Write a job advertisement and build a careers page

A good job advertisement says clearly who is wanted, what the task is and how applying works. For an SME there is a legal part as well, which many notice only when it is too late: the advertisement must not discriminate, and in certain occupations you must first notify the vacancy to the regional employment centre (RAV). This guide shows how to write a job advertisement, which rules apply to publication and how to bring all open vacancies together in one place on your own careers page.

What belongs in the advertisement

There is no statute that prescribes the content of an advertisement. Good guidance comes, however, from the vacancy notification to the RAV, which asks for the occupation, the activity including special requirements, place of work, workload, start date, type of employment relationship (fixed-term or open-ended), contact address and the employer’s name (Art. 53b, para. 2 AVV). Put these details in every advertisement as well. In addition, by proven practice and not by law:

a title that names the function, without workload and without buzzwords
one or two sentences about the company
tasks, profile and offer as short lists
a contact person for questions and a note on how to submit the application
an expiry date, so that expired vacancies disappear

Ask only for details that are necessary for the job. This follows from Art. 328b CO and the proportionality principle of the Data Protection Act (Art. 6, para. 2 DSG); details on application data are in the guide to applicant management.

Equal treatment in the advertisement

Employees may not be discriminated against, directly or indirectly, on grounds of sex; the prohibition expressly also applies to recruitment (Art. 3, paras. 1 and 2 GlG). A discriminatory rejection gives no entitlement to the job but does give compensation (Art. 5, para. 2 GlG), which may not exceed three months’ salary (Art. 5, para. 4 GlG). Appropriate measures to promote actual equality are not regarded as discrimination (Art. 3, para. 3 GlG).

For the advertisement this means in practice: formulate functions for all genders (in German-language advertisements, for example “Polymechaniker/in EFZ”) and describe requirements factually. Do without requirements that have nothing to do with the task, such as marital status, family situation or pregnancy (Art. 3, para. 1 GlG expressly names them). This is practice derived from the statutory text; there is no official list of wording for advertisements.

Check the duty to notify vacancies

In occupations with high unemployment, vacancies must be notified to the public employment service (Art. 21a, para. 3 AIG). One figure is decisive: the duty applies in the occupations under the Swiss nomenclature of occupations in which the nationwide unemployment rate reaches or exceeds 5 per cent (Art. 53a, para. 1 AVV). The average of the fourth quarter of the previous year and the first three quarters of the current year is calculated. The EAER (WBF) sets the list each year in the fourth quarter for the following year (Art. 53f AVV). The 2026 list has applied since 1 January 2026; all occupations that were notifiable in 2025 are also notifiable in 2026, and newly added are cleaning staff and auxiliaries in offices, hotels and other establishments, and cooks (5.3 per cent each). The list for 2027 will be set in the fourth quarter of 2026; check it before the start of the year.

The process if your vacancy is affected:

Notify. You notify the vacancy to the public employment service office with local jurisdiction over you (Art. 53b, para. 1 AVV). According to arbeit.swiss, this can be done directly via the Job-Room platform, but also by telephone or in person at the RAV.
Wait for the certificate. The employment service confirms receipt with a certificate. It contains the identification number of the notice and the date from which the notice may be freely published (Art. 53b, para. 4 AVV).
Wait five working days. You may advertise the vacancy elsewhere at the earliest after five working days have passed since publication on the platform (Art. 53b, para. 5 AVV). According to the SECO directive, the period starts on the first working day after the vacancy goes online; Saturdays, Sundays and national, cantonal and regional public holidays do not count. The block applies to any other publication, including newspapers, job boards and your own website or careers page.
Review the files. The RAV sends suitable files within three working days of the complete notification, or states that none are available (Art. 53c, para. 1 AVV).
Report back. You invite suitable candidates to an interview or aptitude assessment and tell the RAV whom you consider suitable and have invited, whether you have hired anyone and whether the vacancy is still open (Art. 21a, para. 4 AIG, Art. 53c, para. 2 AVV).

You need not notify if the vacancy is filled within the company, corporate group or concern by a person who has worked there for at least six months (this also applies to apprentices after their apprenticeship), if the employment lasts no more than 14 calendar days, or if you hire persons who are married to, or in a registered partnership with, persons with signing authority or are related to them or connected by marriage in a direct line or up to the first degree in the collateral line; step-siblings count as siblings (Art. 53d, para. 1 AVV). For temporary staffing agencies the exception for internal filling does not apply (Art. 53d, para. 2 AVV). If the vacancy is filled by a jobseeker registered with the RAV, no notification is necessary (Art. 21a, para. 5 AIG). Anyone who wilfully breaches the duty to notify, or the duty to invite suitable persons to an interview or aptitude assessment, is punished with a fine of up to CHF 40’000, or up to CHF 20’000 in the case of negligence (Art. 117a AIG). Whether a particular vacancy falls under it is finally decided by the competent RAV; the arbeit.swiss check-up is only a first indication.

Careers page and findability

A careers page of your own has advantages: applicants find all vacancies in one place, you determine the presentation, and applications flow directly into your process. From a practical point of view, important are a clear structure by company or location, current vacancies without dead links and an application form that also works on a mobile phone. Search engines and job portals read vacancies best from structured data; for passing them on to portals, a feed listing all open vacancies is customary.

