job-advert

---
name: job-advert
description: Turns the facts about a vacancy into a UK job advert that states the pay, the shift pattern and the application steps, and strips out wording that breaks the Equality Act 2010. Use when a small business needs to advertise a role.
---

# A job advert the right person actually answers

You give me the job, the pay, the hours and how you want people to get in touch. I give you back a finished advert of 500 words or less, a short version for your window or your Instagram, and a one-line headline for a jobs board. If you cannot tell me the pay, I will stop and ask, because an advert without a pay figure is the main reason good people scroll past.

## What it does

1. **Collect seven facts before writing a single line.** The job title, the exact address people will work at, the pay as a number, the hours a week and the shift pattern, the start date, who they report to, and how you want applicants to contact you. Ask for each one that is missing and wait for the answer. Do not start drafting with a gap in this list, and never fill a gap with a guess.

2. **Write the job title the way a job site is searched, not the way you say it in the kitchen.** Use the plain trade title plus the level: Head Chef, Second Chef, Kitchen Porter, Bar Supervisor, Breakfast Chef, Front of House Assistant. Reed's recruiter guidance says to "Make sure that the job title is clear, concise and includes the level of the role, i.e junior, mid-level or senior. It is best practice to apply the standard title used in your industry." Indeed for Employers agrees that "Standard terminology such as 'manager', 'senior' or 'assistant' is generally more effective than internal labels or abbreviations that may be unfamiliar outside the organisation." Drop internal names, drop "ninja", "rockstar", "superstar" and "guru".

3. **Put the money in the first three lines, as a real figure.** Hourly roles get an hourly rate or a rate range in pounds; salaried roles get an annual figure or range. Reed reports that "job adverts that include a salary receive 27% more applications than those that don't". Check the hourly rate against the GOV.UK National Minimum Wage rates that apply from April 2026: £12.71 for 21 and over, £10.85 for 18 to 20, £8.00 for under 18 and for apprentices. If the rate the owner gives is below the rate for the age group the advert is aimed at, say so and stop.

4. **State separately what happens with tips and service charge.** Write the basic rate, then one sentence saying whether tips or service charge are paid on top, roughly what they add in a normal week, and how they are shared out. Never roll tips into the headline rate to make it look bigger. If tips vary, write the honest range and say it varies with the season.

5. **Describe the shift pattern in the shape the week actually takes.** Give days per week, typical start and finish times, whether it is straight shifts or split shifts, how many weekends, and what happens in December. Say how far ahead the rota is published and whether hours are guaranteed or zero hours. If the true answer is "we call you when we are busy", write that, do not write "flexible".

6. **Cut the requirements down to what you would genuinely turn someone away for.** Five essentials maximum, each one a thing the person must be able to do on day one, and everything else goes in a short "helpful but not essential" list. Acas says a job description and person specification "will help make clear what the job requires and reduce the risk of discrimination", so write the essentials as tasks rather than as years served. Drop qualifications nobody in the building holds.

7. **Strip out every word that describes the person instead of the job.** Acas names the exact traps: "recent graduate" or "highly experienced" can discriminate on age, "barmaid" and "handyman" on sex, and a nationality should never stand in for a language, so "German-speaking sales rep" is fine where "German sales rep" is not. Delete young, energetic, mature, fit, athletic, native English speaker, waitress, waiter, girl, lad, and any reference to family or children. Replace each one with the task it was standing in for, such as "carrying crates from the cellar" instead of "must be fit".

8. **Say what they get back, in facts rather than adjectives.** List only things that exist and that the owner has confirmed: a meal on every shift, uniform provided, paid breaks, staff discount, a taxi home after a late close, training paid for, a named person who was promoted from this role. Delete "fast-paced", "like a family", "passionate team" unless a stated fact sits underneath. Two to four specific lines beat a paragraph of warm words.

9. **End with one instruction, one contact and one date, then produce three versions.** Reed's guidance is to include "a clear call to action" with "details on how to apply and an indication of what the next steps are" plus "a timescale of when applicants will be contacted after applying". Name a person, give one email address or one phone number, say exactly what to send, add the line "If you need the application in a different format or need an adjustment at interview, tell us and we will sort it", and add one sentence welcoming applications from everyone. Then output the full advert at 500 words or under, a 150-word version for a window card or social post, and a one-line headline of title, pay and hours, because Acas advises that "It's a good idea to advertise in at least 2 different ways or places."

## Then it checks

1. A pay figure or pay range in pounds appears within the first 60 words, and the hourly rate is at or above the National Minimum Wage rate for the age group the advert is aimed at.
2. The advert states days per week, typical shift start and finish times, whether weekends are required, and whether hours are guaranteed or zero hours.
3. The essential requirements list holds five items or fewer, and every one is a task rather than a number of years.
4. Searching the finished text for barmaid, handyman, waitress, young, energetic, mature, fit, recent graduate and native speaker returns no matches.
5. The advert ends with a named contact, one way to apply, what to send, and a date by which applicants will hear back.
6. Three versions exist, the full one is 500 words or under and the short one is 150 words or under, and the job title, pay figure and hours are identical across all three.

Any check fails: name it, redo that step once. Failed twice: say what is wrong and stop.

## Rules
- Public information only.
- Never invent a fact, a number or a quote.
- Never invent the pay, the tips arrangement, the hours or the start date. Ask for the figure and wait. A made-up rate pulls in people who walk away when the real offer arrives, and a vacancy re-advertised costs the owner another month of covering the shifts.
- Never soften a hard part of the job. Split shifts, six days in December, a 2am finish and zero-hours contracts go in the advert as they are. Someone who discovers it in week two leaves, and the owner is back where they started with the rota still uncovered.
- Never claim a benefit the owner has not confirmed. Paid breaks, a meal on shift, guaranteed hours and paid training are each either true or absent; writing one in that does not exist is a promise the owner has to break on the first payslip.
- This advert is a working document prepared for the owner's solicitor, HR adviser or accountant to read before it is published. It is not legal advice and does not pretend to be. Wording that reads as harmless can still breach the Equality Act 2010, pay must satisfy National Minimum Wage law on the hours actually worked, and the Right to Work check belongs after an offer is made and must never appear as a condition in the advert.

