Eligibility criteria: genuine requirement or accidental gate?
One word in your job ad can shrink your pool by 60%.
“Tertiary qualification required.” “5+ years’ APS experience.” “Current security clearance.” Each may be legitimate, or may be an unexamined filter that cuts out candidates with genuine merit.
The test is whether the criterion is genuinely required to perform the duties. If a capability can be acquired on the job, or demonstrated through equivalent experience, gating the role behind a formal prerequisite narrows the field without improving the quality of the assessment.
“Desirable” is not “essential.” “Preferred” is not “mandatory.” Every filter you write into the ad should be defensible against the question: if the best candidate does not have this, would we really refuse to hire them?
Before posting, red-line every eligibility criterion and justify it in one sentence. If you cannot, remove it.