000 to 25,000 dollars.
What should we cut from our posting?
Company boilerplate, "fast-paced dynamic environment" which reads as understaffed, "competitive salary" with no number, and long requirement lists that mix genuine requirements with preferences for an entry-level wage.
Does the application process affect fill rate?
Substantially. Every extra step loses candidates, and entry-level applicants asked to create an account, upload a resume and answer many screening questions frequently abandon partway. A process longer than a few minutes may be the fill problem by itself.
Our posting looks right and still does not fill. What now?
It is one of four things: pay below market, hours that cannot be built into a livable week because the caseload is scattered, no local candidate pool at that location, or a reputation problem among technicians in your market. Rewriting the advert will not address any of them.
PNG Solutions is a healthcare staffing agency in Atlanta placing nurses and allied health professionals nationwide. If you want to talk to a recruiter, call 470 713 0689 or send us a note.