## Built from
- Acas, "Advertising a job", https://www.acas.org.uk/recruitment/how-to-advertise-a-job, no publication date shown on the page, read 13 September 2026: the discriminatory wording list used in step 7 and the two-channel advertising instruction in step 9.
- Acas, "Using protected characteristics", https://www.acas.org.uk/hiring-someone/using-protected-characteristics, no publication date shown on the page, read 13 September 2026: the limits on when a protected characteristic may be named in a role, which is why the skill removes them rather than justifying them.
- Reed, "How to write a great job advert", https://www.reed.co.uk/recruiter-advice/how-to-write-a-great-job-advert/, no publication date shown on the page, read 13 September 2026: the 500-word cap, the 27% more applications figure for adverts carrying a salary, the job title rule and the call to action with a reply date.
- Indeed for Employers UK, "How to write a job description", https://uk.indeed.com/hire/how-to-write-a-job-description, no publication date shown on the page, read 13 September 2026: the rule that a title uses standard terminology instead of internal labels, and the warning that too much detail loses the reader.
- GOV.UK, "National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates", https://www.gov.uk/national-minimum-wage-rates, rates apply from April 2026, read 13 September 2026: the hourly rates the advert's pay figure is checked against in step 3.

# job-advert

## You are given

A folder from a UK hospitality business containing `vacancy-facts.md`, the seven facts Claude collected from the owner and would not start without: job title, the exact address people will work at, the pay as a number, the hours a week and the shift pattern, the start date, who they report to, and how applicants should get in touch. It also carries what the owner confirmed about tips and service charge, the essentials, the things that are helpful but not essential, the benefits that actually exist, the reply date, and the age group the advert is aimed at.

Claude supplies `advert-draft.md`, the wording it wrote. There may also be previous adverts, a job description and the venue's logo. You never write the sales wording and you never change the pay figure.

## Produce

Write into an `output/` folder next to the inputs:

1. `advert-full.md` - the full advert, 500 words or under. Fixed order: headline title, pay figure in the first three lines, tips and service charge as their own sentence, the shift pattern with days per week and typical start and finish times, weekends, whether hours are guaranteed or zero hours, how far ahead the rota is published, what December looks like, the essentials list, the helpful but not essential list, what they get back as confirmed facts, then the closing block. The closing block names one person, gives one email address or one phone number, says exactly what to send, carries the sentence `If you need the application in a different format or need an adjustment at interview, tell us and we will sort it`, carries the one sentence welcoming applications from everyone, and gives the date by which applicants will hear back.
2. `advert-short.md` - 150 words or under, for a window card or a social post. Same job title, same pay figure, same hours.
3. `advert-headline.md` - one line: title, pay, hours.
4. `wage-check.md` - the arithmetic, shown not asserted. Columns in this order: `Age band`, `Statutory rate (GBP per hour)`, `Rate in this advert (GBP per hour)`, `Difference (GBP)`, `At or above` (`yes` or `no`). Use the April 2026 rates as quoted in SKILL.md: £12.71 for 21 and over, £10.85 for 18 to 20, £8.00 for under 18 and for apprentices. Name the source and the date read under the table. If the advert rate falls below the band for the age group the advert is aimed at, write the failure at the top of the file, write no advert files and stop.
5. `banned-wording-scan.md` - the result of searching all three advert versions for: barmaid, barman, handyman, waitress, waiter, young, youthful, energetic, mature, fit, athletic, recent graduate, highly experienced, native English speaker, native speaker, girl, lad, ninja, rockstar, superstar, guru, fast-paced, like a family, passionate team. One line per term as `term: 0` or the file, line number and the offending sentence.
6. `consistency-check.md` - the job title, the pay figure and the hours read out of each of the three advert files side by side, plus the word count of the full advert and of the short advert, plus the count of essentials.
7. `gaps.md` - a numbered list of every one of the seven facts, every benefit and every tips detail that was missing or unconfirmed, with the person named to answer it.

## Rules

- Every fact comes from `vacancy-facts.md`. Never invent the pay, the tips arrangement, the hours, the start date, the contact or the reply date. A missing fact goes to `gaps.md` and its line is left out of the advert entirely.
- Never claim a benefit the owner did not confirm. Paid breaks, a meal on shift, guaranteed hours, uniform, staff discount, a taxi home and paid training are each either confirmed in `vacancy-facts.md` or absent from the advert.
- Never soften a hard part of the job. Split shifts, six days in December, a 2am finish and zero hours contracts go in as they are.
- Never roll tips or service charge into the headline rate, and never state a tips figure the owner did not give.
- Never quietly rewrite a banned term. Record the hit in the scan, leave the sentence in place and report it.
- Five essentials maximum, each written as a task the person must do on day one rather than a number of years served. If `advert-draft.md` supplies more than five, keep the first five, move the rest to the helpful but not essential list and say so in the return.
- Never put a right to work condition in any advert version.
- Make no statement that the advert is lawful or compliant. It is a working document prepared for the owner's solicitor or HR adviser to read before it is published.
- Use British English, £ and DD Month YYYY dates. No em dashes.

## Return

A list of the files written with their absolute paths, the pay figure and the age band it was checked against, the wage check result, the word count of the full and short adverts, the count of essentials, every banned-wording hit in full, whether title, pay and hours match across all three versions, and every item in `gaps.md`.