By Vaughn Granier
One of the hardest parts of the recruiting process is finding the right candidate. You want to ensure that you attract the best people in the market, and you are presented with a choice in determining who you’d like to fill the new or vacant position.
Creating a compelling and powerfully irresistible job description is essential as a foundation for writing an attractive and compelling advert, appealing to the most qualified and fitting person to apply for the role within your business.
Here we explain what a job description is, and its purpose, and share what employers should always include.
Job description vs. job advertisement
The key to writing an effective job description is providing enough information to write an attention-grabbing and accurate advert to inspire job seekers while keeping the description clear and concise.
It’s important to note that an advert is not a job description. A job description needs to be more comprehensive and formal and is an internal document, whereas an advert is an external marketing tool. They are closely linked, but they both have a different purposes.
The usefulness of a job description doesn’t end after the recruitment process is completed. Employers should continue to use the job description as a foundation for a clear understanding of job responsibilities and performance expectations. It’s an essential component of a performance management process and is fundamental to maintaining a high-performance workplace.
The following tips will help you do just that.
What should you include in a job description?
The first thing you need to do is ask who, what and how?
- Who do you want?
- What do you want them to do?
- What results do you require them to achieve?
- How do you want them to achieve those results?
Once you have answered these four questions, you have laid the foundations of your job description.
Effective title
The central piece of a job description is its title. The job title must accurately reflect the nature of the job and allude to the duties that will be performed. You won’t attract candidates with a job title like Social Media Butterfly when you’re really looking for a Marketing Coordinator.
Type of role
What type of engagement model do you need this person to work under to meet the operational needs of the business?
You must explore whether this will be casual employment, full-time or part-time, or maybe an independent contractor. You might be advertising for a full-time role, but is this flexible? Is hybrid or remote working a possibility? Let the candidates know that you aren’t married to the one engagement type. Flexibility in a role can be desirable and will increase your pool of worthy candidates.
Duties, responsibilities, and key performance indicators
The job description should contain a list of duties, responsibilities, and key performance indicators (KPIs) to inform the candidate of what tasks they will be required to perform. It will also provide objective standards that their performance will continue to be measured against once employed.
Although the list of duties should be comprehensive, you are writing a job description, not an operational manual. Keep this list as short as possible containing action, objective, and purpose for each inherent requirement of the role.
It’s important as well to focus on the outcomes required from the person in the role. You want to focus on measurable results and deliverables as much as you are focussing on a list of activities and duties. This will enable you to use the job description as a foundation for adding strategic long-term value as much as for daily activity.
Job requirements should be free of gender, age, or any other factors that may be seen as bias or discriminatory.
Qualifications and experience
Establish the key criteria that a person within this role must have to perform to the fullest potential. These criteria can be broken down into qualifications, technical skills, and soft skills.
Qualifications are often something essential to, or required for, the performance of a role. Ensure that you include any university degree, industry certification or professional registration that a successful incumbent must possess to be effective in the role.
Technical skills put simply are the things that someone must be able to do.
For example, a successful candidate for a payroll position will be proficient in excel and have comprehensive knowledge of payroll systems. An incumbent, however, will also have to deliver payroll accurately and on time with a specified maximum error rate. (This is an example of a result, not an activity).
Soft skills are the additional characteristics that you would like candidates to possess such as good communication skills, a flexible, proactive attitude, and someone who works well in a team.
Be more inclined to include technical skills over soft skills. If an employee needs to be performance managed, you must be able to compare their current performance to objective standards within their job description. At the recruitment stage, it’s easier to objectively compare candidates’ CVs and work experience against their set skills, rather than soft skills.
Don’t only sell the role… sell the company!
When advertising, it can be easy to focus exclusively on the details of the role. Show possible candidates what makes your company more attractive than others giving your candidates a glimpse into the company’s culture. In a modern professional world, positive workplace culture and work-life balance are considered a fundamental must. How does your company foster a positive workplace culture and ensure that all employees have a good work-life balance? Be an employer of choice!
The job description should also provide insight into the roles place within the company and the value the role adds to the organisation. This provides context, motivation, and a sense of the value add that a position brings.
Now that we have a great job description, how do we use that to build a compelling advert?
5 things to avoid in writing an advert based on your job description
1. Internal terminology
You may be fluent in the internal language used on a day-to-day basis within the company but to a potential candidate, you may be speaking a completely different language. Stick to well-known terminology to target the widest possible audience.
2. Discriminatory language
Unconscious bias, although frequently inadvertent, is something that can often appear within an advert. You want to promote and create a diverse workplace. Avoid gender and age-specific terminology to avoid limiting the reach of your job advertisement to a limited pool of candidates.
3. Being unrealistic
Adverts must be an accurate representation of the role. This is a fundamental must to ensure that you attract the right candidates and that you can performance manage an employee against objective standards.
4. Negativity
Excluding candidates by stating that they won’t be considered with less than ten years’ experience is hostile and will scare many candidates into not applying even if they possess the necessary skill to perform the requirements of the role to an exceptional standard. It also reduces competency to tenure, which in the case of exceptional performers will filter out very desirable candidates. Instead, state that the role is of a senior level and that ten years’ experience is preferable but not essential.
Other negative language can include that the role may require additional overtime to be worked due to the demanding nature of the role. Rather, this can be phrased as the role requires hard work and perseverance in a high-performing team.
5. Being mysterious
You don’t want to leave candidates asking too many questions. The job description should give them a clear understanding of what their future would look like within your company. This shouldn’t be left to their imagination.
The long game
It may seem like there is a lot of time going into something that could be so short and simple – but remember the more accurate your job description is, the more you and your company will benefit.
Once a job description has been completed, it isn’t set in stone. Regularly review and develop your job descriptions to accurately reflect the day-to-day nature of the role and to meet the needs of the business.
Employees are the heart of every business. Setting expectations and goals from the get-go will ensure performance objectives are concise and clear. An effective, well-written job description will ensure you attract the right people, have a clear training and performance development plan, which in long term will retain your staff, saving your company both money and time.
If any of this information has raised any questions about job descriptions or you have another workplace matter, please reach out to our workplace relations experts via our 24/7 Telephone Advisory Service.
Vaughan Granier is the National Relations Manager for HR Assured NZ. He has over 24 years’ experience in international human resources, health and safety, and workplace relations management. With over 13 years working in New Zealand and Australian companies he provides in-depth support to leadership teams across all areas of HR, Health and Safety, and employee management.