How effective are your Job Descriptions?

Your job description is essentially your ‘Sales Pitch’ for candidates. Sometimes Hiring Managers are too conscious of making their job sound compelling, that as a result the advert winds up being nothing like the role at hand, and leaves job-seekers with no clear indication of the organisation or what the role would entail.

Here are a few tips, of how to structure your job description, what to include and how to attract the right talent for your opportunity.

What to include

A strong job description will list the purpose, the duties, and the working conditions of the role along with the skills, background, and traits necessary to perform it. To prevent from going off on a tangent, or missing out key information regarding the role, it’s a good idea to maintain a simple template with the following sections;

  • The job’s title

  • Who the position reports to and/or oversees

  • Skills, abilities, education, and experience required to perform the role

  • Work hours or travel required by the position

  • A description of workplace conditions or company background

  • A salary range or list of benefits the position is entitled to

Don’t Over think it

It is imperative to keep the job title as generic as possible. Overthinking the role or trying to think outside the box in the hope of making your role stand out can have an impact on the number and quality of applications you will receive. For example, if you are looking for a Window Cleaner, it would not be ideal to title the role as ‘Vision Clearance Engineer” or using “Destination Counsellor” when you’re looking to hire a Travel Agent.  Instead, you need to think what job seekers will type in the search bar when looking for roles that match what you are advertising. You need to clearly communicate what the role actually is.

Outlining the Job Role

Here is where you can example the role in more detail to give an insight of what the role entails. The day to day tasks, the responsibilities and duties of the job and who the candidate will work alongside are all things to include in this section. Make sure you are listing things are that absolutely necessary for the role and not accidentally present a list of desires that are not in fact crucial for the position.

Sell your Organisation

A brief outline about your organisation is your chance to inform the candidate what your company does and why someone would want to work there. Some good points to include are; what your company does, what your values are, the company culture and any impressive stats relating to growth or success. Again, this section of the advert is to be kept concise.

Throughout the advert, be sure to use keywords that are relatable for the role. This will give an indication for job seekers to know if their experience and skills match to this position. For example, if you require a candidate to have experience with Adobe, or experience of diary management and minute taking, this will make clear to the candidate that these are required for the job at hand.

The Next Step

Make clear to the candidate, how you would like them to apply for the role. If you would like them to email their CV to a certain email address, then make this own at the bottom of the advert. If they require to include a cover letter, then also state this.

Now that you have created a strong job description and posted out to your desired locations, you can be confident that you will begin to receive relevant applications and will begin to start your hiring process.