How to Write an Accurate Job Description
By Dave Lucas | Job Description
Hiring is like match making. I do not know you personally yet, but let’s assume your ideal mate has brown hair and brown eyes. You ask me to find you someone, but I assume you actually like blond hair and blue eyes.
So, I send you all these blonds. Of course, you take one look at them and go eeehhhwwwooo.
Although some people have told me they actually don’t care as long as the person is hot š
Anyways, the key point I’m getting at here, is if you don’t know what kind of person you want. How can you ever find them?
The same goes for hiring talent. You need to clearly define what you want as a first step.
But there is more to it.
I’m sure you know someone who always goes for the wrong person. For instance, some women are always attracted to “Bad Boys”, as they find them so much more exciting. These are often the same women who a miserable in their relationships. The ones that you council with, “Why don’t you just leave him?” and the answer is, “But I love him. I’ll change him.” We all know where that one usually ends up.
In this case the women got what she wanted. A “Bad Boy”. But not what she needed, “A Loving Man”.
By the same logic, it is important to not only define what you want in your hire, but also what you need.
So how do you go about writing your job description.
Here are a few facets we consider when writing a job description:
Define Purpose
Every job has a purpose. It has a reason for existing. Every job is there to accomplish a specific organisational objective. If that objective is accomplished, the job is a success. If it is not accomplished, the job is a failure.
That’s why the first question you should be asking when writing a job description is:
“What is the purpose of this job role? What is the key goal this job role must accomplish?”
Define Daily Activities
Once you understand the purpose of your job role, you are ready to define its daily activities.
What is key here, is to link the daily activities to the role’s purpose. That ensures alignment to the key goal you are trying to accomplish through the role.
To do this, you can ask yourself:
“What must the person do every day to accomplish the key goal of my role?”
Define Skillsets to Perform Activities
Next, you need to define the skill-set that is required to perform the daily activities of your job role. You see every job activity requires a particular skill, qualification or background experience, in order to effectively execute it.
You can use the following question to determine the skillsets for your job:
For each daily activity,
“What skills, qualifications, or background experience does a person require to perform this activity with excellence?”
Define Salary Range
Next, we define salary range. We often find in our interactions with clients that this is one area where they really struggle. They find it hard to determine what salary they should be paying.
Because of this challenge, we often see them taking short-cuts. They say the role is negotiable. Which is code speak for, “Tell us what you want, and we will see if you are worth it.”
The problem in this approach, is that ultimately people work for money. In our experience, a person looking for a new job is often motivated by a desire to increase their salary. Therefore, for candidates, salary is very important. In fact, research has been done which confirms that candidates are more likely to apply for a job ad with a salary, than without one.
Further, if you do not define a salary range for your job, you will find that you get everyone from the most junior person applying for your job to the most senior person. In other words, you get too many applications, which wastes your time, slows your hire, and often leads to offers being rejected for financial reasons.
In other words, you do way more work than you really need to. And we all know that you really could use a lot more work every day, because your really have nothing better to do with your time.
NOT. We are all so crazy busy we wish there was someone we could just give all this talent search work to so that we can at least have a chance to come up for a breath.
So how do you determine the correct salary range for your job?
Unfortunately, this is one question that is not easy to answer. Even salary surveys can’t help you, as they indicate what people are earning now, not what they want to earn. And we know that people never leave a job for the same money.
This is really the question you should be asking your talent search consultancy. In the case of Xenitho, we have extensive industry experience, so we know the rates that you should be paying, and can advise accordingly.
Define “Why YOU
The next step in creating your job description is to define YOU. What do I mean by this?
Well, think about it this way. No candidate wants to work for a dud company. They want to know that they are going to be spendingĀ the next 2 to 10 years of their life at a wholesome productive organisation. They also want to know that they can grow in the organisation they are moving to. So, you must sell them on your organisation.
You must position yourself, as a desirable place to work. A great place to come to work every day. A place to build a career and to better provide for your family.
If you sell your organisation, people will want to work for it. If you don’t, you are just another job. And will attract people who just want a job, rather than a career where they can make a contribution.
Selling your organisation is an art, which we are happy to help you with. After reading our job descriptions we have heard our clients making comments like, “That description is so good, even I want to apply for the job.”
So how do we do this?
This question will get you started,
“What are the top 3 reasons that someone should work for my company?”
Get Professional Assistance
You now know the basics of writing an effective job description. However, there are many more aspects we consider when creating a job description for our clients. As we know it really is a skill, an art and a science.
We also know that many of our HR clients really struggle to understand what business wants, and many of our business clients really struggle to define what they need.
Fortunately for you, you can get us to write your job description for you.
It is part of our Platinum Talent Search Consultancy package.
You see dealing with a hiring service provider should never be transactional. That is really for low quality jobs that really don’t matter.
If the job counts, you want to get it right. You want to hire the right person. That means you want a consultancy who partners with you every step of the way on your hiring journey. Who gives you the right advice so that you can get it right. Who guides you in clearly defining what you need and then puts in the extensive work required to find you that person.
If it was the love of your life we were finding for you, that would be exactly what you would want us to do. Why would it be any different when we are finding you a person who will directly affect the organisation you work for, which ultimately affects your livelihood.
That’s why more-and-more we are finding that companies want to move away from CV providers to talent search consultancies like Xenitho. The realise they need the professional service and they always like the fact that they get a 6 month guarantee too. Further, they like having the control of a contingency placement fee arrangement. And all this at a small price premium.
They really consider it, “Worth it”, a small price difference for a massive organisational impact.Ā And so should you, because hiring a new person is one of the most important decisions you and your organisation can make.
So, give us a try today. You will be pleasantly surprised to experience what high-calibre a talent search consultancy actually feels like. It is often something new for many of our clients.