Data protection in the application form

Anyone who receives applications collects personal data and must inform the person appropriately: of the identity and contact details of the controller, the purpose and, where applicable, the recipients (Art. 19, paras. 1 and 2 DSG). This belongs as a short notice directly in the form (basics: Data protection in HR). The guide to applicant management deals with it in detail.

Practical example: Gasthof Muster AG

Gasthof Muster AG is a fictitious business with 30 employees. It is looking for a cook. In the 2026 list, cooks are under occupation 51200 with an unemployment rate of 5.3 per cent (2’313 unemployed among 43’570 employed persons: 2’313 ÷ 43’570 = 5.3 per cent), above the threshold of 5 per cent. The vacancy is therefore notifiable.

On Monday, 2 November 2026, the manager notifies the vacancy on Job-Room. The RAV sends files within three working days, so by Thursday, 5 November 2026 at the latest (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday). If the notice is published on the platform on 2 November, the five working days end on Monday, 9 November; there is no public holiday that week. The Gasthof may then advertise the vacancy, at the earliest on Tuesday, 10 November 2026, also on its own careers page and elsewhere; the date on the certificate is what counts. Until then the vacancy stays saved internally as a draft. It then publishes the vacancy with an expiry date of 31 December 2026 and reports back to the RAV whom it has invited.

Checklist

Occupation checked against the current list of notifiable occupations
If notifiable: vacancy notified on Job-Room, certificate filed, waiting period noted
Title names the function for all genders, without workload
Tasks, profile, offer, workload, place of work, start date and type of employment complete
No requirements that have nothing to do with the job
Contact person and expiry date stated
Data protection notice in the application form
Suitable candidates from the RAV invited to an interview, feedback given
Filled vacancy closed, advertisements ended

How KMU | base helps

In HR | base you record vacancies under People › Applications with the Add position button. Notification to the RAV is not part of HR | base; you do it yourself on Job-Room.

1. Record the vacancy. You enter title, company, department, type of employment (permanent, fixed-term, apprenticeship, internship, temporary), workload from–to, start date, place of work, introduction, tasks, profile and offer, as well as the contact person and an expiry date. The status runs from draft (visible internally only) through “Published”, “Paused” and “Filled” to “Archived”. Before publishing you see the preview. Leave a notifiable vacancy in draft status until the waiting period has expired; there is no date for later publication, you release the vacancy yourself. There is no salary field, and HR | base does not check the wording for discrimination; responsibility for that remains with you. The AI assistant can draft advertisement texts, which you check and adapt.

2. Application form. For each vacancy you set up to ten questions of your own (free text, yes/no, choice). Applicants submit CV, documents, questionnaire and consent without login. The form contains a data protection notice with the retention period.

3. Careers page. Under Applications › Design career page or HR settings › Applications › Careers page you design the public page of the group and of each company with accent colour, font pairs, title, introduction, contact person and sections. The company takes over empty fields from the group. Templates only prefill the form and are published only when you save. Vacancies no longer advertised show an error page.

4. Findability. Search engines read your vacancies as structured data (JobPosting) if you have ticked “Findable in search engines” on the vacancy; without the tick the vacancy can be reached only via the link. An XML feed delivers all published vacancies to portals.

5. Refilling. Every published version of a vacancy remains saved unchanged. To refill the position, you advertise the vacancy again from a version with one click, as a new draft.

More on working with incoming applications is in the guide to applicant management. How a vacancy becomes a contract is described in Create an employment contract, and on the probation period in Probation period in the employment contract. If you would like to try it yourself, take a look at the Demo or open a test account. For prices, see the Prices page. If you have questions, we will help you via the Contact page.

Sources

Gender Equality Act (GlG, SR 151.1), Art. 3 and 5, as at 1 July 2020: fedlex.admin.ch (German original), accessed on 27.10.2026.
Foreign Nationals and Integration Act (AIG, SR 142.20), Art. 21a and 117a, as at 12 June 2026: fedlex.admin.ch (German original), accessed on 27.10.2026.
Employment Services Ordinance (AVV, SR 823.111), Art. 53a to 53g, as at 1 August 2024: fedlex.admin.ch (German original), accessed on 27.10.2026.
SECO / arbeit.swiss, duty to notify vacancies and check-up for 2026 with the list of notifiable occupations 2026 (list of 1 December 2025, valid from 1 January to 31 December 2026): arbeit.swiss (in German), accessed on 27.10.2026.
SECO / arbeit.swiss, duty to notify vacancies (notification via Job-Room, by telephone or in person): arbeit.swiss (in German), accessed on 27.10.2026.
SECO, directive on AVG practice for the public employment service, part B duty to notify vacancies, m.no. B13, B16, B17, as at 1 July 2025: arbeit.swiss (in German), accessed on 27.10.2026.
Code of Obligations (OR, SR 220), Art. 328b, as at 1 October 2026: fedlex.admin.ch (German original), accessed on 27.10.2026.
Federal Act on Data Protection (DSG, SR 235.1), Art. 6 and 19, as at 7 July 2025: fedlex.admin.ch (German original), accessed on 27.10.2026.

This guide does not replace legal or tax advice. Information as at 27.10.2026.