A Job description is the primary contact you have with a job applicant, and effective job descriptions can help you make a good first impression and, as a result, attract qualified talents for your open roles. However, if you’re not writing job descriptions that stand out to top candidates, you may risk losing your best potential applicants to competing job offers.
We’ve all been through many challenges this year. Many employers, candidates and employees have had to make big changes, in their personal and professional life. Now it’s time to think long-term and act strategically, which includes focusing on workers experience. That begins with the job description, and here’s the way to write a good Job Description:
Use a specific job title as you may be more likely to attract the right job seeker, but drop the internal abbreviations that candidates are less likely to look for whenever they are searching for a job.
In today’s market it is necessary to represent your company in the right way, to let the jobseeker know more about your organization and what does one do. This shouldn’t be long, it might include your company’s vision, mission and values.
When adding the requirements, focus on skills, qualities and accomplishments, not years of experience. The passage of time in a certain position doesn’t necessarily indicate engagement, growth or planning from a candidate, and the quantity of time spent on something isn’t important, but the value of what was accomplished during that period is what matters.
This “years of experience” requirement also makes it harder to recruit younger candidates who can help grow your company’s future.
A best practice for writing job descriptions, then, is to skip “years of experience.” Instead, identify the needed required skills, qualities and accomplishments you would like candidates to have and list these as your requirements.
In this part, it is often useful to use a list of bullet points for the individual, day-to-day responsibilities of the role. It’s important to be thorough and let the candidates know exactly what they are going to be in charge for.
Clearly define the role and its responsibilities in each of your job descriptions, as this might motivate qualified talent and eliminate some prospective applicants who aren’t a fit.
Before the job description is written, meeting together with your entire hiring team to generate a list of the important tasks, characteristics and soft skills needed for the job is crucial to succeed. When everyone within the hiring chain aligns on the requirements, your job descriptions are going to be specific, accurate and realistic, and less uselessly restrictive.
